Overview
Contains letters to Friedrich Chrysander, primarily concerning the study of George Frideric Handel.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1850-1920
Creator
- Chrysander, Friedrich, 1826-1901 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
This material is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository and accessed through the Houghton Library Reading Room. Retrieval requires advance notice. Researchers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine retrieval policies and times.
Extent
.5 linear feet (1 box)Approximately 300 autograph letters from over 80 scholars and musicians to Handel scholar Friedrich Chrysander. Repeat correspondents include George Gottfried Gervinus, Victoria Gervinus, Guido Adler, Eusebius Mandyczewski, Julius Buths, Hermann Deiters, and Philipp Spitta.
Represented are the letters of Georg Gottfried Gervinus, Victoria Gervinus, Guido Adler, Philipp Spitta, Eusebius Mandyczewski, Clara Schumann, Julius Buths, Theodor Billroth, Julius Stockhausen, Franz Wüllner, Theodor Avé-Lallement, Ferdinand Hiller, Julius Spengel, Max Dietz, Anton-August Naaff, Adolf Sandberger, Max Seiffert, Kazimierz Twardowski, Julius Langbehn, Viktor Ewald, Theodor Frimmel, Henry Krehbiel, Johannes Kleinpaul, Rubert Músiol, Robert Eitner, Hermann Deiters, Francesco Pollini, Heinrich Zöllner, Josef Sittard, Nicholas Trübner, John Bishop, Max Friedländer, Heinrich Brockhaus, Adolf Philipp, Paul Prill, Fritz Volbach, Arthur Henry Mann, Sophie Röhr-Brajnin, Marie Katzmayr, and Mainzer Liedertafel. Includes a number of drafted replies and other documents corrected by Chrysander, as well as some letters to Rudolf Chrysander (1865-1950) from Guido Adler and Fritz Volbach.
Biographical / Historical
Friedrich Chrysander (1826-1901) was one of the pioneers of 19th century German musicology. Founder with Gottfried Gervinus of the Händel-Gesellschaft, he published the first volumes of a biography of Handel (never finished) between 1858 and 1867. The Handel complete edition struggled with finances, with Chrysander taking over production in 1866, printing volumes in the garden of his Bergedorf home; the complete edition was never completed, with approximately 1900 volumes published between 1858 and 1902. Chrysander served as editor of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, the Jahrbuch für musikalische Wissenschaft, and the short-lived Vierteljahrsschrift für Musikwissenschaft. Chrysander actively wrote on a vast number of musical figures (including C.P.E. Bach, J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Buxtehude, Dussek, Keiser, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Pergolesi, Alessandro Scarlatti, Spohr and Spontini) and a wide range of musical subjects (including notation, church music, operetta, pedagogy and theory), and worked on editions of Bach, Corelli, and Carissimi, as well as Handel.
Chrysander's son Rudolf (1865-1950) was Bismarck's private secretary and physician from 1890 to 1898.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged alphabetically by correspondent's name.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased with funds from Douglas Roby Fund for the Harvard College Library and A. Tillman Merritt Music Library Fund, 2023
Processing Information
Minimally processed by Max Goldberg, 2024.
Creator
- Chrysander, Friedrich, 1826-1901 (Person)
- Title
- Chrysander, Friedrich, 1826-1901. Letters to Friedrich and Rudolf Chrysander, circa 1850-1920 (Ms. Coll. 186): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library, Harvard University
- Date
- April 2024
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- mus00061
Repository Details
Part of the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library Repository
The Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library is the primary repository of musical materials at Harvard. The Music Library’s collecting mission is to serve music teaching and research programs in the Music Department and throughout the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. In addition, it supports the musical needs of the broader Harvard community as well as an international scholarly constituency. We collect books, musical scores, serial titles, sound recordings and video formats, microforms, and rare and archival materials that support research in a wide variety of musical disciplines including historical musicology, music theory, ethnomusicology, composition, and historically informed performance practice, as well as interdisciplinary areas related to music. The special collections include archival collections from the 19th, 20th and 21st century.
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