Henry Edward Krehbiel
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As a critic he was particularly complimentary of German romanticism, and was a great admirer and promoter in the United States of Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and especially Richard Wagner and his musical theories. He was a close friend and admirer of the conductor Anton Seidl who greatly enhanced his appreciation for Wagner and his music, and whose work he gave his most complimentary reviews. He was not so complimentary to Wagner's main successors: Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler, and was also critical towards French impressionism and works of the Italian school.
Krehbiel was a champion of the music of Antonín Dvořák whom he hoped would help establish an authentically American school of music when Dvořák was appointed head of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York City in 1892. Already an admirer of folk music, Krehbiel was inspired by Dvořák's work as a folk song collector and composer, and spent many years researching and collecting folk songs from Americans and immigrants. He collected the folk songs of Magyars, Scandinavians, Russians, Native Americans, and African Americans. This work resulted in numerous publications, including the first book published on African-American spirituals ''Afro-American folksongs: a study in racial and national music'' (1914). He also served as annotator for the programs of the concerts by the New York Philharmonic, and translated several German opera libretti for performance or publication in English. He also translated Alexander Wheelock Thayer's seminal three volume German language biography on Beethoven for its 1921 English language publication. Thayer had left a planned fourth volume unwritten at the time of his death, and Krehbiel wrote a fourth volume to complete the series in his final years. It was published posthumously in 1925 for the second publishing of his English translation. Provided by Wikipedia
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Published: [2012]
Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Archive 1927-1999
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