Alfred Einstein
Einstein in 1927
Born	(1880-12-30)December 30, 1880 Munich,German Empire
Died	February 13, 1952(1952-02-13) (aged 71) El Cerrito, California, United States
Alma mater	Munich University
Occupation	Musicologist

Alfred Einstein (December 30, 1880 – February 13, 1952) was aGerman-Americanmusicologist and music editor. He was born inMunich, and fledNazi Germany afterHitler'sMachtergreifung, arriving in the United States by 1939. He is best known for being the editor of the first major revision of theKöchel catalogue, which was published in 1936. The Köchel catalogue is the extensive catalogue of the works ofWolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Einstein was born inMunich. Though he originally studied law, he quickly realized his principal love was music, and he acquired a doctorate atMunich University, focusing on instrumental music of the lateRenaissance and earlyBaroque eras, in particular music for theviola da gamba. In 1918 he became the first editor of theZeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft; slightly later he became music critic for theMünchner Post; and in 1927 became music critic for theBerliner Tageblatt. In this period he was also a friend of the composerHeinrich Kaspar Schmid in Munich and Augsburg.

Einstein was Jewish;^[1] hence in 1933, afterHitler'srise to power in Germany, he was under dire threat and fled the country, moving first toLondon, then to Italy, and finally to the United States in 1939, where he held a succession of teaching posts at universities includingSmith College,Columbia University,Princeton University, theUniversity of Michigan, and theHartt School of Music inHartford, Connecticut.

Einstein not only researched and wrote detailed works on specific topics, but wrote popular histories of music, including theShort History of Music (1917), andGreatness in Music (1941). In particular, due to his depth of familiarity withMozart, he published an important and extensive revision of theKöchel catalogue of Mozart's music (1936). It is this work for which Einstein is most well known.^[2] Einstein also published a comprehensive, three-volume setThe ItalianMadrigal (1949) on the secular Italian form, the first detailed study of the subject. His 1945 volumeMozart: His Character, His Work was an influential study of Mozart and is perhaps his best known book.

Einstein's Mozart studies were subject to two forms of criticism after his death.

First, Einstein promulgated what came to be judged as an unrealistic and romanticized view of Mozart, notably in suggesting that Mozart wrote his works for himself, as a form of self-expression or in hopes of making a posthumous reputation. The most vivid example his suggestion that Mozart's last three symphonies were never performed, but were written, perhaps, as an "appeal to eternity". This view was criticized vividly by Zaslaw (1994), who gave extensive evidence that the symphonieswere performed, and that Mozart himself was a pragmatic, hard-working person who was doing his best to make a living in difficult circumstances.

Second, in dating Mozart's works Einstein was willing to label conjecture as more certain than was justified. In particular, Einstein felt that careful scrutiny of musical works for their style would lead to accurate dating. This idea proved hard to sustain afterWolfgang Plath andAlan Tyson later introduced more hard evidence onto the scene in the form of (respectively) handwriting analysis and watermark studies; these revealed serious errors arising from Einstein's attempts to date works by their style.

While one source (1980) lists Alfred as a cousin of the scientistAlbert Einstein,^[3] another claims (1993) that no relationship has been verified.^[4] Some websites claim they were both descended from a Moyses Einstein seven generations back, hence they were sixth cousins.^[5] In 1991, Alfred's daughter Eva stated that they were not related.^[6] On the other hand, she wrote in 2003 that they were fifth cousins on one side, and fifth cousins once removed on the other, according to research by George Arnstein. They were photographed together in 1947 when Albert Einstein received an honorary doctorate from Princeton, but they did not know that they were distantly related.^[7]

• Gluck (Master Musicians Series-Series Editor Eric Blom), translated by Eric Blom, J. M. Dent & Sons LTD, 1936
• A Short History of Music, translation ofGeschichte der Musik, 1937, rev. 1938, 1947
• Canzoni Sonetti Strambotti et Frottole. Libro Tertio ( Andrea Antico, 1517). Smith College: Northampton, MA, 1941
• Golden Age of the Madrigal: Twelve Five-Part Mixed Choruses. G. Schirmer: New York, 1942
• Greatness in Music, translation ofGrösse in der Musik byCésar Saerchinger,Oxford University Press, 1941
• Mozart: His Character, His Work, translated byArthur Mendel and Nathan Broder, Oxford University Press, 1945
• Music in the Romantic Era: A History of Musical Thought in the 19th Century, 1947, rev. 1949
• The Italian Madrigal, translated byAlexander H. Krappe,Roger H. Sessions, andOliver Strunk,Princeton University Press, 1949 (3 volumes)
• Schubert, translated byDavid Ascoli,Cassell & Co., 1951

• Zaslaw, Neal (1994). "Mozart As a Working Stiff". In Morris, James M. (ed.).On Mozart. New York: Cambridge University Press.

• Works by or about Alfred Einstein at theInternet Archive

• 1880 births
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