Keller, Hans (Heinrich)

Keller, Hans (Heinrich), Austrian-born English writer on music; b. Vienna, March 11, 1919; d. London, Nov. 6, 1985. He received training in violin in Vienna, and then settled in England in 1938 and became a naturalized British subject in 1948. He played in orchs. and string quartets. Keller mastered the English language to an extraordinary degree, and soon began pointing out solecisms and other infractions on the purity of the tongue to native journalists; wrote articles on film music, and boldly invaded the sports columns in British newspapers, flaunting his mastery of the lingo. In 1947 he founded (with D. Mitchell) the periodical Music Survey and was its co-ed. (1949–52); joined the music division of the BBC in 1959, retiring in 1979. He originated a system of functional analysis for radio, in which verbal communication was replaced solely by musical examples to demonstrate a composition’s structure and thematic development. He publ. several articles expounding the virtues of his ratiocination, among them the fundamental essay ‘Functional Analysis: Its Pure Application/’ Music Review, XVIII (1957).

Writings

Albert Herring (1947); Benjamin Britten: The Rape of Lucretia (1947); The Need for Competent Film Music Criticism (1947); ed. with D. Mitchell, Benjamin Britten: A Commentary on His Works from a Group of Specialists (1952); 2975 (1984 minus nine) (1977); The Great Haydn Quartets: Their Interpretation (1986); Criticism (1987).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire