Joseph Schmidt-Görg (born Schmidt 19 March 1897 – 3 April 1981) was a German musicologist, composer and music editor. As a researcher at the University of Bonn and director of the Beethoven Archive, he is regarded as one of the leading Beethoven scholars of his time.[1] He completed the new edition of Beethoven's complete works.
Life
Born Joseph Schmidt[2] in Rüdinghausen [de] (now part of Witten), he studied musicology at the University of Bonn with Ludwig Schiedermair, also philosophy, pedagogy and experimental physics.[3] He achieved the doctorate in 1926 with a dissertation about the masses by Clemens non Papa.[1] He composed masses and other sacred music, including a mass for five-part choir in 1924, a motet, Christus natus est, for eight voices, the same year, and a mass Missa Exultet in 1927.[1]
He officially changed his name in 1930.[1] After his habilitation that year, on Mitteltontemperatur,[3] he lectured at the university, was appointed professor in 1938, and Ordinarius in 1948. He was emerited in 1965.[1]
Schiedermair was a founding member and first director of the Beethoven Archive in Bonn in 1927. He called Schmidt-Görg to be his research assistant. Schmidt-Görg succeeded him as director in 1945 and held the post until 1972. He completed the new edition of Beethoven's complete works, Neue Beethoven-Gesamtausgabe, that Schiedermair had initiated.[2] He edited piano works, in collaboration with his son Hans Schmidt. He also began the publications of the Beethoven House.[1]
"Beethoven und das kurkölnische Geistesleben", in Allgemeine Musikzeitung, vol. 54 (1927), pp. 549f.
"Zur Musikanschauung in den Schriften der hl. Hildegard", in Der Mensch und die Künste. Festschrift für Heinrich Lützeler zum 60. Geburtstag, Düsseldorf 1962, pp. 230–237
"Ein Schiller-Zitat Beethovens in neuer Sicht", in Musik, Edition, Interpretation. Gedenkschrift Günther Henle, Munich 1980, pp. 423–426
Further reading
Thomas Phleps: "Ein stiller, verbissener und zäher Kampf um Stetigkeit – Musikwissenschaft in NS-Deutschland und ihre vergangenheitspolitische Bewältigung", in Isolde von Foerster et al. (ed.), Musikforschung – Nationalsozialismus – Faschismus, Mainz 2001, pp. 471–488.
Colloquium amicorum. Joseph Schmidt-Görg zum 70. Geburtstag, edited by Siegfried Kross und Hans Schmidt, Bonn: Beethoven-Haus, 1967 OCLC2727780
Sieghard Brandenburg, "Sammeln und Bewahren – Edieren und Auswerten. Aus der Gründungszeit des Beethoven-Archivs", in Bonner Beethoven-Studien, vol. 5 (2006), pp. 71–93
