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Arthur Mendel

conductor

Born
June 6, 1905
Died
October 14, 1979
Age
74 years
Nationality
United States
Cause
leukemia

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Arthur Mendel, 74, American musicologist, leukemia.

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60 Seconds Life Story

Arthur Mendel stands as the most influential American Bach scholar of the twentieth century.

60 Seconds Life Story

Arthur Mendel

1905 – 1979

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60 Seconds: Arthur Mendel's Life Story

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Arthur Mendel was a notable American musicologist and conductor best known for his scholarly editions of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Transcript

Arthur Mendel stands as the most influential American Bach scholar of the twentieth century. Born in Boston in 1905, he pursued his early education at Harvard University before refining his craft with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. During his expansive career, Mendel served as a music critic and editor, shaping the scholarly understanding of classical music. He dedicated thirty-one years to Princeton University, where he chaired the music department and held the Henry Putnam University Professorship. His rigorous studies of Johann Sebastian Bach, including his definitive editions of the St. John Passion, earned him international renown. After a distinguished life in academia and musicology, Arthur Mendel died of leukemia in 1979 at the age of seventy-four. His immense contributions continue to inform how we perform and interpret Bach today.

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Visual credits: Photo by Joe Mabel (Public domain) · Own work (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Flickr (No restrictions) · Self-photographed (CC BY 3.0) · wikimedia (Public domain) · Photo by Joe Mabel (Public domain) · media.iwm.org.uk (Public domain)

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Full Biography

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Arthur Mendel (June 6, 1905 – October 14, 1979) was an American musicologist. His editions and studies of Johann Sebastian Bach's life and works, and his editions of Bach's St. John Passion (1951, 1974), brought him recognition as the foremost American Bach scholar of his day.

Education

Born in Boston, he graduated from Harvard University in 1925 before going to study with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.

Career

Mendel was an editor at G. Schirmer, Inc. (1930-1938), the journal of the American Musicological Society (1940-1943) and Associated Music Publishers (1941-1943). He also conducted the Cantata Singers in New York and taught at the Dalcroze School of Music and the Diller-Quaile School.

For 31 years, Mendel taught at Princeton University. He was chaired the music department from 1952 to 1967, and subsequently held the Henry Putnam University Professorship from 1969 until he retired in 1973.

He died of leukemia in Newark, New Jersey in 1979.

Literary works

  • music critic at The Nation (1930–1933)
  • editor of "The Bach Reader", 1945 (with H. T. David)
  • Studies in the History of Musical Pitch, 1968
  • With Nathan Broder, translator of Mozart: His Character, His Work by Alfred Einstein
  • Translator of 'Mozart's Choice of Keys' by Alfred Einstein

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