Alfred Einstein (December 30, 1880 – February 13, 1952) was a German-Americanmusicologist and music editor. He was born in Munich, and fled Nazi Germany after Hitler'sMachtergreifung, arriving in the United States by 1939. He is best known for being the editor of the first major revision of the Köchel catalogue, which was published in 1936. The Köchel catalogue is the extensive catalogue of the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Einstein not only researched and wrote detailed works on specific topics, but wrote popular histories of music, including the Short History of Music (1917), and Greatness in Music (1941). In particular, due to his depth of familiarity with Mozart, he published an important and extensive revision of the Köchel catalogue of Mozart's music (1936). It is this work for which Einstein is most well known.[1] Einstein also published a comprehensive, three-volume set The Italian Madrigal (1949) on the secular Italian form, the first detailed study of the subject. His 1945 volume Mozart: His Character, His Work was an influential study of Mozart and is perhaps his best known book.
Relationship to Albert Einstein
While one source (1980) lists Alfred as a cousin of the scientist Albert Einstein,[2] another claims (1993) that no relationship has been verified.[3] Some websites claim they were both descended from a Moyses Einstein seven generations back, hence they were sixth cousins.[4] In 1991, Alfred's daughter Eva stated that they were not related.[5] On the other hand, she wrote in 2003 that they were fifth cousins on one side, and fifth cousins once removed on the other, according to research by George Arnstein. They were photographed together in 1947 when Albert Einstein received an honorary doctorate from Princeton, but they did not know that they were distantly related.[6]
Works
Gluck (Master Musicians Series-Series Editor Eric Blom), translated by Eric Blom, J. M. Dent & Sons LTD, 1936
A Short History of Music, translation of Geschichte der Musik, 1937, rev. 1938, 1947
Canzoni Sonetti Strambotti et Frottole. Libro Tertio ( Andrea Antico, 1517). Smith College: Northampton, MA, 1941
Golden Age of the Madrigal: Twelve Five-Part Mixed Choruses. G. Schirmer: New York, 1942
^Article "Alfred Einstein", in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN1-56159-174-2
^The Concise Edition of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 8th ed. Revised by Nicolas Slonimsky. New York, Schirmer Books, 1993. ISBN0-02-872416-X
^Catherine Dower: Alfred Einstein on music: selected music criticisms 1991 Page 22 "35 According to Eva Einstein, Alfred and Albert Einstein were not related. Alfred's name does not appear on the Albert Einstein family tree."