- Franz Xaver Haberl
Franz Xaver Haberl (Oberellenbach (today
Mallersdorf-Pfaffenberg ),Lower Bavaria ,12 April 1840 –Ratisbon ,5 September 1910 ) was a Germanmusicologist , friend of Liszt,Perosi , and Singenberger, cleric, and student ofProske .He made his classical and theological studies at
Passau ,Bavaria , where he wasordain edpriest , 12 August, 1862. Showing decided aptitude for music, he was given every opportunity for study of the art, and was entrusted with the direction of music in theseminary . From 1867 to 1870 Haberl resided inRome , where he was active as choirmaster at the German national church,Santa Maria dell'Anima , and also made historical and archæological researches. From 1871 to 1882 he directed the choir at theRatisbon cathedral , his incumbency forming one of the most brilliant periods in the history of this famous institute.Working for church music reform, in 1874 Haberl founded a famous school for church musicians at
Regensburg (Ratisbon). This school began with three professors—Dr. Haberl, Dr. Jacob, and Canon Haller—and only three pupils, and attracted reform-minded church music programs. Haberl not only secured permanency for the school in the shape of endowment, but he built next to it a church, dedicated toSt. Cecilia , where pupils are given opportunities for practising the knowledge they have acquired in theory.He fought for the
Editio Medicea against the editions of Solesmes and others. In 1868 Haberl re-edited the Medicæa version of theGregorian chant , and theHoly See declared his edition authentic and official for theCatholic Church . This form of the chant has since been superseded by the "Editio Vaticana."With Proske, he was a prime mover in the "
Caecilia Movement ," and helped to edit the fourth volume of [http://jeff.ostrowski.cc/musica_divina.htm Musica Divina] .For thirty years he gathered data and material for a critical edition of the works of Palestrina, completed in 1908 in thirty-three volumes, the first ten of which were prepared by the joint labour of Th. de Witt, J.N. Rauch, Fr. Espagne, and Fr. Commer. A similar edition of the works of
Orlando Lasso , undertaken by him in company with Dr. Sanberger, he left unfinished.As president of the
St. Cecilia Society , which position he held from 1899 until his death, as editor of "Musica Sacra" and "Fliegende Blätter für Kirchenmusik", the official organ of the society, as the author of "Magister Choralis", now in the twelfth edition, and of innumerable articles on historical, theoretical, and scientific subjects, but especially as director of the school which he founded, Haberl championed the spirit and authority of the Church in musical matters against modernising influences.One of Haberl's most famous students was Lorenzo Perosi.
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