Heuss, Alfred (Valentin)

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Heuss, Alfred (Valentin)

Heuss, Alfred (Valentin), Swiss-born German musicologist, music critic, and composer; b. Chur, Jan. 27, 1877; d. Gaschwitz, July 9, 1934. He studied at the Stuttgart Cons. (1896–98), then at the Akademie der Tonkunst in Munich, attending the Univ. of Munich simultaneously (1898–99); from 1899 to 1902 he studied musicology with Kretzschmar at the Univ. of Leipzig (Ph.D., 1903, with the diss. Die Instrumentalstücke des “Orfeo” una àie venezianischen Opernsinfonien; (publ, in the Sammelbände der Insternationalen Musik-Gesellschaft, (IV, 1902-03). He was music critic of the Signale ((1902-05), Leipziger Volkszeitung ((1905-12), and Leipziger Zeitung ((1912-18), and ed. of the Zeitschrift der Internationalen Musik- Gesellschaft ((1904-14), to which he contributed valuable articles. He was also ed.-in-chief of the Zeitschrift für Musik ((1921-29). As a composer, he wrote mainly songs.

Writings

(all publ, in Leipzig): Anton Bruckner: Te Deum ((1908); Johann Sebastian Bachs Matthäuspassion ((1909); Franz Liszt: Missa solemnis ((c. 1910); Erläuterungen zu Franz Liszts Sinfonien und sinfonischen Dichtungen ((1912); Kammermusikabende: Erläuterungen von Werken der Kammermusik-Literatur ((1919); Beethoven ((1921).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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