Max Schneider (music historian)


Max Schneider was a German music historian.

Life

Born in Eisleben, Schneider studied musicology at the University of Leipzig with Hermann Kretzschmar and Hugo Riemann and composition with Salomon Jadassohn. After his time as second Kapellmeister in Halle from 1897 to 1901 he continued his studies of music history with Kretzschmar. In 1904 he moved to Berlin, where he worked from 1905 to 1915 as a "scientific assistant" at the.
At the Schneider lernte orchestration and received the title of professor in 1913. In 1915 he accepted a professorship at the University of Breslau; two years later he obtained his doctorate with a dissertation on the beginnings of the basso continuo. In Breslau he was from 1927 director of the. In 1928 he succeeded Arnold Schering as professor for musicology at the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg. After 1933, Schneider was member of the organizations National Socialist Teachers League, Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Dozentenbund,, and the Reichsluftschutzbund. In December 1938 he resigned from his post as Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, which he had held since 1936, "because of the consequences of the "Rosenberg Politic".
After 1945 he joined the Free German Trade Union Federation. He taught far beyond his Emeritus in 1950 until 1962. Furthermore he taught music history and score playing at the founded in 1947.
Schneider took on the editorship of the Bach-Jahrbuch of the Neue Bachgesellschaft. This annual publication had been suspended during the war years and the previous editor Arnold Schering had died. The Jahrbuch covering the years 1940-1948 came out in 1947 as Volume 37.
Schneider was co-editor of the Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, the ', the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe as well as the series '. He dealt almost exclusively with the history of music from the late 16th to the middle of the 18th century, in particular with performance practice and source material. Schneider published important studies on Johann Sebastian Bach's biography and the sources of his works and helped to rehabilitate Georg Philipp Telemann.
From 1955 to 1967 he was president of the in Halle. In 1961 he was awarded the Handel Prize.
Schneider died in Halle at age 91. His grave is located on the in Halle.