Professor Herbert Schneider turns 85

The following text has been machine translated from the German with no human editing.

Born in Wiesbaden, the honouree studied Musicology, music education, Romance Languages and Literature, and pedagogy at the universities of Mainz and Nancy. In 1971, he obtained his doctorate in Mainz with a thesis on ‘French compositional theory in the first half of the 17th century’, followed in 1978 by his habilitation thesis ‘The reception of Lully’s operas in France under the Ancien Régime’. From 1981 to 1984, he devoted himself to establishing the Musicology department at the University of Bayreuth and taught at the University of Heidelberg until 1993, before moving to the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, where he was able to combine practical training and academic research in a unique way. In addition, he served as a visiting professor in Paris at the Sorbonne in 1981 and for several semesters at the “École Normale Supérieure”.

Following Werner Braun’s retirement, he took over the Saarbrücken Chair of Musicology in 1996 for a decade and organised, among other things, exhibitions: in the summer of 1999, the first joint conference of the ‘Gesellschaft für Musikforschung’ and the ‘Société française de musicologie’; several interdisciplinary colloquia with Pierre Béhar; and, in 2006, an international symposium on Théodore Gouvy in Saarbrücken and Hombourg-Haut (Moselle). Furthermore, in 2006, for example, he documented “50 Years of the Institute of Musicology at Saarland University” and, together with the University of Music, where he was responsible for the music-historical training of students, organised two teacher training events. During his time in Saarbrücken, he was also a jury member in more than 50 doctoral and postdoctoral qualification procedures at French universities.

The Commandant dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres continued his activities with great dedication even after his retirement. His scholarly output since taking up his emeritus post comprises more than 50 extensive essays, particularly on Franco-German music history from the 17th to the early 20th century, on Franco-German musical relations, and on the translation of vocal genres. Also worthy of mention is the critical edition of Jean-Baptiste Lully’s “Alceste ou Le triomphe d’Alcide”, which was awarded the “Best Edition” prize at the 2019 Frankfurt Music Fair. His finest student, Christoph Flamm, has been appointed to the chair in Heidelberg.

Herbert Schneider is the editor of Lully’s Œuvres complètes, of which 16 volumes are now available, without the assistance of an academic research associate or even an affiliated [research] institute. The 54th volume of the series “Musikologie”, which he founded and edited, was published in 2025, and the honouree is currently working on a monograph on Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (1782–1871). Furthermore, he was recently appointed co-editor of the critical edition of Romain Rolland’s Beethoven biographies.

Weitere Informationen: 
Dr. Wolfgang Müller, Universitätsarchiv
E-Mail: dr.wolfgang-mueller(at)t-online.de