Adler, Guido

(b Eibenschutz [now Ivancice], Moravia, 1 Nov 1855; d Vienna, 15 Feb 1941). Austrian musicologist. After the death of his father, the family settled in 1864 in Vienna, where Adler entered the Akademisches Gymnasium. In 1868 he began his studies in theory and composition with Bruckner and Dessoff at the conservatory, but his family wanted him to prepare for a legal career, for which purpose he studied law at the University of Vienna (JurD 1878). While at the university Adler gave a series of lectures on Wagner's Ring (1875--6) and with Felix Mottl and others, founded the Akademischer Wagnerverein. After serving briefly on the Vienna Handelsgericht, Adler decided to take up music history, in which his interest had been aroused by the writings of Ambros, Jahn, Spitta and Chrysander. He attended Hanslick's lectures at the university, taking his doctorate in 1880 with a dissertation on music up to 1600; in 1881 he completed his Habilitation with a work on the history of harmony. A year later he represented Austria at the International Congress for Liturgy at Arezzo. With Spitta and Chrysander, Adler founded the Vierteljahrsschrift fur Musikwissenschaft (1884) and the next year became professor of musicology in Prague. In 1888 he advocated the publication of Monumenta Historiae Musices. This project was to become the Denkmaler der Tonkunst in Osterreich series, of which Adler was general editor from 1894 to 1938. He was instrumental in getting the Austrian government to acquire the Trent Codices, selections of which he published in DTO, and from 1913 to 1938 he edited the Beihefte der DTO (Studien zur Musikwissenschaft), to which he and his pupils made substantial contributions. In 1892 Adler organized the music section of the International Music and Theatre Exhibition in Vienna, writing the catalogue and introducing Smetana's The Bartered Bride to an international public. His work for the exhibition revealed his gift for organizing large-scale festivals in conjunction with musicological congresses, and he later similarly organized the Vienna centenary festivals of Haydn (1909) and Beethoven (1927). The formation of the IMS in 1927 was largely due to his initiative.

In 1898 Adler succeeded Hanslick at the University of Vienna, where he founded the Musikwissenschaftliches Institut, the model for musicological institutes elsewhere. Adler's lectures attracted a wide circle of students from all Europe, many of whom were later to achieve fame as composers (Webern, Wellesz, Pisk, Grosz and Weigl) or as musicologists (Orel, Haas, Fischer, Geiringer, Ficker, Kurth, Jeppesen, Smijers and Jachimecki). Adler, who considered musical life and music history indissolubly linked, took great interest in Vienna's musical life and was seen frequently at concerts and the opera. He enjoyed an intimate friendship with Mahler, on whom he published a book, and when in 1912 two concertos by Matthias Georg Monn (1717--50) were published in DTO, Adler entrusted the realization of the continuo part of the cello concerto to Schoenberg.

Modern musicology owes a great debt to Adler. Under the influence of his friend, the philosopher Alexius Meinong, Adler strove to make empirical study the basis for musicology. As early as 1885, in a pioneering essay, he laid down the chief principles of the new discipline and was the first to emphasize the importance of style criticism in music research -- ideas which he put into practice at his institute. Although he concentrated his own studies on the music history of Austria, notably the Viennese Classics, the systematic investigation of the musical style of other periods and countries was an outstanding feature of Adler's 'Vienna School'. He attempted to free musicology from a preoccupation with aesthetics and was also one of the first musicologists to recognize the sociological aspect of the discipline. The widespread recognition he enjoyed within the academic community was made manifest through his editorship of the Handbuch der Musikgeschichte, the work of an international body of scholars, to which he contributed the chapter on Viennese Classicism.

See also Analysis, §II, 4.

WRITINGS
Die historischen Grundclassen der christlich-abendlandischen Musik bis 1600 (diss., U. of Vienna, 1880; also in AMZ, xv (1880), 689--93, 705--9, 721--6, 737--40)
Studie zur Geschichte der Harmonie (Habilitationsschrift, U. of Vienna, 1881; Sitzungsberichte der philosophische-historischen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, xcviii (1881), 781--830 and 30 pp. music)
'Umfang, Methode und Ziel der Musikwissenschaft', VMw, i (1885), 5--20
'Die Wiederholung und Nachahmung in der Mehrstimmigkeit', VMw, ii (1886), 271--346
ed.: Verzeichniss der musikalischen Autographe von Ludwig van Beethoven ... im Besitze von A. Artaria in Wien (Vienna, 1890)
Richard Wagner: Vorlesungen gehalten an der Universitat zu Wien (Leipzig, 1904, 2/1923)
'Uber Heterophonie', JbMP 1908, 17--27
Josef Haydn (Vienna, 1909)
Der Stil in der Musik (Leipzig, 1911, 2/1929/R)
Gustav Mahler (Leipzig, 1916)
Methode der Musikgeschichte (Leipzig, 1919/R)
ed.: Handbuch der Musikgeschichte (Frankfurt, 1924, rev. 2/1930/R) [incl. 'Periodisierung der abendlandischen Musik', 68--71; 'Die Wiener klassische Schule', 768--94; 'Die Moderne: Allgemeines', 997--1002]
'Das obligate Akkompagnement der Wiener klassischen Schule', Deutsche Musikgesellschaft: Kongress I: Leipzig 1925, 35--43
'Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven', Almanach der Deutschen Musikbucherei (1926), 53--61
'Beethovens Charakter', Almanach der Deutschen Musikbucherei (1927), 75--97
'Schubert and the Viennese Classic School', MQ, xiv (1928), 473--85
'Haydn and the Viennese Classical School', MQ, xviii (1932), 191--207
'Johannes Brahms: Wirken, Wesen und Stellung', SMw, xx (1933), 6--27; Eng. trans., MQ, xix (1933), 113--42
 

EDITIONS
A. Cesti: Il pomo d'oro, DTO, vi, Jg.iii/2 (1896/R); ix, Jg.iv/2 (1897/R)
Gottlieb Muffat: Componimenti musicali per il cembalo, DTO, vii, Jg.iii/3 (1896/R); Zwolf Toccaten und 72 Versetl fur Orgel und Klavier, DTO, lviii, Jg.xxix/2 (1922/R)
J.T. Froberger: Orgel- und Clavierwerke, DTO, viii, Jg.iv/1 (1897/R); xiii, Jg.vi/2 (1899/R); xxi, Jg.x/2 (1903/R)
H.I.F. von Biber: Acht Violinsonaten mit ausgefuhrter Clavierbegleitung, DTO, xi, Jg.v/2 (1898/R)
with O. Koller: Trienter Codices I--II, DTO, xiv--xv, Jg.vii (1900/R); xxii, Jg.xi/1 (1904/R); xxxviii, Jg.xix/1 (1912/R) [with F. Schegar and M. Loew]
J.J. Fux: Mehrfach besetzte Instrumentalwerke: zwei Kirchensonaten und zwei Ouverturen (Suiten), DTO, xix, Jg.ix/2 (1902/R)
Orazio Benevoli: Festmesse und Hymnus, DTO, xx, Jg.x/1 (1903/R)
Antonio Draghi: Kirchenwerke: zwei Messen, eine Sequenz, zwei Hymnen, DTO, xlvi, Jg.xxiii/1 (1916/R)
Drei Requiem fur Soli, Chor, Orchester aus dem 17. Jahrhundert [von] Christoph Strauss, Franz Heinrich Biber, Johann Caspar Kerll, DTO, lix, Jg.xxx/1 (1923/R)
 

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Studien zur Musikgeschichte: Festschrift fur Guido Adler (Vienna, 1930/R) [incl. list of pubns]
G. Adler: Wollen und Wirken: aus dem Leben eines Musikhistorikers (Vienna, 1935) [autobiography]
M. Carner: 'A Pioneer of Musicology: Guido Adler', Of Men and Music (London, 1944, 3/1945), 14--16
R. Heinz: 'Guido Adlers Musikhistorik als historisches Dokument', Die Ausbreitung die Historismus uber die Musik, ed. W. Wiora (Regensburg, 1969), 209--19
W. Domling: 'Musikgeschichte als Stilgeschichte: Bemerkungen zum musikhistorischen Konzept Guido Adlers', IRASM, iv (1973), 35--49
E.R. Reilly: Gustav Mahler und Guido Adler: zur Geschichte einer Freundschaft (Vienna, 1978; Eng. trans., 1982)
C. Rosenthal: 'Reminiscences of Guido Adler (1855--1941)', Musica Judaica, viii (1985--6), 13--22
T. Antonicek: 'Musikwissenschaft in Wien zur Zeit Guido Adlers', SMw, xxxvii (1986), 165--93
Gedenkschrift Guido Adler, Musicologica austriaca, vi (1986)
V. Kalisch: Entwurf einer Wissenschaft von der Musik: Guido Adler (Baden-Baden, 1988)
Arnold Schonberg Correspondence: a Collection of Translated and Annotated Letters Exchanged with Guido Adler, Pablo Casals, Emanuel Feuermann and Olin Downes, ed. E.M. Ennulat (Metuchen, NJ, 1991)
Alexius Meinong und Guido Adler: eine Freundschaft in Briefen, ed. G.J. Eder (Amsterdam, 1995)
 

MOSCO CARNER/GABRIELE EDER