Ernst Décsey

Who was Ernst Décsey?

Professor Dr. Ernst Décsey, was an Austrian author and music critic.

Décsey was born in Hamburg and studied law at the Vienna University. At the same time he completed professional training at the Vienna music school in piano, harmony and composition.

From 1899 on Ernst Décsey worked as music critic at the Grazer Tagespost and subsequently became its chief editor. In 1920, he was offered the position of permanent music adviser at the Neue Wiener Tagblatt in Vienna, where he became the leading music critic of his time.

In addition to his journalistic work, Ernst Décsey also taught music history and esthetics at the Vienna music school and published a number of novels, short stories, plays, libretti and biographies. He co-authored a play Sissys Brautfahrt which was later used for the libretto of the well-known operetta Sissy by Ernst and Hubert Marischka; and wrote the libretto for Erich Wolfgang Korngold's opera Die Kathrin.

His biographies of great musicians in particular earned him wide reputation throughout the music world, far beyond Austria's borders.