From the Musical Times 100 years ago

Musical Times, Autumn 2001

The Musical Times, October 1901

With much regret we place on record the death - which took place on the 3rd ult., at Bergedorf, near Hamburg, where he had lived since 1866 - of Friedrich Chrysander, Doctor of Philosophy, musician, musical historian, critic, and editor. The biographical information concerning this great Handelian scholar is so exceedingly meagre and in some respects inaccurate, that we are glad to furnish our readers with the subjoined authentic account of his life, kindly contributed by his son-in-law, Mr. Charles Volkert, whose account includes some autobiographical matter written by Dr. Chrysander and now published for the first time.

KARL FRANZ FRIED RICH CHRYSANDER, the son of a miller, was born at Lubtheen, in Mecklenburg, on July 8, 1826. He adopted at first an educational career, holding posts of tutor in several gentlemen's families. He was also assistant master to his future father-in-law, the organist and schoolmaster Borgmann, of Vellahn, in Mecklenburg.

After attending lectures at Gottingen, Leipzig and Rostock, the last-named University bestowed upon him the degree of Doc. Phil., the independent work for his promotion being `Ueber die Molltonart in den Volksgesangen', (On the minor mode in Folk-songs), Schwerin, 1853, which he soon followed up by another booklet `Ueber das Oratorium' (On the Oratorio).

Subsequently Chrysander took to music as a profession. From the beginning he assumed the role of an historian in rigorously defending the right and claims of musical masterpieces of a distant past to a legitimate and faithful reproduction, i.e., without modernising, and without instrumental or vocal additions. This soon brought him into conflict with leading musicians, who considered his action too far-reaching and onesided.

Friedrich Chrysander's work centred indeed in the oratorio, as his early pamphlets prove, though not by any means confined to it. While working at Wolfenbuttel, Brunswick, Weissenfels, Lauenburg, and other once famous German cities, he prepared for actual performance and published in 1856 (Wolfenbuttel) four volumes of Bach's Clavier compositions, an edition which has lost none of its value or importance; moreover, it has the merit of being the first critically revised classical edition on record. Even before this he had had the good fortune to discover Bach's long-lost autograph of the immortal B minor Mass; and it at once illustrates the ideal side of his character, that he handed over this priceless score, from which much of the Bach cult of recent years has arisen, to the Royal Library at Berlin for the same sum (either 40 or 40 thalers) that he gave for it. He had to put up with many personal attacks of partisans of the great Leipzig Cantor, but it has not been yet shown that anyone of them has done as much for Bach as the subject of this notice.

At that time Chrysander put into score several volumes of Heinrich Schutz's compositions, which years afterwards he handed over to his friend, the late Philipp Spitta, to see through the press. It bears testimony to the dead musician's character that his work for Schatz, as well as his editions of the Motets of Palestrina, the clavier music of Couperin, the violin works of Corelli, bore for thirty years the names of Bellermann, Brahms, and Joachim, respectively, but not his own. His object was solely to secure for these fine works the utmost interest and utility.

He found his real sphere of action, however, when he started in 1856, in conjunction with Gervinus, Dehn, Hauptmann, and others, the so-called German Handel Society for the publication of the great Anglo-Saxon's complete compositions. These works he prepared from sources almost exclusively preserved in England. He was fortunate in being able to embody in that edition innumerable second thoughts and improvements noted down in Handel's own hand, as indicated in the conducting scores which came to light about that time.

Chrysander received some blame on this side of the Channel for carrying off those valuable Handel documents, and it is as well that the facts should be recorded in this place. In the early fifties, Kerslake, a secondhand bookseller of Bristol, secured the library of Lord Rivers's family, and offered about 126 volumes of MSS. - reputedly copies of Handel's scores - in his catalogue for the sum of 38. The late Victor Schoelcher, himself an able and enthusiastic Handel lover, secured the lot - it narrowly escaped being caught up by the Sacred Harmonic Society which proved to be in the handwriting of the two Smiths. Schoelcher immediately placed the volumes at Chrysander's disposal. Seeing at a glance their immense importance to the Handel Edition, he offered to buy the scores - which, by the way, also contained the autographs of Christopher Smith's own oratorios - and Schoelcher accepted 800 for them. Though Chrysander could not scrape together more than 100, and had to leave the volumes in Schoelcher's hands for some years, he (Schoelcher) stuck to the bargain, in spite of the increased offers he meanwhile had received. In return for this kindness, the Doctor declined more than one offer to translate his 'Life' of Handel, because Schoelcher had published one in the English language. Several Hamburg gentlemen subsequently subscribed the funds necessary to complete the purchase, and thus the Smith conducting scores found their permanent home in the Hamburg Library.