Grimm, Friedrich Melchior, Baron Von

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Grimm, Friedrich Melchior, Baron Von

Grimm, Friedrich Melchior, Baron von, German writer on music; b. Regensburg, Sept. 25, 1723; d. Gotha, Dec. 19, 1807. He went to Paris in 1750 and remained there until the Revolution, frequenting literary and musical circles and taking an active part in all controversies. His “Lettre sur Omphale” in the Mercure de France (1752) took the side of Italian opera in the “guerre des bouffons,” but some years later he upheld Gluck against the Italian faction supporting Piccinni. He ed. the Correspondance litteraire, philosophique et critique, which offers important data on French opera (16 vols., Paris, 1877-82). He befriended the Mozarts on their first visit to Paris (see the many references to him in E. Anderson, Letters of Mozart and His Family, London, 1938; 2nd ed., rev., 1966, by A. Hyatt King and M. Carolan; 3rd ed., rev., 1985). He also wrote a satire on J. Stamitz, Le Petit Prophete de Boehmisch-Broda; reproduced in Eng. in O. Strunk’s Source Readings in Music History(N.Y, 1950).

Bibliography

Carlez, G. et la musique de son temps (1872); E. Scherer, M. G. (1887).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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