Werner Danckert

Werner Danckert (22 June 1900 – 5 March 1970) was a German folk song researcher.

Life

Born in Erfurt, Danckert trained as a concert pianist after graduating from high school in 1917. He studied musicology with the subsidiary subjects philosophy and physics. In 1923 he received his doctorate in Erlangen (summa cum laude); the habilitation followed at the University of Jena in 1926.

In 1937 Danckert became a member of the NSDAP and professor at the Musikhochschule Weimar.^[1] Danckert became a member of the Hauptstelle Musik at the Amt Rosenberg. At the Reichsmusiktage in Düsseldorf (1938).^[2] Danckert gave a lecture on Volkstum, Stammesart, Rasse im Lichte der Volkstumsforschung.^[1] In 1939 he published the book Die ältesten Spuren germanischer Volksmusik.^[1] In 1943 he was given a chair in Graz and an apl. professorship in Berlin as successor of Herbert Birtner [de].^[1]

After the end of the Second World War he did not return to any university,^[1] but published further books on folk music and other musical topics.

Danckert died in Krefeld at age 69.

Publications

• Geschichte der Gigue,^[3] Leipzig 1924
• Ursymbole melodischer Gestaltung,^[4] Kassel 1932
• Beiträge zur Bachkritik,^[5] Kassel 1934
• Grundriss der Volksliedkunde,^[6] Berlin 1939
• Das Europäische Volkslied,^[7] Berlin 1939, dto, 2. improved and extended edition Bonn 1970
• Claude Debussy, Berlin 1950
• Goethe, der mystische Urgrund seiner Weltschau,^[8] Berlin 1951
• Offenes und geschlossenes Leben, zwei Daseinsaspekte in Goethes Weltschau,^[9] Bonn 1963
• Unehrliche Leute. Die verfemten Berufe,^[10] Bern and Munich 1963
• Das Volkslied im Abendland,^[11] Bern and Munich 1960
• Tonreich und Symbolzahl in Hochkulturen und Primitivenwelt,^[12] Bonn 1966
• Symbol, Metapher und Allegorie im Lied der Völker, four volumes, issued from the estate of Hannelore Vogel, Bonn-Bad Godesberg 1976–78
• Musik und Weltbild,^[13]

Discontinued volumes

• Bach und Händel
• Musik und Musikstile Polynesiens
• Studien zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte ostasiatischer Musik
• Musik im indopazifischen Raum
• Musikwissenschaft und Kulturkreislehre