Besseler, Heinrich
Besseler, Heinrich
Besseler, Heinrich, eminent German musicologist; b. Dortmund-Hòrde, April 2, 1900; d. Leipzig, July 25, 1969. He was a pupil of Gurlitt at the Univ. of Freiburg im Breisgau (Ph.D., 1923, with the diss. Beitrage zur Stilgeschichte der deutschen Suite im 17. Jahrhundert; Habilitationsschrift, 1925, Die Motettenkomposition von Petrus de Cruce bis Philipp von Vitry (ca. 1250–1350), Adler at the Univ. of Vienna, and Ludwig at the Univ. of Gòttingen. He was a reader at the Univ. of Heidelberg (1928–48) and then prof. of musicology at the univs. of Jena (1948–56) and Leipzig (1956–65). Besseler was a distinguished authority on the music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. He wrote the important and influential study Die Musik des Mittelalters und der Renaissance (Potsdam, 1931), contributed valuable articles to various music journals and to Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, and ed. the collected works of Dufay, Ockeghem, and others of their era. His other writings include Johann Sebastian Bach (Stuttgart, 1935; 2nd ed., 1955); Zum Problem der Tenorgeige (Heidelberg, 1949); Bourdon und Fauxbourdon: Studien zum Ursprung der niederländischen Musik (Leipzig, 1950); Fünf echte Bildnisse Johann Sebastian Bachs (Kassel, 1956); with M. Schneider, Musikgeschichte in Bildern (Leipzig, 1961-68; W. Bachmann, co.-ed., 1968–69).
Bibliography
Festschrift H. B. zum 60. geburtstag (Leipzig, 1961).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire