Abert, Hermann(bStuttgart,25 March 1871;dStuttgart,13 Aug 1927).Germanmusicologist. His father was court Kapellmeister at Stuttgart and composed operas, seven symphonies and other works. From 1890 to 1895 Abert studied classics and then music in Berlin under Bellermann, Fleischer and Friedlaender. He took the doctorate at Berlin in 1897 with a dissertation on Greek music, and in 1902 he completed hisHabilitationat the University of Halle with a work on the basis of the aesthetics of medieval melody. He was appointed honorary professor in 1909 and reader in 1911. In 1920 he was appointed professor at the University of Leipzig (succeeding Riemann) and in 1923 he became professor at Berlin University (succeeding Kretzschmar). In 1925 he was elected an ordinary member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences at Berlin, the first musicologist to have earned this distinction.Abert was one of the leading German musicologists of his generation, and he did much to increase regard for his subject among followers of more traditional university disciplines. His numerous distinguished pupils include his daughteranna Amalie, Blume, Fellerer, Gerber and Vetter. Much of his work was influenced by the humanism of classical antiquity and concerned itself with the effect of music on man and of the way in which social patterns and cultural ideals were expressed in the music of various epochs. He later turned towards dramatic music, particularly research into the history of opera. He was not interested in the purely archival and theoretical aspects of musicology. In his later years he frequently returned to the music of Greek antiquity with studies that eventually led him to specific problems of musical aesthetics in ancient times, the Middle Ages and his own time. His interest in 19th-century and contemporary music, shown in studies of Beethoven, Schumann, the Romantic era and Meyerbeer, led him to confront specific problems of opera. Exemplary editions of important operatic works, his editorship of theGluck-Jahrbuch(191318), theMozart-Jahrbuch(19239) and many monographs (from 1905, and includingNiccol Jommelli als Opernkomponist, 1908) preceded his great Mozart biography (191921), which, although it made use of new research methods, was still in the tradition of the great 19th-century musical biographies of Jahn, Chrysander and Spitta. Abert modestly called his work the fifth edition of Jahn's biography, but it is in almost every respect an entirely independent work. He presented Mozart in his full stature and in lively, human terms, at the same time revealing in imposing breadth the sources of the various aspects of Mozart's art. Although Mozart scholarship since Abert's time has advanced in the field of source study and in terms of detailed insight and general understanding, this monumental biography is still one of the great standard works of music literature.WRITINGSDie Lehre vom Ethos in der griechischen Musik(diss., U. of Berlin,1897; Leipzig, 1899/R)Der neue Aristoxenosfund von Oxyrhynchos,SIMG, i (18991900), 33340Zu Cassiodor,SIMG, iii (19012), 43953Die sthetischen Grundstze der mittelalterlichen Melodiebildung(Habilitationsschrift, U. of Halle,1902; Halle, 1902)Robert Schumann(Berlin,1903, 4/1920)Die Musikanschauung des Mittelalters und ihre Grundlagen(Halle,1905/R)Geschichte der Robert-Franz-Singakademie zu Halle a. S., 18331908(Halle,1908)J.G. Noverre und sein Einfluss auf die dramatische Ballettkomposition,JbMP 1908, 2945Niccol Jommelli als Opernkomponist(Halle,1908)Antike Musikerlegenden,Festschrift Rochus Freiherrn von Liliencron(Leipzig,1910/R), 116Piccinni als Buffokomponist,JbMP 1913, 2942Glucks italienische Opern bis zum Orfeo,Gluck-Jb 1915, 125Johann Joseph Abert (18321915): sein Leben und seine Werke(Leipzig,1916)Giacomo Meyerbeer,JbMP 1918, 3752Der neue griechische Papyrus mit Musiknoten,AMw, i (1918), 31329Paisiellos Buffokunst und ihr Beziehung zu Mozart,AMw, i (191819), 40221J.C. Bachs italienische Opern und ihr Einfluss auf Mozart,ZMw, i (191920), 31328Joseph Haydns Klaviersonaten,ZMw, ii (191920), 55373; continued as Joseph Haydns Klavierwerke, iii (192021), 53552W.A. Mozart, ii (Leipzig,191921, 3/195566; It. trans., 3/19846) [enlarged 5th edn of O. Jahn:W.A. Mozart, Leipzig, 18569] [essay onDon Giovanni, Eng. trans., 1976]Goethe und die Musik(Stuttgart,1922)Kunst, Kunstwissenschaft und Kunstkritik,Die Musik, xvi (19234), 110Wort und Ton in der Musik des 18. Jahrhunderts,AMw, v (1923), 3170Luther und die Musik(Wittenberg,1924) [pamphlet for the Luther-Gesellschaft]Zu Beethovens Persnlichkeit und Kunst,JbMP 1925, 924Carl Maria von Weber und sein Freischutz,JbMP 1926, 930Grundprobleme der Operngeschichte(Leipzig,1926) [rev. version of article inMusikwissenschaftlicher Kongress: Basle 1924]Tonart und Thema in Bachs Instrumentalfugen,Festschrift Peter Wagner zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. K. Weinmann(Leipzig,1926/R), 110Bach Beethoven Brahms,MQ, xiii (1927), 32943ed.F.Blume:Gesammelte Schriften und Vortrge(Halle,1929/R)EDITIONSN.Jommelli:Fetonte, DDT, xxxiixxxiii (1907/R)Ausgewhlte Ballette Stuttgarter Meister aus der 2. Hlfte des 18. Jahrhunderts, DDT, xliiixliv (1913/R)C.W.Gluck:Le nozze d'Ercole e d'Ebe, DTB, xxvi, Jg.xiv/2 (1914);Orfeo ed Euridice, DT, xliva, Jg.xxi/4 (1914/R)B.Pallavicino:La Gerusalemme liberata, DDT, lv (1916/R)BIBLIOGRAPHYJ.S.Handschin:Hermann Abert,SMz, lxvii (1927), 32027H.Moser:Hermann Abert,ZMw, x (19278), 17W.Vetter:Hermann Abert zum Gedchtnis,JbMP 1927, 918F.Blume, ed.:Gedenkschrift fr Hermann Abert(Halle,1928/R) [incl. complete list of pubns]K.G.Fellerer:Hermann Abert,Jahresbericht ber die Fortschritte der klassischen Altertumswissenschaften, lvi (1930), 114H.A.Brockhaus:Hermann Aberts Konzeption der musikalischen Historiographie(Habilitationsschrift, Humboldt U. of Berlin,1966)A.A.Abert:Hermann Aberts Weg zur Musikwissenschaft,Musa mens musici: im Gedenken an Walther Vetter(Leipzig,1969), 915 [also inDJbM, ix (1964), 716]LOTHAR HOFFMANN-ERBRECHT/MICHAEL VON DER LINN