Wilibald Gurlitt

Who was Wilibald Gurlitt?

Wilibald Gurlitt was a German musicologist.

Gurlitt, son of the art historian Cornelius Gurlitt, attended the St. Anne Semi-Classical Secondary School in Dresden and passed his maturity examination in 1908. He continued his studies at Heidelberg University and the University of Leipzig, predominantly philosophy and the history of civilization at first, but later chiefly music science, in particular the history of music in the 16th and 17th centuries.

He began his practical training in music during his schooling in Dresden as a private student of Erdmann Warwas and Clemens Braun, continued it in Heidelberg with Professor Philipp Wolfrum and Karl Hasse, and later on his own. He also received artistic advancement from Professor Karl Straube, organist at the St. Thomas Church, Leipzig.

From April 1, 1909, to March 31, 1910, he served in the 1st Grenadier Regiment no. 100 in Dresden, and also attended evening lectures at the University of Technology there during the winter semester of 1909-1910.

During the summer semester of 1911 he took the graduate assistant position in the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig, in which he arranged and studied obscure music of the 17th century and also played violin.