MUSICOLOGY

Kurt Blaukopf

Kurt Blaukopf was born in 1914 in Czernowitz and he settled with his parents in Vienna. In 1938 he had to stop his studies on law and political science in Vienna University and he moved in Paris and later (1940) in Jerusalem. While in exile he studied music and humanities with Josef Tal and Edith Gerson-Kiwi. Among his tutors in music were – among others – Walter Bricht and Herman Scherchen. In 1947 he returned in Vienna. In 1950 he published his Sociology of Music. The draft for this publication was already ready in 1938. From 1950 until 1965 he published the journal Phono. In 1962 he worked as a lecturer in Vienna Higher School of Music. In 1965 he founded the Institute for Sociology of Music in Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts. Since 1968 he worked as professor of the sociology of music. From 1969 until 1989 he was director of the MEDIACULT Institute and a member of the executive board of UNESCO (1972-1976). From 1977 until 1989 he headed the Chair of Sociology of Music at the Institute for Sociology of Music. In 1994 he received an honorary Doctor’s degree from Vienna University. He was a member of the Executive Committee of MEDIACULT Institute. Kurt Blaukopf passed away in Vienna on 14th July 1999.

Kurt Blaukopf was not only a pioneer in the sociology of music, but also founder of a specific “Vienna School” in this field.