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| Friedrich Blume | |
|---|---|
| Name | Friedrich Blume |
| Birth date | 13 December 1893 |
| Birth place | Celle, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire |
| Death date | 7 March 1975 |
| Death place | Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, West Germany |
| Occupation | Musicologist, professor |
| Alma mater | University of Leipzig |
| Notable works | Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (editorial work), Geschichte der Musik |
Friedrich Blume was a German musicologist and academic noted for his scholarship on Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Classical period repertoire, and for his editorial role in the major music encyclopedia Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. He served as a professor at the University of Kiel and contributed to post‑war reconstruction of German musical scholarship, engaging with issues surrounding National Socialism in Germany, denazification, and the rehabilitation of cultural institutions. Blume's work influenced generations of musicologists and librarians across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Born in Celle in the Kingdom of Prussia in 1893, Blume studied at the University of Leipzig and trained under prominent figures connected to the Leipzig tradition, including mentors associated with the Leipzig Conservatory and performers from the Gewandhaus Orchestra. His formative years overlapped with the careers of composers and scholars such as Max Reger, Hermann Abert, and musicologists from the German Romantic historiographical milieu. During the First World War era and the Weimar Republic, Blume developed interests in editorial practice and historical methodology that connected him to libraries and archives in Leipzig, Berlin, and Munich.
Blume held academic appointments culminating in a chair at the University of Kiel, where he taught alongside colleagues tied to institutions such as the Prussian Academy of Sciences, the Bavarian State Library, and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. He participated in editorial projects involving major publishing houses like Breitkopf & Härtel and collaborated with editors from Die Musikforschung and the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Blume took part in international congresses organized by bodies such as the International Musicological Society and maintained contacts with scholars at the University of Oxford, Harvard University, and the University of Vienna.
Blume produced scholarship on Baroque music, Classical era forms, and editorial criticism of canonical composers including Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Friedrich Händel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven. His multi‑volume histories and essays addressed sources held in repositories such as the Bach Archive Leipzig, the Austrian National Library, and the British Library. Blume edited critical articles and entries for Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart and contributed to editions influenced by the practices of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe and the editorial standards exemplified by Philipp Spitta and Otto Erich Deutsch. He engaged with philological debates about autograph manuscripts, performance practice, and chronology, interacting with scholarship from Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians and work by figures like Donald Tovey and Hermann Abert.
During the 1930s and 1940s Blume's career intersected with the cultural policies of National Socialism in Germany, raising questions examined during post‑war denazification processes overseen by Allied authorities and German tribunals. His professional conduct and public stances were scrutinized in contexts comparable to inquiries into other academics such as Wilhelm Furtwängler, Richard Strauss, and Carl Orff. Debates among historians and commentators—drawing on archival material from institutions like the Bundesarchiv, the University of Kiel records, and reports by the Allied Control Council—have evaluated the extent of accommodation or resistance by scholars in musical institutions. Blume's eventual rehabilitation and continued prominence provoked discussion in journals including Die Musikforschung and in biographies of contemporaries such as Hans Joachim Moser.
Blume's editorial stewardship of encyclopedic projects and his textbooks shaped curricula at conservatories like the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, and conservatories in Vienna and Zurich. His students and collaborators included musicologists who later worked at the University of Munich, the University of Hamburg, and international centers such as Yale University and the University of California, Berkeley. Blume's approach—rooted in source criticism and institutional publishing—left an imprint on cataloguing practices at the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek and influenced entries in reference works like Grove Music Online and subsequent editions of Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Scholarly reassessments of his corpus continue in monographs and articles examining the post‑war realignment of German musicology.
Blume received academic distinctions and memberships from bodies such as the Academy of Sciences and Humanities, regional orders in Schleswig-Holstein, and honors conferred by cultural institutions including the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and municipal awards from the city of Kiel. He was granted fellowships and honorary positions that linked him to learned societies in Vienna, Zürich, and Leipzig, reflecting recognition by peers in both German‑speaking countries and the wider international musicological community.
Category:German musicologists Category:1893 births Category:1975 deaths