Everything about Friedrich Chrysander totally explained
Karl Franz Friedrich Chrysander (
July 8,
1826-
September 3,
1901) was a
German music historian and
critic, whose edition of the works of
George Frideric Handel and authoritative writings on many other composers established him as a pioneer of 19th-century
musicology.
Born at
Lübtheen, in
Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Chrysander was the son of a
miller. He earned a
Doctorate in
Philosophy from the
University of Rostock in
1853. He then focused his studies on music, and in an obituary for Chrysander in October
1901, the
Musical Times said of him that
» "From the beginning he assumed the role of an historian in rigorously defending the right and claims of musical masterpieces of a distant past to a legitimate and faithful reproduction, for example, without modernising, and without instrumental or vocal additions."
Between
1858 and
1902, the
Händel-Gesellschaft or "German Handel Society" edition of Handel's collected works was published, and this was almost entirely the work of Chrysander; however,
Julius Rietz prepared the first volume (with results that were much to Chrysander's dissatisfaction), and Max Seiffert also assisted with some of the later editing. Early in the publication of the edition, the publisher dropped out of the project, after which Chrysander set up an engraving shop at his home and produced subsequent volumes himself. Additionally, he sold fruits and vegetables raised in his garden as a way of bringing in further income during the publication years.
The quality of some of the editing has been challenged in subsequent decades, with one writer calling the
Händel-Gesellschaft edition "anything but complete and reliable" and another criticizing Chrysander's "arbitrary selection of material in the more complex works and his failure to explain his methods." Nevertheless, this publication, which produced over 100 volumes of music, is acknowledged to have been a remarkable achievement for its day.
Chrysander is also credited with rediscovering the autograph score of
Johann Sebastian Bach's
Mass in B Minor, which he then sold to the Royal Library in
Berlin, generously doing so only for the same sum that he himself paid for it.
He also edited the music of many other composers, including (in collaboration with
Johannes Brahms) the collected harpsichord music of
François Couperin le Grand, published from
1871 to
1888.
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