Karl Kobald
born Brünn [Brno], August 28, 1876; died Vienna, October 12, 1957
Documents associated with this person:
Music educationist, music critic and writer.
Karl Kobald was a boy chorister at the royal court in Vienna. He studied composition with Bruckner, Joseph Hellsmesberger and Hans Richter at the Vienna Conservatory. He subsequently studied music history (with Guido Adler), art history, and law at the University of Vienna, from which he received his doctorate of law in 1901. He was Adviser on the Arts to the Austrian Ministry of Education from 1906 to 1932. In 1919 he was interim administrative director of the Academy for Music and Performing Art, and served as its President from 1932 to 1938, until forced out in March 1938 by the SS, and again in 1945‒46.
His books include Alt-Wiener Musikstätten (1919, 2/1947), Franz Schubert und Schwind (1921), Johann Strauss (1925), Beethoven (1926, 2/1946), Franz Schubert und seine Zeit (1928, 2/1948), and Joseph Haydn (1928, 2/1932).
Kobald and Schenker
There is no known correspondence between Kobald and Schenker, but Kobald was peripherally involved in 1932‒33 in ultimately abortive attempts by Ludwig Karpath and Wilhelm Furtwängler to procure for Schenker a professorship at the Academy for Music and Performing Art. He is referred to in letters from Karpath to Schenker: OJ 18/43, 44, 51, 54; and is mentioned many times in Schenker's diaries in the period 1931‒33.
Sources:
- Oesterreichisches MusikLexikon [online] (Annemarie Kofler)
- Czeike, Historisches Lexikon Wien
- Tittel, Ernst, Die Wiener Musik Hochschule (Vienna: Elizabeth Lafite,1967)
Contributors:
- Martin Eybl and Ian Bent