Faà di Bruno, Giovanni Matteo [Horatio, Orazio] 83

Fuchs, (Leonard Johann Heinrich) Albert

(b Basle, 6 Aug 1858; d Dresden, 15 Feb 1910). German teacher and composer of Swiss birth. His early training in Basle in the piano (Ernst Reiter), the violin (Adolf Bargheer) and music theory (Samuel de Lange and Selmar Bagge) prepared him for advanced study at the Leipzig Conservatory (1876–9), where he was taught by some of the most famous teachers of his day including Reinecke, Jadassohn, Ernst Friedrich Richter and Oskar Paul, winning a prize for his motet Salvum fac regem. After his graduation he assumed a conducting post at Trier (1880), and after a period of travel he settled in Oberlössnitz, near Dresden (1883), and began to concentrate on composition. His piano sonata op.11 won first prize in an international competition under the protectorate of the Spanish Queen Regent and brought him the title of honorary professor at the Valencia Conservatory. In 1889 he was appointed director of the recently founded conservatory in Wiesbaden, which under his leadership developed into an important institution; its distinguished staff included Riemann (1890–95), who brought with him his pupil Max Reger. Fuchs left in 1898 to teach music theory and voice at the Dresden Conservatory, where he served as professor from 1908 until his death. From 1901 he also conducted the Robert Schumann-Singakademie, which in 1906 performed his kirchliche Tondichtung (freely translated as dramatic oratorio) Selig sind, die in dem Herrn sterben op.42.

Fuchs's compositions, mainly songs and chamber music by now almost forgotten, have an appealing melodic spontaneity and colourful harmonic language, particularly evident in the lieder collections Minneweisen op.18, and the 15 Lieder op.31. He also wrote some fine choral music, including the dramatic oratorio Das tausendjährige Reich op.48. More interesting are his editions of vocal works by Porpora, Pergolesi and other early 18th-century Italian composers, and his Taxe der Streich-Instrumente (1907), an inventory of master string instrument makers which went through several editions in its first two decades. The many-sided Fuchs also wrote music criticism for the Dresdener Zeitung and assembled an impressive collection of early instruments.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ScheringGO

F.A. Geissler: ‘Albert Fuchs’, Monographien moderner Musiker, ed. C.F. Kahnt, iii (Leipzig, 1909), 106–16

E.H. Müller: ‘2 ungedruckte Briefe von Robert Franz und Albert Fuchs’, ZfM, lxxxix (1922), 500–01

E. Refardt: Historisch-biographisches Musikerlexikon der Schweiz (Leipzig and Zürich, 1928)

EDWARD F. KRAVITT

Fuchs, Aloys [Alois]

(b Raase [now Rázová, nr Brantál, Moravia], 22 June 1799; d Vienna, 20 March 1853). Austrian musicologist. From 1811 he attended the school of the Franciscan friary at Opava, where he had lessons in organ and cello and sang in the choir. After studying philosophy (1816–19) and law (1819–23) at the University of Vienna, he worked from 1824 as an official in the war office, an assistant to Kiesewetter, and later as a drafting assistant (1834–8) and a chancery clerk (1838–53). As a bass he sang occasionally in the court chapel choir from 1825 and became a member of the choir in 1836. In 1829 he was appointed a member of the board of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde.

As a scholar and collector, Fuchs was of great importance to musicology. His music library, which he built from 1820, was particularly rich in autographs, among them works by Bach, Handel, Haydn, Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven and other German and Italian composers of the 18th and early 19th centuries. It also contained rare 17th-century printed editions of music, theoretical treatises on music and a collection of portraits of musicians. Generous gifts to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna and to other institutions have changed the extent and the contents of the whole collection considerably. This is recognizable from Fuchs’s numerous handwritten catalogues which were constantly renewed from 1830. The fate of the collection after Fuchs’s death has led to controversy. The earlier view that the collection was dispersed by retail sales is incorrect. The greater part went to the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin; lesser amounts were acquired by the Benedictine Abbey at Göttweig (Lower Austria); others were sold through second-hand booksellers (e.g. Fidelis Butsch of Augsburg), individual items going to the USA and Russia. That Fuchs also acted as agent for other collectors of autographs, and that he made or commissioned copies from his own collection, has contributed materially to the misunderstanding regarding the fate of his possessions and his legacy.

As a musicologist, Fuchs performed his most valuable services in musical palaeography and in the guardianship of musical monuments. The numerous catalogues which he compiled of works (by Gluck, Haydn, Mozart and others) were epoch-making and even now retain their value as sources. His published articles are devoted chiefly to the lives and works of Gluck and Mozart.

WRITINGS

‘Biographische Notizen über Johann Hugo Worzischek’, Monatsbericht der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (1829), 148

‘Beitrag zur Künstlergeschichte des … Bernard Romberg’, Allgemeine Wiener Musik-Zeitung, i (1841), 453–5

‘Über Christoph Ritter von Glucks Geburts- und Sterbejahr’, Allgemeine Wiener Musik-Zeitung, i (1841), 610–11; iv (1844), 165

‘Übersicht der gegenwärtig in Wien lebenden Komponisten, musikalischen Schriftsteller und Kritiker’, Allgemeine Wiener Musik-Zeitung, i (1841), 357–8

‘Biographische Notizen über die beiden Capellmeister Johann Georg Roser (Vater) und Fr. de Paula Roser (Sohn)’, Allgemeine Wiener Musik-Zeitung, ii (1842), 433–5

‘Biographische Skizze über … Johann Anton André’, Allgemeine Wiener Musik-Zeitung, ii (1842), 217–18

‘Übersicht der am k.k. österreichischen Hofe zu Wien in den letzten vier Jahrhunderten angestellt gewesenen Hofcapellmeister, Hofcomponisten und Hofmusiker’, Allgemeine Wiener Musik-Zeitung, ii (1842), 501–4

‘Beiträge zur Tonkünstler-Geschichte Österreichs’, Allgemeine Wiener Musik-Zeitung, iii (1843), 49–50, 53–4, 57–8, 93–4, 141–2, 353–4, 453, 461–2

‘Ein bisher noch ungedruckter Brief W.A. Mozarts’, Allgemeine Wiener Musik-Zeitung, iii (1843), 433

‘Biographische Skizze von Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (dem Sohne)’, Allgemeine Wiener Musik-Zeitung, iv (1844), 441–4

‘Die musikalischen Kunstsammlungen in Wien’, Caecilia [Mainz], xxiii (1844), 50

‘Verzeichniss aller Abbildungen W.A. Mozarts’, Allgemeine Wiener Musik-Zeitung, v (1845), 584–6

‘Verzeichniss aller bisher erscheinenen Abbildungen Ludwig van Beethovens’, Allgemeine Wiener Musik-Zeitung, v (1845), 385–7

‘W.A. Mozarts (des Sohnes) Vermächtnis an das Mozarteum in Salzburg’, Allgemeine Wiener Musik-Zeitung, v (1845), 237–9

‘Verzeichniss einiger Originalhandschriften von berühmten musikalischen Werken’, NZM, xxviii (1848), 70–72

‘Beitrag zur Characteristik L. van Beethovens durch Veröffentlichung von drei bisher noch ungedruckten Briefen desselben’, Neue Berliner Musikzeitung, iii (1849), 135–6

‘Beitrag zur Geschichte der Oper “Die Zauberflöte” von W.A. Mozart’, Neue Berliner Musikzeitung, iii (1849), 78–9

‘Nekrolog über R.G. Kiesewetter’, NZM, xxxii (1850), 89, 101

‘Thematisches Verzeichnis sämtlicher Kompositionen des k.k. Hofkomponisten Christoph Ritter von Gluck’, Neue Berliner Musikzeitung, v (1851), 207–10

‘Raphael Georg Kiesewetter’, Blätter für Musik, Theater und Kunst, i (1855), 155, 171, 191, 195

Catalogues of works by 17th- and 18th-century composers (MS, A-Wn, Wgm, D-Bsb)

Other writings on music (MS, D-Bsb, LEm)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

[R.G. Kiesewetter]: ‘Autographen-Sammlung der Tonsetzer älterer und neuerer Zeit des Herrn Aloys Fuchs in Wien’, AMZ, xxxiv (1832), 743–7

F. L[uib]: Obituary, Neue Wiener Musik-Zeitung, ii (1853), 54 only

M. Bermann: ‘Zwei österreichische Musikgelehrte, I: Alois Fuchs’, Blätter für Musik, Theater und Kunst, ii (1855), 82

[E. Fischer von Röslerstamm]: ‘Felix Mendelssohn und Aloys Fuchs’, Mitteilungen für Autographensammler, v (1888), 85

[R. Lewicki]: ‘Die Mozartsammlung des Aloys Fuchs’, Mozarteums-Mitteilungen, ii (1919–20), 36

F.W. Riedel: ‘Aloys Fuchs als Sammler Bachscher Werke’, BJb 1960, 83–99

R. Schaal: ‘Bemerkungen zur Musiksammlung von Aloys Fuchs’, MJb 1960–61, 233–5

F.W. Riedel: ‘Die Bibliothek des Aloys Fuchs’, Hans Albrecht in memoriam, ed. W. Brennecke and H. Haase (Kassel, 1962), 207–24

F.W. Riedel: ‘Über die Aufteilung der Musiksammlung von Aloys Fuchs’, Mf, xv (1962), 374–9

R. Schaal: ‘Zur Musiksammlung Aloys Fuchs’, Mf, xv (1962), 49–52

R. Schaal: ‘Quellen zur Musiksammlung Aloys Fuchs’, Mf, xvi (1963), 67–72

F.W. Riedel: ‘Zur Bibliothek des Aloys Fuchs: Ergänzungen und Berichtigungen’, Mf, xvi (1963), 270–77

R. Schaal: Quellen und Forschungen zur Wiener Musiksammlung von Aloys Fuchs (Graz, 1966)

R. Schaal: ‘Die Autographen der Wiener Musiksammlung von Aloys Fuchs’, Haydn Yearbook 1969, 5–191

R. Schaal: ‘Handschriftenkopien aus der Wiener Musiksammlung von Aloys Fuchs’, Haydn Yearbook 1970, 255–80

P. Ryom: ‘Le premier catalogue thématique des oeuvres d’Antonio Vivaldi’, Festskrift Jens Peter Larsen, ed. N. Schiørring, H. Glahn and C.E. Hatting (Copenhagen, 1972), 127–40

R. Schaal: ‘Aloys Fuchs als Autographen-Vermittler: zum Repertoire der von Fuchs vermittelten und begutachteten Manuscripte’, MJb 1978–9, 225–64

A. Weinmann: ‘Ein neuer Fund zu Aloys Fuchs’, Wiener Figaro, xlvi (1979), 20–26

M. Staehelin: ‘Aus der Welt der frühen Beethoven-“Forschung”: Aloys Fuchs in Briefen an Anton Schindler’, Musik, Edition, Interpretation: Gedenkschrift Gunter Henle (Munich, 1980), 427–46

R. Schaal: ‘Die Briefpartner des Wiener Musikforschers Aloys Fuchs: Nachwiese der Korrespondenz-Vormerkungen aus den Jahren 1820–1852’, MJb 1989–90, 149–217

E. Hanslick: ‘Letters from Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy to Aloys Fuchs’, Mendelssohn and his World, ed. R.L. Todd (Princeton, NJ, 1991), 275–309

OTHMAR WESSELY