Hugo Riemann
German composer, conductor and musicologist (b. 6/18 July 1849 near Sondershausen; d. 10 July 1919 in Leipzig), born Karl Wilhelm Julius Hugo Riemann.
Riemann's early education in Sondershausen included music theory and piano, although he went on to study law, German literature and history in Berlin from 1868, and later philisophy in Tübingen, before ultimately enrolling in the Leipzig Conservatory in 1871, and devoting himself to a career in music. After graduating, while working as a piano tutor and conductor, he published his first essays on musicology, going on to lecture on the subject at the Hamburg Conservatory during the 1880s. His Musik-Lexikon (1882) remains one of the standard musical textbooks of the nineteenth century.
Tchaikovsky met Riemann during his visit to Hamburg in January 1888, noting that "Dr Riemann... occupies himself with exceptionally interesting investigations in various branches of music theory" [1].
Correspondence with Tchaikovsky
One letter from Tchaikovsky to Hugo Riemann is known, dating from 1890:
- Letter 4013a – 26 January/7 February 1890, from Florence
One letter from Riemann to Tchaikovsky, dating from 1889 or 1890, is preserved in the the Tchaikovsky State Memorial Musical Museum-Reserve at Klin (a4, No. 3801) [2].
Notes and References
- ↑ See Autobiographical Account of a Tour Abroad in the Year 1888, Chapter XI.
- ↑ Riemann's letterhead includes the pre-printed year "1889" after the handwritten date "28 Jan" [N.S.]. In his diary entry for 26 January/7 February 1890, Tchaikovsky mentioned that he had received a letter from Riemann while in Florence; given the time taken for this letter to travel from Hamburg to Russia, and then from Russia to the composer in Italy, it is conceivable that this is the very same letter preserved in the Klin archive, considering the possibility that Riemann had neglected to correct the pre-printed year from 1889 to 1890.
