Bischoff, D. Ludwig Friedrich Christian

1794-1867

A German editor and writer, in his day of much influence and activity in musical matters. Son of a musician, from his earliest days breathing the atmosphere of music, he always showed a great interest in this art. He was born at Dessau, where his father was a court musician. He was entered at the University of Berlin, served as a volunteer in the war and was captured by the French. On his release he returned to the University and took his degree. He was a professor at Berlin for a while, and from 1823 to 1849 was director of the Gymnasium at Wesel. During his long residence here, he took an active part in musical affairs. Following an interval of residence at Bonn, he settled in Cologne, and here spent the rest of his years. In this city he founded the Rheinische Musikzeitung, and was the founder of its successor, the Nieder-Rheinische Musikzeitung, which he edited until his death. Grove records that the tendency of his papers "was dead against that of the Neue Zeitschrift of Schumann and Brendel in regard to Wagner and Liszt." Bischoff's worship for Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, to whom he afterward added Mendelssohn, was so exclusive as to exclude his appreciating even Schumann, essential as he is in the development of modern music. On the other hand, his influence on the music of the Lower Rhine was both good and great. He was the musical center of the energy and devotion which kept up the festivals of Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle, and Düsseldorf, and through them acted so beneficially on the whole of Germany. Bischoff translated Ulibischeff's Beethoven into German.