Misch, Ludwig
Misch, Ludwig
Misch, Ludwig, German-American organist, conductor, music critic, and musicologist; b. Berlin, June 13, 1887; d. N.Y., April 22, 1967. He studied theory with Max Friedlaender at the Univ. of Berlin, and simultaneously took courses in law, obtaining his D.Jur. degree at the Univ. of Heidelberg in 1911. He was music critic for the Allgemeine Musikzeitung (1909–13), and also conducted theater orchs. in Berlin, Essen, and Bremen. From 1921 to 1933 he was music critic of the Berliner Lokalanzeiger. Under the Nazi regime, he conducted a Jewish madrigal choir in Berlin until he was sent to a concentration camp. In 1947 he emigrated to N.Y., where he became active as an organist and musicologist. He publ. the valuable books Johannes Brahms (Bielefeld, 1913; 2nd ed., Berlin, 1922), Beethoven- Studien (Berlin, 1950; Eng. tr., Norman, Okla., 1953), tr. and annotated (with D. MacArdle) New Beethoven Letters (Norman, 1957), Die Faktoren der Einheit in der Mehrsatzigkeit der Werke Beethovens: Versuch einer Theorie der Einheit des Werkstils (Bonn, 1958), and Neue Beethoven-Studien und andere Themen (Bonn, 1967).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis Mclntire