Hans Redlich

Hans Ferdinand Redlich (Vienna, 11 February 1903 – Manchester, 27 November 1968) was an Austrian classical composer, conductor, musicologist and writer.

Redlich's continental years

During his youth in Vienna, Redlich privately studied piano with Paul Weingarten and harmony and counterpoint with Hugo Kauder. He was a student of Carl Orff in Munich after 1921. He was a university student in both cities and studied German literature and musicology. Redlich served as répétiteur for the Berlin-Charlottenburg city opera in 1924–1925 and as opera conductor for the Stadttheater Mainz from 1925 to 1929. From 1929 until 1931, Redlich studied musicology at Frankfurt University and completed a dissertation on stylistic changes in Monteverdi's madrigals. From then until 1937, Redlich resided in Mannheim as a composer and writer. He moved back in 1937 and, two years later, emigrated to Great Britain.

Life in Great Britain

The 30 years Redlich spent in Great Britain were perhaps the most fruitful of all. In 1941 he founded the Letchworth Choral and Orchestral Society, which he led until 1955; at the same time he gave lectures for the Workers' Educational Association from 1941 to 1943 as well as for the Extra Mural Departments of the Universities of Cambridge and Birmingham from 1942 to 1955. He taught music history at Edinburgh University from 1955 on, and in 1962 he became a professor of music at the University of Manchester, which awarded him an honorary Doctor of Music degree in 1967. Redlich was a major contributor to the New Oxford History of Music and the fifth edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. In 1953 he was a member of the editorial board for the Hallischen Händel-Ausgabe. In 1966 Redlich was a founding member and the first vice president of the International Alban Berg Society of New York.

Books by Hans Redlich

• Monteverdi: Life and Works, London: Oxford University Press, 1952
• Alban Berg, the Man and His Music by H.F. Redlich. London: John Calder, 1957

Archive

The papers and scores of Hans Redlich are held at the University of Lancaster. His scores formed the foundation of the music collection; other items may be accessed through the Lancaster University Library.

Further reading

• Hartmut Krones, "Redlich, Hans Ferdinand," in Ludwig Finscher, ed., Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1994), s.v.
• Redlich contributed a volume to the Master Musician Series 1955: "Bruckner and Mahler", which was ground-breaking work in English. In the introduction he tells us he met Mahler as a child and his father was a friend of Mahler. Later he knew members of Mahler's family and published, from 1919 onwards, several studies in German of Mahler and his music. They are listed in the bibliography of the above-mentioned book.