DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

158 GERBER GERBERT
also court-secretary. He died at Sondershausen,
August 6, 1775.
His son Ernst Ludwig, was born at Sondershausen,
Sept. 29, 1746 ; learned singing and
clavier from his father, and studied music from
an earl}' age. In 1765 he went to the Univer-
sity of Leipzig, but returned home in order to
assist his father in his offices, and succeeded
him on his death. He then entered on those
labours which hnally conducted him to an end
he himself scarcely contemplated, and by which
he has earned the gratitude of all lovers of music.
His love of musical literature suggested to him
the idea of making a collection of portraits of
musicians, for which he wrote biographies,
mainly on the authority of Walther's Lcximn
(1732). As Walther was at that time out of
date, he procured the necessary additions, obtained
biographical sketches of living musicians,
took journeys, and tried to fill up the gaps by
consulting all the books then in existence on
the subject. Thus the idea suggested itself of
adapting Walther's work to the wants of the
time, and of writing a completely new work of
his own, which eventually became the Historisch-
hiographische Lexikon dcr Tonl-unstler (two vols.
Leipzig, Breitkopf, 1790andl7 9 2) translated into
French by Choron (1810,1811). While writing
musical articles and reviews for various periodicals
(Erfurter Gelchrten Zeituug ; LeijKiger
Allg. Musik. Zeitung from 1798, etc. ; Becker's
LiteraiuT der Musik and the Quellcn-Lcxikon
contain a list of his scattered articles) he received
from all quarters corrections and information
of all kinds, which enabled him, or rather
made it his duty, to prepare an enlarged edition.
Accordingly his Neues hist, biogr. Lexikon der
TonkiinstlcT appeared in four vols, with five
appendices (Leipzig, Kiihnel, 1812,1814). This
new edition did not supersede the former one,
to which it often refers the reader ; but rather
completed it. Gerber took pains to keep up
with the times, recorded events for after use,
was continually making additions to his collection
of books and music, and composed industriously
pianoforte sonatas and organ preludes.
Hoping to keep together the collection he had
made at the cost of so much labour and pains,
he offered it for sale to the Gesellschaft der
Musikfreunde in Vienna, with the solitary
stipulation that he should retain it during his
own life. The price was fi,\ed, and the negotiation
completed in January 1815, but he still
continued his additions, encouraged doubtless
by the knowledge that his treasures would be in
safe keejiing, in a city so famed for its musical
tastes. He was still court secretary at Sondershausen
when he died, June 30, 1819, in universal
respect ; leaving behind him thereputation
of one who, with singular disinterestedness and
out of a true love for nuisic, had devoted the
energies of his whole life to a single end. His
Lexicon forms the foundation of all future
undertakings of the same kind ; and if new
Dictionaries are to satisfy the wants of the age
to the same extent that his did, their authors
must possess industry as persevering, knowledge
as eclectic, and a love of music as devoted, as
those which inspired Gerber. c. F. p.
GERBERT von Horsau, Martin, an eminent
writer on the history of music, born
August 12, 1720, at Horb on the Neckar. He
received a thorough literary education, including
music, at Ludwigsburg. In 1737 he entered
the Benedictine monastery of St. Blaise in the
Black Forest, was ordained priest in 1744, and
appointed Prince- Abbot, Oct. 15, 1764. His-
torical research, especially in music, was his
favourite pursuit, and a taste for this he
endeavoured to infuse into the convent. The
library afforded him ample materials, and much
valuable matter hitherto unused. But this was
not enough. Between the years 1759 and 1 765 he
travelled through Germany, France, and Italy,
making important discoveries, and establishing
relations with various learned societies. His
acquaintance with Padre Martini at Bologna
was of special service to him. Their objects
were closely connected— Gerbert's work being
a history of Church music. Martini's one of
music in general. In 1762 Gerbert jiublished
his prospectus in Marpurg's C'ritischs Briefe,
vol. ii. p. 313, and invited contributions, which
were furnished him in abundance. The first
volume was nearly complete when a fire at the
monastery in 1768 destroyed all the materials
which had been collected ; in 1774, however,
the complete work appeared at St. Blaise, in
two vols. 4to, with 40 engravings, under the
title Jie ca,ntu et musica sacra a prima ecdesiae
aetate icsque ad praesais te/npus ; a book which
has ever since formed the foundation of all
musical scholarship, although naturally requiring
much correction at the present day. A
description of it appears in Forkel's Geschichie
dcr Musik, which without Gerbert's work would
possibly never have been written, or would at
any rate have been published later and in a far
less complete form. Ten years after, in 1784,
appeared Gerbert's second great work Scri'ptorcs
ecclcsiastici dc viusica sacra potissiviuvi, three
vols, also printed at St. Blaise ; a collection of
treatises by the most important writers on
music, afterwards continued by Ooussemaker.
Three more works, also printed at St. Blaise,
deserve special mention, Iter alemanmicuru,
acccdit italicum et gallicum (1765 ; 2nd ed.
1773 ; German ed. by Kochler, Ulm, 1767),
which contains the account of his travels, and
abounds in interesting particulars ; Vetus liturgia
aUmannica (two vols. 1776) ; and Monumenta
veteris liturgiac aletnannica (two vols.
1777). He also made the Latin translation of
Opusculv-'in theodiseu7ii de Musica, a treatise
in four chapters written in old German by
Notker (Labes) a monk of St. Gall in the 10th