Jahn, Otto (EN)

Jahn Otto, *16 June 1813 Kiel, †9 September 1869 Göttingen, German historian of ancient culture, music writer. He studied classical philology at German universities (graduating in 1836 from the University of Kiel). Shortly after graduating, he began work on a new edition of the works of the Roman satirists, Persius (1843) and Juvenal (1851). In 1839, he habilitated at the University of Kiel, in 1842 he became an associate professor at the University of Greifswald, and in 1845 – a full professor. In 1847, he was employed at the University of Leipzig, where in 1849 he joined the liberal Deutsche Verein. In 1850, he was dismissed from his position at the university for political reasons. In the following years, Jahn worked away from university life, focusing his research on the biographies of Beethoven and Mozart. From 1854 until the end of his life, he worked at the University of Bonn. He was one of the founders and then secretary of the Bach-Gesellschaft, as well as the initiator of the so-called Winckelmann Festival, which had been celebrated at many German universities since 1840. Jahn was also a composer on the side, and Breitkopf & Härtel published four volumes of his Lieder and a piano reduction of the second version of Beethoven’s opera Leonore.

One of Jahn’s fundamental achievements was the application of philological criticism to music research. On the one hand, this method aimed to reconstruct the work in its authentic, original form, based on sources (autographs, first editions, sketches, accounts, contemporary commentaries, etc.), and on the other hand, it aimed to provide a factual, scientific commentary, examining the work in many aspects. In terms of methodology, Jahn’s research was also groundbreaking in the history of archaeology and the study of Greek myths. Moreover, Jahn was one of the first music writers, alongside Winterfeld, to practice the genre of scientific monograph, i.e., based on documents, as opposed to the anecdotal studies typical of the first half of the 19th century. Jahn’s monograph on Mozart, which has been reprinted many times (since the third edition in revised versions), is considered the first attempt to present Mozart’s life, personality, and work through the study of facts and analysis of his compositions, although Russian musicologists give priority in this field to their compatriot A. Ulybyshev (Nouvelle biographie de Mozart, 3 vols., Moscow 1843). Jahn, a staunch anti-Wagnerian, intended to draw the attention of contemporary music lovers to Mozart’s artistic individuality, which in the first half of the 19th century had been overshadowed by Beethoven enthusiasts. Jahn considered Mozart’s work to be the pinnacle of music history to date, a culmination followed by a gradual decline, most noticeable in Wagner’s work. The status of an ideal was attributed not only to Mozart’s works but also to his personality, resulting in a romanticized image of the composer that is far removed from historical reality. Jahn glossed over the contradictions inherent in Mozart’s psyche, his character flaws, his childish carelessness, and his conflicted nature. H. Abert criticized Jahn for limiting himself to a select few sources and questioned the quality of some of his analyses. Jahn focused on the formal and aesthetic aspects of Mozart’s works, highlighting their classical, unattainable beauty and divine genius, but did not address historical and stylistic issues to show the connections between Mozart and the work of his Italian, German, and French predecessors. This was due to Jahn’s amateurism in the field of music history, as well as his romantic view of art history as the history of the lives and work of brilliant artists. To this day, Jahn’s book remains a fundamental bibliographic reference in the field of Mozartology, albeit in a version thoroughly revised and supplemented by H. Abert, with the number and significance of these additions (including chapters on the history of Italian opera seria and buffa) entitling the latter to be named as co-author. However, it seems controversial that Jahn’s authorship was omitted in the 2007 English translation of the work (ed. C. Eisen). Jahn left behind a rich collection of materials for the biographies of Haydn and Beethoven, which were used for this purpose after his death by C.F. Pohl and A.W. Thayer.

Literature: J. Vahlen O. Jahn, Vienna 1870; O. Jahns musikalische Bibliothek und Musikaliensammlung. Katalog zur Versteigerung, Bonn 1870; O. Jahn in seinen Briefen, ed. E. Petersen, Leipzig 1913; R. Petzoldt Der Mozart-Biograph O. Jahn, “Allgemeine Musikzeitung” LXV, 1938; C. W. Müller Otto Jahn, Stuttgart 1991; B. von Reibnitz Otto Jahn bei Friedrich Nietzsche: Der “Grenzbotenheld” als Wagner-Kritiker, A. Eichhorn “Otto Jahn, dem das Beethovensche Lied an die Freude nicht heiter genug erschien”: Zu Otto Jahns musikästhetischem Denken, G. Gruber Otto Jahns Bedeutung für die Mozart-Forschung in: Otto Jahn (1813–1868): Ein Geisteswissenschaftler zwischen Klassizismus und Historismus, eds. W. M. Calder III, H. Cancik and B. Kytzler, Stuttgart 1991; M. Schramm Otto Jahns Musikästhetik und Musikkritik, Essen 1998; U. Konrat Leben-Werk-Analyse. Vorläufige Gedanken zu Form und Funktion der Analyse in der Mozart-Biographik von 1800 bis 1920, in: Mozartanalyse im 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert, eds. G. Gruber and S. Mauser, pp. 29–62. Laaber 1999; G. Walther Mozart und Methode: Otto Jahn’s Beitrag zur Begründung der modernen Musikgeschichtsschreibung, in: Musikwissenschaft – eine verspätete Disziplin? Die akademische Musikforschung zwischen Fortschrittsglauben und Modernitätsverweigerung, ed. A. Gerhard, Stuttgart 2000; M. Solomon Who Wrote Hermann Abert’s ‘W. A. Mozart’?, “The Journal of Musicology”, XXV, no. 3 (2008), pp. 318–337.