Milestone in research
Martin Staehelin's research into Hans Georg Nägeli has become his life's work. The complete biographical picture is now available.
It's not often that you wait forty (40) years for a book. I first heard about Martin Staehelin's biography of the Zurich musician Hans Georg Nägeli (1773-1836) in the spring of 1983. Opus ultimum of the respected Swiss musicologist, who spent his life studying Nägeli and his Zurich circle. It was known that Nägeli was a "singing father", composer, publisher, Bach admirer, music aesthete and corresponded with Beethoven, but that Nägeli, a man of ideas, also ventured into pedagogical, philosophical and theological topics, wrote poetry, theorized and intervened in politics - but was not the composer of Rejoice in life was - that is what we learn from Staehelin's comprehensive study.
It is based entirely on written sources, primarily from Nägeli's Zurich and Winterthur estates, but includes a vast amount of contemporary writings and remote secondary literature. The 640-page text is easy to read, detailed but never lengthy, and the author knows how to guide the reader safely through the labyrinth of his far-reaching thoughts. As yet unpublished texts by Hans Georg Nägeli are available in a digital Volume II, which can be downloaded free of charge.
The fact that this double Nägeli monument could only be published thanks to the expert support of helpers due to the illness of its author is hardly noticeable in the book. Nevertheless, it seems as if Martin Staehelin and his co-authors regret not being able to fulfill his various requests for more detailed studies themselves. It was worth the wait: the book is not only a life's work, but also a milestone in Swiss music historiography.
Martin Staehelin: Hans Georg Nägeli (1773-1836). Insights into his life and work, Volume I, 789 p., Fr. 90.00, Schwabe, Basel 2023, ISBN 978-3-7965-4746-1
