Hans Eggebrecht

Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht was a German music theorist, lexicographer, educator, and musicologist, and one of the most influential German musicologists of the 20th century. He was born in Dresden on January 5, 1919, and died in Freiburg im Breisgau on August 30, 1999.

From 1945 to 1948, he studied with Richard Münnich, Hans Joachim Moser, and Max Schneider in Weimar, Berlin, and Jena. He received his doctorate from the University of Jena in 1949 for a dissertation on Melchior Vulpius. In 1955, at the University of Freiburg, he completed a second qualification, supervised by Willibald Gurlitt, with a study of musical terminology.

Eggebrecht taught musicology at the University of Freiburg from 1951 until his death. He became a full professor in 1961 and served as dean of its music faculty. In 1956–57, he headed the musicology department at Heidelberg University. From 1964, he was editor-in-chief of the journal Archives of Musicology.

His editorial work included a major revision of the music-theory section of the 12th edition of Riemann's Music Dictionary, published in 1967, for which he also wrote several foundational entries, including “Music.” He collaborated for many years with Carl Dahlhaus, co-wrote What Is Music? with him, and co-edited the Brockhaus-Riemann Musical Encyclopedia. From 1972 to 1999, Eggebrecht edited the Handbook of Musical Terminology, a reference work recognized for its approach to music lexicography and the historical study of terms. In 1984, he edited and contributed to a volume of the History of Music Theory on medieval polyphony.

His research focused on musical terminology and aesthetics, especially the relationship between music and words; the history and theory of Western European medieval music; German Baroque music, particularly the work of Heinrich Schütz; and the history of organ building and organ music. His books include studies of Schütz, Gustav Mahler, and Bach, as well as Music in the West: Processes and Stages from the Middle Ages to the Present. His students included musicologists Klaus-Jürgen Sachs, Fritz Reckow, Reinhold Brinkmann, Albrecht Riethmüller, and Peter Andraschke, and composer Wolfgang Rihm. His books and articles have been translated into many European languages. In 1995, he received an honorary doctorate from Masaryk University.