Rats, Erwin
Rats, Erwin
Rats, Erwin , Austrian musicologist; b. Graz, Dec. 22, 1898; d. Vienna, Dec. 12, 1973. He studied musicology with Adler at the Univ. of Vienna (1918–22), and also received training in composition from Schoenberg and Webern. In 1945 he became a prof. of theory at the Vienna Academy of Music. He served as president of the International Gustav Mahler Soc. from 1955, and was ed. of the complete critical edition of Mahler’s Works. He also ed. the critical editions of Beethoven’s piano variations and Schubert’s piano sonatas.
Writings
(all publ. in Vienna unless otherwise given): Erkenntnis und Erlebnis des musikalischen Kunstwerks (1950); Einführung in die musikalische Formenlehre: Über Formprinzipien in den Inventionen und Fugen J.S. Bachs und ihre Bedeutung für die Kompositionstechnik Beethovens (1951; 3rd ed., 1973); Die Originalfassung des Streichquartettes op. 130 von Beethoven (1952); Zur Chronologie der Klaviersonaten Franz Schuberts (1955); Gustav Mahler (Berlin, 1957); F. Heller, ed., Gesammelte Aufsätze (1975).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire