Born: October 10, 1876 - Hamburg, Germany
Died: June 17, 1953 - Leipzig, Germany

The German writer on music and composer, Walter Niemann, was a pupil of his father, Rudolph (Friedrich) Niemann, and of Engelbert Humperdinck (1897). From 1898 to 1901, studied at the Leipzig Conservatory with Reinecke and von Bose, and at the University of Leipzig with Riemann and Hermann Kretzschmar (musicology). He received a Ph.D. in 1901 with the dissertation Über die abweichende Bedeutung der Ligaturen in der Mensuraltheorie der Zeit vor johannes de Garlandia (published in Leipzig, 1902).

From 1904 to 1906 Walter Niemann was editor of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik in Leipzig; from 1907 to 1917 he was a teacher at the Hamburg Conservatory. From 1907 to 1917 he was again in Leipzig as a writer and critic of the Neueste Nachrichten, then gave up this position to devote himself to composition.

Besides a Violin Sonata and a few works for orchestra and string orchestra, he wrote numerous piano pieces (over 150 opus numbers).

Writings

All published in Leipzig unless otherwise given:
Musik und Musiker des 19. Jahrhunderts (1905)
Die Musik Skandinaviens (1906)
Das Klavierbuch (1907; 5^th edition, 1920)
with G. Schjelderup, Edvard Grieg: Biographie und Wurdigung seiner Werke (1908)
Das Norlandbuch (Weimar, 1909)
Die musikalische Renaissance des 19. Jahrhunderts (1911)
Taschenlexikon für Klavierspieler (1912; 4^th edition, 1918, as Klavierlexikon)
Die Musik seit Richard Wagner (1913; 5^th and later editions as Die Musik der Gegenwart seit Wagner)
Jean Sibelius (1917)
Die nordische Klaviermusik (1918)
with O. KIauwell, Die Formen der Instrumentalmusik (2^nd edition, 1918)
Die Virginalmusik (1919)
Meister des Klaviers (1919)
Brahms (1920; 14^th edition, 1933; English translation, New York, 1929)

Source: Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of 20^th Century Classical Musicians (1997)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (July 2007)

Bach-W. Niemann: Walter Niemann | Works | Recordings

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