The German music theorist and composer, Johann Gottfried Heinrich Bellermann, was the son of of Johann Friedrich Bellermann, who was a great authority on amcient Greek music. He became professor in the Berlin University in 1866, and a member of the Academy of Art in 1875.
Johann Gottfried Heinrich Bellermann wrote a great deal of vocal music (motets, choral works, a cantata, and music to 3 Greek plays). His work on Die Mensuralnoten (1858) was the first modern treatise in which the system of mensural music was made clear. His treatise Der Contrapunkt ("Counterpoint"), (1862; Berlin, Verlag von Julius Springer - 2nd edition, 1877; 3rd edition, 1887; 4th edition, 1901) and shorter but not less valuable theoretical works, Über die Entwicklung der mehrstimmigen Musik (About the development of polyphonic music) (1867) and and Die Grösse der musikalischen Intervalle als Grundlage der Harmonie ("The size of musical intervals as the foundation of harmony") (1873; Berlin, J. Springer), brought him well.deserved renown, and a biography of August Eduard Grell appeared in 1899.
Johann Gottfried Heinrich Bellermann may be regarded as an influence on the Second Viennese School, as his Counterpoint was used by Arnold Schoenberg when teaching composition to pupils such as Alban Berg and Anton Webern. |