Schneider, Marius
Schneider, Marius
Schneider, Marius, distinguished German musicologist; b. Hagenau, July 1, 1903; d. Marquartstein, July 10, 1982. He studied philology and musicology at the univs. of Strasbourg and Paris, then trained with Wolf at the Univ. of Berlin (Ph.D., 1930, with the diss. Die Ars nova des XIV. Jahrhunderts in Frankreich und Italien; pubi, in Wolfenbüttel, 1931); his Habilitation was rejected there after Nazi intervention in 1937, but was subsequently accepted by the Univ. of Cologne after the collapse of the Third Reich (1955). He was Hornbostel’s assistant at the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv (1932–34), and then was its director. After serving in the armed forces during World War II, he went to Barcelona in 1944 as founder-director of the ethnomusicology dept. at the Spanish Inst. of Musicology. He taught at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas at the Univ. of Barcelona (1947–55); then taught comparative musicology and ethnomusicology at the Univ. of Cologne (1955–68); subsequently was on the faculty of the Univ. of Amsterdam (1968–70). He made valuable contributions to musicology, the philosophy of music, and the history of musical structures. A Festschrift was publ. in his honor (Regensburg, 1977).
Writings
Geschichte der Mehrstimmigkeit: Historische und phänomenologische Studien: I, Die Naturvölker; II, Die Anfänge in Europa (Berlin, 1934–35; second ed., 1968, with vol. III, Die Kompositionsprinzipien und ihre Verbreitung); El origen musical de los animales-simbolos en la mitologia y la escultura antiguas: Ensayo histôrico-etnogrâfico sobre la subestructura totemistica y megalitica de las altas culturas y su supervivencia en el folklore espanol (Barcelona, 1946); La danza de espadas y la tarantela: Ensayo musicológico, etnográfico y arqueológico sobre los ritos médicinales (Barcelona, 1948); Singende Steine: Rhythmus-Studien an drei kalantanischen Kreuzgängen romanischen Stils (Kassel, 1955); Die Natur des Lobgesangs (Basel, 1964); ed. Aussereuropäische Folklore und Kunstmusik (Cologne, 1972); ed. Studien zur Mittelmeermusik: I, Die tunesische Nuba ed Dhil (Regensburg, n.d.).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire