A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Jahn, Otto

by Carl Ferdinand Pohl

JAHN, Otto, the biographer of Mozart, a distinguished philologist, archæologist, and writer on art and music, born June 16, 1813, at Kiel; studied at Kiel, Leipzig, and Berlin, took his degree in 1831, visited Copenhagen, Paris, Switzerland and Italy, in 39 settled in Kiel, in 42 became professor of archæology and philology at Greifswalde, and in 47 director of the archæological Museum at Leipzig, was dismissed for political reasons during the troubles of 1848–49, and in 55 settled at Bonn as professor of classical philology and archæology, and director of the university art-museum. Here he remained till 1869, when he retired during his last illness to Göttingen, and died on Sept. 9. Jahn wrote important books on all the subjects of which he was master, but his musical works alone concern us. Foremost among these is his 'W. A. Mozart' (Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel, 4 vols, 1856–59, 2nd ed. 2 vols, 1867, with portraits and facsimiles). His picture of the great composer is scarcely less interesting and valuable than his description of the state of music during the period immediately preceding Mozart, while the new facts produced, the new light thrown on old ones, and the thorough knowledge of the subject evinced throughout, all combine to place the work at the head of musical biographies.^[1]

Jahn intended to treat Haydn and Beethoven on the same scale, and had begun to collect materials, but these projects were stopped by his death^[2]. Jahn also published an essay on Mendelssohn's 'Paulus' (Kiel 1842); and an accurate comparative edition, with preface, of Beethoven's 'Leonore' (Fidelio) for P.F. (B. & H. Leipzig 1851). For the 'Grenzboten' he wrote two spirited reports of the Lower Rhine Musical Festivals of 1855–56; an article on the complete edition of Beethoven's works, full of sound criticism and biographical information; and two controversial articles on Berlioz and Wagner. These and other contributions of the same kind were published as 'Gesammelte Aufsätze über Musik' (Leipzig 1868). His four collections of original songs (3 and 4 from Groth's 'Quickborn,' Breitkopf & Hartel), also evince the possession of that remarkable combination of a highly cultivated sense of beauty with scientific attainments, which places him in the first rank among writers on music. Köchel's Catalogue of Mozart is with great appropriateness dedicated to Jahn. [App. p. 685 "His life of Mozart was published in an English translation by Miss Pauline Townshend, in three volumes, by Novello and Co. in 1882."]

[ C. F. P. ]

1. For the English reader this admirable book suffers from the frequent interpolation of long digressions on the rise and progress of various sections of music, which, though most valuable in themselves, interrupt the narrative and would be more conveniently placed in an Appendix. Its Index also leaves much to be desired.

   [ G. ]

2. The materials collected for Haydn went to Herr C. F. Pohl, and those for Beethoven to Mr. Thayer, and are being employed by those writers in their biographies of the two composers. Mr. Pohl was designated by Jahn as his successor in the biography of Haydn.

   [ G. ]