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Hans Joachim Moser (25 May 1889, Berlin[1] – 14 August 1967, Berlin) was a Germanmusicologist, composer and singer.
Moser was the son of the music-professorAndreas Moser (1859–1925), a pupil and important early biographer ofJoseph Joachim. He studied the History of Music (mainly withGustav Jenner andRobert Kahn), German philology and Philosophy inMarburg, Berlin andLeipzig, and studied violin with his father. With the work Musical Confederations in the German Middle Ages he obtained his doctorate in 1910 atRostock.
He took part as a lieutenant during theFirst World War, was officially accepted as part of theUniversity of Halle in 1919, and in 1922 became extraordinary Professor. In 1925 he followed a call toHeidelberg. From 1927 to 1933 he was Director of the State Academy for Church and School Music inBerlin. In 1933 Moser was forcibly pensioned off on political grounds. In 1938 he became the representative leader of the Reichs-authority for Musical Activities in the Reichs-Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda; from 1940 until 1945 he was its General Secretary. He received in 1947 a professorship from theJena University, but after two months it was withdrawn in the light of his activities in the Propaganda Ministry. From 1950 to 1960 Moser worked as director at the State Music Conservatory inWest Berlin. In 1963 theMozart Medal of the City ofVienna was bestowed upon him.
Moser wrote studies of numerous composers, likePaul Hofhaimer,Heinrich Schütz undJohann Sebastian Bach as well as his studies inDas deutsche Lied seit Mozart (German Song sinceMozart) of 1937. During the 1920s he brought out aHistory of German Music in three volumes which was published in various forms. After theSecond World War Moser wrote aHistory of Evangelical Church Music in Germany countless biographical essays, like (for example) hisMusical History in 100 Life Stories. HisMusic-Lexikon went through five editions by 1955. Its later development was in the book in the manner of the GermanistJosef Nadler,Music in the German Tradition (1957). Moser carried out the new editing of theMonuments of German Composition (Denkmäler deutscher Tonkunst, or DDT).
Moser's oeuvre as a composer includes piano pieces, songs, theatre music and choral works.
Moser was the father of the singerEdda Moser, of the folklorist and literary scholarDietz-Rüdiger Moser (b. 1939, d. 2010), and of the singerWolf-Hildebrand Moser (b. 1943).
