Knud Jeppesen Explained

Knud Jeppesen (15 August 1892 – 14 June 1974) was a Danish musicologist and composer. He was the leading scholar of the composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, about whose life and music he wrote numerous studies.

Biography

Jeppesen demonstrated early musical talent at age 10 when he was first encouraged by Hakon Andersen and Paul Hellmuth, although he was largely self-taught. Completing primary education in 1911, he first worked in Elbing and Liegnitz (Eastern Germany) as an opera coach and conductor. He found employment in Berlin in 1914, but returned to Denmark because of the outbreak of war. In Copenhagen he became a pupil of prominent Danish composers Carl Nielsen and Thomas Laub, and studied musicology at Copenhagen University with Angul Hammerich. He passed the organist exam at the Royal Danish Conservatory of music in 1916. Owing to Hammerich's retirement, there was nobody on the faculty of the university to examine Jeppesen's work; therefore, he submitted his dissertation to the University of Vienna, where it was reviewed by Guido Adler and Jeppesen was awarded a doctorate in 1922.

He was organist at Copenhagen's St. Stephens church from 1917 to 1932 and at the Holmen Church from 1932 to 1947.[1] He taught music theory at the Royal Danish Academy of Music from 1920 to 1947, also serving on its board of directors. In 1946, he was appointed to the new post of professor of musicology at Aarhus University, where he founded (in 1950) an Institute of Musicology which he directed until 1957.[1] His students included the composers Vagn Holmboe (in Copenhagen) and Bent Lorentzen (in Aarhus).[2]

Following his retirement in 1957, Jeppesen resided in Italy, enabling him to make several discoveries in Italian libraries culminating in his magnum opus, La frottola (1968–70), a detailed study and bibliography of frottole, the leading genre of Italian popular, secular songs in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. From 1927 until his death he was active in the International Musicological Society, serving as president from 1949 to 1952. He was also a member (from 1963) of the Italian Accademia dei Lincei.[3]

Musicology

Jeppesen's name is invariably associated with the study of musical counterpoint, particularly in the style of Palestrina, of whom he was the leading scholar of his day.[1] His 1930 work Counterpoint: The Polyphonic Vocal Style of the Sixteenth Century has been a standard textbook since its appearance in German (1935) and English (1939), and remains in print today (the third and final edition remains untranslated). His doctoral thesis was expanded in 1923 and appeared in English in 1927 as The Style of Palestrina and the Dissonance – a work which The New Grove cites as being the "most distinguished and influential example of stylistic analysis at this time".[4]

His published writings mostly regard music by Italian and Danish composers from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Jeppesen engaged in much primary research – locating early manuscript and print copies of old scores and preparing editions with annotations and commentary. In 1962 he finished the first complete thematic catalog of Palestrina's oeuvre. Among his accomplishments were the discovery of ten previously unknown masses by Palestrina in 1949.

Music

Jeppesen's early efforts at composition were poorly received and he turned away from composition in 1919, only to resume after a fifteen-year hiatus. He is known for well-crafted songs set to Danish texts, church music, and motets. He also wrote cantatas, organ music, and an opera, Rosaura, which was performed by the Royal Danish Theatre on September 20, 1950. He also made many contributions to Danish hymnology, and his Bygen flygter, Forunderligt så sødt et smil is a classic with Danish church choirs. His style incorporates his knowledge of early counterpoint but also the style of late Viennese romantics including Gustav Mahler, to whom he was introduced by Guido Adler. From 1916 to 1931 Jeppesen was Nielsen's closest associate, and Jeppesen wrote several important articles about that composer.

Compositions

Discography

Editions

Writings

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Bergsagel. John. Jeppesen, Knud. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press. 31 July 2013.
  2. Book: Christensen, Jean . White, John David. New Music of the Nordic Countries. https://books.google.com/books?id=zyUOv6EQrWcC&pg=PA17. 31 July 2013. 2002. Pendragon Press. 978-1-57647-019-0. 17, 61. New Music of Denmark.
  3. Web site: Knud Jeppesen. Enciclopedia Treccani. 31 July 2013.
  4. Web site: Bent. Ian D. Pople, Anthony . Analysis. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press. 31 July 2013.

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