Werner Felix

Werner Felix (30 July 1927 – 24 September 1998) was a German music historian and Bach scholar. He was rector of the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar and the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig as well as president of the Chopin-Gesellschaft of the DDR.

Life

Felix was born in 1927 as the son of a merchant in Weißenfels. He initially learned the trade of a merchant himself. In 1950, he began a scholar music[1] at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar, which he completed in 1951 with the Staatsexamen.

In 1951/52, he was chief advisor in the Ministerium für das Hoch- und Fachschulwesen der DDR. From 1952 to 1954, he was director of the Erfurt Conservatory. From 1955 to 1966, he succeeded Willi Niggeling, who was "increasingly at odds with the cultural policy of the SED",[2] Rector of the Musikhochschule in Weimar.[3] In 1956, he was awarded a doctorate in music education [4] by Fritz Reuter at the Faculty of Education of the Humboldt University of Berlin with the dissertation Ernst Julius Hentschel (1804 to 1875).[5] He then received a lectureship in music history in Weimar. In 1959 he was appointed professor. In 1960, he founded the annual "International Music Seminar for Composition and Interpretation" in Weimar. In 1965 he became a full professor of music history at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik - Mendelssohn-Akademie in Leipzig. In 1968, he was appointed Intendanten of the Gewandhaus orchestra Leipzig by the Leipzig City Council (until 1971). From 1987 to 1990 he served as rector and thus successor to Peter Herrmann at the Academy of Music "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig.

From 1962 to 1986 he was founding president of the Chopin Society of the GDR[6] and corresponding member of the Chopin Society in Warsaw. Felix was a member of the Executive Council of the Music Council of the GDR and of the Central Board of the Association of Composers and Musicologists of the GDR. From 1969 to 1990 he was an executive board member of the Neue Bachgesellschaft in Leipzig. In 1976 he became president of the Debussy Circle of the GDR. From 1979 to 1991 he acted as general director of the "National Research and Memorial Centre Johann Sebastian Bach of the GDR". Thus he also presided over the incorporated Bach Archive Leipzig. From 1978 to 1998 he was a member of the editorial board of the New Bach Edition.[7] In 1985 he became a full member of the Philological-Historical Class of the Saxon Academy of Sciences at Leipzig.

Felix was a member of the SED and a member of parliament for the Bezirk Erfurt from 1958 to 1963.

Felix died in Leipzig at the age of 71.

Awards

Publications
  • Die Musik der deutschen Klassik (Studienmaterial zum organisierten Selbststudium für Kulturfunktionäre. Issue 4). Seemann, Leipzig 1954.
  • Franz Liszt. Ein Lebensbild. Mit Auszügen aus Schriften und Briefen des Komponisten im Anhang (Reclams Universal-Bibliothek. Nr. 8995/97). Reclam, Leipzig 1961 (2nd edition 1961).
  • Christoph Willibald Gluck (Reclams Universal-Bibliothek. Vol. 165). Reclam, Leipzig 1965.
  • Franz Liszt. [Biografie] (Reclams Universal-Bibliothek. Vol. 399). Reclam, Leipzig 1969 (2. veränderte Auflage 1986; auch erschienen in Frankfurt: Röderberg-Verlag 1986).
  • Mit Winfried Hoffmann, Armin Schneiderheinze (ed.): Bericht über die wissenschaftliche Konferenz zum III. [Dritten] Internationalen Bach-Fest der DDR. Leipzig, 18./19. September 1975. Im Auftrag des Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Komitees der DDR, Deutscher Verlag für Musik VEB, Leipzig 1977.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1984 (2nd edition 1986 and 3rd edition 1989, ISBN 3-370-00165-9; als Lizenzausgabe erschienen in Wiesbaden: Breitkopf und Härtel 1984, ISBN 3-7651-0202-4).
  • Musikgeschichte. Ein Grundriss. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1984/85, ISBN 3-370-00006-7 (2nd edition 1989/90).

Further reading
  • Günther Buch: Namen und Daten wichtiger Personen der DDR. 4th, revised and expanded edition, Dietz, Berlin among others 1987, ISBN 3-8012-0121-X.
  • G.G.: Felix, Werner. In Gabriele Baumgartner, Dieter Hebig (ed.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ/DDR. 1945–1990. Volume 1: Abendroth–Lyr. K. G. Saur, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-598-11176-2, p. 175.
  • Ingrid Kirschey-Feix: Felix, Werner. In Wer war wer in der DDR? 5th edition, volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4.
  • Verband Deutscher Komponisten und Musikwissenschaftler, Musik-Informationszentrum (ed.): Komponisten und Musikwissenschaftler der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik. Kurzbiographien und Werkverzeichnisse. 2nd extended edition, Verlag Neue Musik, Berlin 1968.

References
  1. Wolfram Huschke: Zur Liszt-Identität der Musikhochschule in Weimar. In Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 42 (2001) 1/2, pp. 197–212, here p. 206.
  2. Andreas Herbst: Niggeling, Willi. In Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4.
  3. Rektoren und Präsidenten der Hochschule, hfm-weimar. de, retrieved 15 January 2021.
  4. Heinz Wegener: Bibliographie Fritz Reuter. In the same (Red. Ed.): Gedenkschrift Fritz Reuter (Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Gesellschafts- und sprachwissenschaftliche Reihe 15 (1966) 3). pp. I–VIII, here p. VII.
  5. Ernst Julius Hentschel : 1804 bis 1875 ; Leben und Werk ; seine Bedeutung für die Musikerziehung in unserer deutschen demokratischen Schule. 1. on WorldCat
  6. Historisches, chopingesellschaft.de, retrieved 15 January 2021.
  7. Johann Sebastian Bach Institute Göttingen, Bach-Archiv Leipzig (ed.): The new Bach edition 1954-2007. A documentation. Presented at the conclusion of Johann Sebastian Bach neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke. Bärenreiter, Kassel among others 2007, p. 28.
  8. Kunstpreise der DDE verliehen. In the Berliner Zeitung, 27 May 1976, year 32, edition 126, p. 6.
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