Editing Curt Sachs

{{short description|German-Ashkenazi Jewish musicologist (1881–1959)}}
{{More citations needed|date=May 2007}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}
{{infobox academic
| name        = Curt Sachs
| image       = Curt Sachs.jpg
| caption     = Sachs in 1935
| birth_place = Berlin, [[German Empire]]
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1881|06|29}}
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|1959|02|05|1881|06|29}}
| death_place = New York, New York, US
| education   = [[Französisches Gymnasium Berlin|Französisches Gymnasium]]
| alma_mater  = [[Berlin University]]
| discipline  = [[Organology]]
| workplaces  = {{plainlist|
* [[State Institute for Music Research|Staatliche Instrumentensammlung]]
* [[New York University]]
}}
| notable_works = {{plainlist|
* "Systematik der Musikinstrumente" (1914)
* ''The History of Musical Instruments'' (1940)
}}
}}
'''Curt Sachs''' ({{IPA|de|zaks|lang}}; 29 June 1881 – 5 February 1959) was a German [[musicology|musicologist]]. He was one of the founders of modern [[organology]] (the study of [[musical instrument]]s). Among his contributions was the [[Hornbostel–Sachs]] system, which he created with [[Erich von Hornbostel]].

==Biography==
Born in [[Berlin]], Sachs studied [[piano]], [[music theory]] and [[composer|composition]] as a youth in that city. However, his doctorate from Berlin University (where  he was later professor of musicology) in 1904 was on the history of [[art]], with his thesis on the [[sculpture]] of [[Verrocchio]]. He began a career as an art historian, but promptly became more devoted to music, eventually being appointed director of the [[State Institute for Music Research|Staatliche Instrumentensammlung]], a large collection of musical instruments. He reorganised and restored much of the collection, and his career as an organologist began.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Curt Sachs {{!}} Musicology, Ethnomusicology, Music Historian {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Curt-Sachs |access-date=2024-11-27 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

In 1913, Sachs saw the publication of his book ''Real-Lexicon der Musikinstrumente'', probably the most comprehensive survey of musical instruments in 200 years. The following year, he and [[Erich Moritz von Hornbostel]] published the work for which they are probably now best known in ''Zeitschrift für Ethnologie'', a new system of [[musical instrument classification]]. It is today known as the [[Sachs-Hornbostel]] system. It has been much revised over the years, and has been the subject of some criticism, but it remains the most widely used system of classification by [[ethnomusicology|ethnomusicologists]] and organologists.

In 1933, the [[Nazis came to power]]. Sachs was dismissed from his posts in Germany by the [[Nazi Party]] because he was a [[Jew]]. Sachs moved to [[Paris]], later to the United States, where he settled in [[New York City]]. From 1937 to 1953 he taught at [[New York University]], and also worked at the [[New York Public Library]]. In 1953, he was appointed [[Adjunct professors in the United States|adjunct professor]] at [[Columbia University]], a post he held until his death in 1959. He was a member of the [[American Musicological Society]] and served as president from 1948 to 1950.

His numerous books include works on [[rhythm]], [[dance]] and musical instruments, with his ''The History of Musical Instruments'' (1940), a comprehensive survey of musical instruments worldwide throughout history, seen as one of the most important.  The long relationship he had with [[W. W. Norton & Company]] began with ''The Rise of Music in the Ancient World'' (1943).<ref>Allen, Warren Dwight (1962), "Philosophies of Music History - A Study of General Histories of Music - 1600-1960", pg vi, Dover 0-486-20282-8</ref>  Although these works have been superseded by more recent research in some respects, they are still seen as essential texts in the field.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Marcel-Dubois |first=Claudie |date=1960 |title=Curt Sachs |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/835452 |journal=Journal of the International Folk Music Council |volume=12 |pages=88–89 |doi=10.1017/S0950792200018937 |jstor=835452 |issn=0950-7922}}</ref>

Sachs died in 1959 in New York City. In honor of Sachs' legacy, the [[American Musical Instrument Society]] established the [https://web.archive.org/web/20140226050238/http://amis.org/awards/sachs/index.html Curt Sachs Award] in 1983, which it gives each year to an individual who has made significant contributions to field of organology.

==See also==
* [[Berlin Musical Instrument Museum]]
* [[State Institute for Music Research]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* Bredow, Moritz von. 2012. "Rebellische Pianistin. Das Leben der Grete Sultan zwischen Berlin und New York." (Biography). [[Schott Music]], Mainz, Germany. {{ISBN|978-3-7957-0800-9}} (Contains important references to Curt Sachs, who became a most helpful friend of pianist [[Grete Sultan]], as Professor in Berlin and New York).

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Curt Sachs}}
* [http://archives.nypl.org/dan/23893 Curt Sachs card files] Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sachs, Curt}}
[[Category:1881 births]]
[[Category:1959 deaths]]
[[Category:Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States]]
[[Category:Musicologists from Berlin]]
[[Category:Jewish classical musicians]]
[[Category:Jewish American composers]]
[[Category:Jewish musicologists]]
[[Category:German ethnomusicologists]]
[[Category:American ethnomusicologists]]
[[Category:Dance historians]]
[[Category:20th-century German musicologists]]
[[Category:20th-century American anthropologists]]