A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Paul, Oscar

by Franz Gehring

PAUL, Oscar, writer on music, born April 8, 1836, at Freiwaldau in Silesia, where his father was parish priest, and educated at Görlitz, where he first learned music from Klingenberg, and at the university of Leipzig. Here he studied music with Plaidy, Richter, and Hauptmann, of whose system of harmony he became a warm partisan. In 1860 he graduated as Phil. Doc., and after spending some time in various towns of Germany, especially Cologne, settled in Leipzig in 1866. Becoming known by his private lessons in the science of music, he was made professor of musical history at the Conservatorium in 1869, and Professor Extraordinarius at the university in 1872. His best and most important work is his translation (the first in Germany) and elucidation of Boëtius (Leipzig, Leuckart, 1872). He also edited Hauptmann's 'Lehre der Harmonik' (1868), the 'Geschichte des Claviers' (1869), the 'Handlexicon der Tonkunst' (1871–73), and two musical periodicals, the 'Tonhalle,' and its successor, the 'Musikalisches Wochenblatt.' He is now the musical critic of the 'Leipziger Tagblatt.'

[ F. G. ]