Peter Petersen
Born (1940-07-17) 17 July 1940 (age 84)
Hamburg, Germany
EducationUniversity of Hamburg
OccupationMusicologist
OrganizationsUniversity of Hamburg
Notable workLexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit
AwardsFischer-Appelt-Prize

Peter Petersen (born 17 July 1940) is a German musicologist and professor emeritus of the University of Hamburg. He focus on 20th-century music, rhythm, and was instrumental in the university's Exile Music Working Group and the online Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit.

Life

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Born in Hamburg,[1] Petersen first studied music pedagogy, then historical musicology and German literature at the University of Hamburg. In 1971 he received his doctorate with a dissertation on tonality in instrumental music by Béla Bartók.[1] After his habilitation in 1981 with a paper on Alban Berg's Wozzeck,[1] he taught as a professor at the University of Hamburg from 1985.[2] In 2001 the university honoured him with the Fischer-Appelt-Prize for outstanding achievements in academic teaching.[1] He retired in 2005.[2]

Petersen is married to the violin teacher Marianne Petersen. They live in Hamburg and have two daughters.[3]

Research

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One focus of Petersen's research is in the field of 20th century music (among others Bartók, Berg, Hölszky, Lutosławski). Several monographs and numerous essays deal with the work of Hans Werner Henze.[2]

Through Petersen's commitment, the Musicological Institute of the University of Hamburg became a centre of exile music research: Petersen founded and directed the "Exile Music Working Group", which existed for almost 30 years, and won over numerous students and colleagues to work on the effects of Nazi rule, exile and the Holocaust on musical life. Petersen is editor of the series "Music in the 'Third Reich' and "in Exile" and co-editor of the Online-Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit.[3][4][5]

Petersen perfected the process of "semantic analysis" of subject-bound compositions and especially of works of music theatre. Based on meticulous score analyses, which are then contextualized, his investigations often open up the content-related connections of such compositions in a completely new way – for example, the structure of meaning in Alban Berg's Wozzeck[6] and in Richard Strauss' Friedenstag.[7]

In the field of music theory, Petersen developed a fundamentally new rhythm theory ("Komponententheorie [de]"),[2] which detaches the concept of duration from the individual tone and recognises all sound phenomena ("components") as having rhythm-generating potential (sound, pitch, diastematic, articulation, dynamics, timbre, harmony, texture, phrase, speech). The "component rhythms" are visualized in multi-line "rhythm scores". Accumulation of the component rhythms results in single-line "rhythm profiles" that precisely map the "rhythmic weight" in the musical progression.[2]

Writings

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Peterrson's writings are listed by the University of Hamburg:[8]

Monographs

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As editor

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Festschriften for Peter Petersen

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Peter Petersen" (in German). University of Hamburg. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Peter Petersen". peterlang.com (in German). Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  3. ^ a b "Peter Petersen". saitenspiel.org (in German). Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  4. ^ "The Working Group for Musicians Persecuted under National Socialism". kuenste-im-exil.de. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  5. ^ Fetthauer, Sophie. "Biographical Dictionary of Persecuted Musicians 1933-1945". Orel Foundation. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  6. ^ Notley, Margaret (2017). Opera after 1900. Routledge. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-35-155579-1.
  7. ^ Petersen, Peter (2017). "Friedenstag" von Stefan Zweig, Richard Strauss und Joseph Gregor: Eine pazifistische Oper im "Dritten Reich". Waxmann Verlag. ISBN 978-3-83-098651-5.
  8. ^ "Peter Petersen, Publikationsverzeichnis 1971–2018" (PDF) (in German). University of Hamburg. 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
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