Editing Curt Sachs (section)

==Biography==
Born in [[Berlin]], Sachs studied [[piano]], [[music theory]] and [[composer|composition]] as a youth in that city. However, his doctorate from Berlin University (where  he was later professor of musicology) in 1904 was on the history of [[art]], with his thesis on the [[sculpture]] of [[Verrocchio]]. He began a career as an art historian, but promptly became more devoted to music, eventually being appointed director of the [[State Institute for Music Research|Staatliche Instrumentensammlung]], a large collection of musical instruments. He reorganised and restored much of the collection, and his career as an organologist began.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Curt Sachs {{!}} Musicology, Ethnomusicology, Music Historian {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Curt-Sachs |access-date=2024-11-27 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

In 1913, Sachs saw the publication of his book ''Real-Lexicon der Musikinstrumente'', probably the most comprehensive survey of musical instruments in 200 years. The following year, he and [[Erich Moritz von Hornbostel]] published the work for which they are probably now best known in ''Zeitschrift für Ethnologie'', a new system of [[musical instrument classification]]. It is today known as the [[Sachs-Hornbostel]] system. It has been much revised over the years, and has been the subject of some criticism, but it remains the most widely used system of classification by [[ethnomusicology|ethnomusicologists]] and organologists.

In 1933, the [[Nazis came to power]]. Sachs was dismissed from his posts in Germany by the [[Nazi Party]] because he was a [[Jew]]. Sachs moved to [[Paris]], later to the United States, where he settled in [[New York City]]. From 1937 to 1953 he taught at [[New York University]], and also worked at the [[New York Public Library]]. In 1953, he was appointed [[Adjunct professors in the United States|adjunct professor]] at [[Columbia University]], a post he held until his death in 1959. He was a member of the [[American Musicological Society]] and served as president from 1948 to 1950.

His numerous books include works on [[rhythm]], [[dance]] and musical instruments, with his ''The History of Musical Instruments'' (1940), a comprehensive survey of musical instruments worldwide throughout history, seen as one of the most important.  The long relationship he had with [[W. W. Norton & Company]] began with ''The Rise of Music in the Ancient World'' (1943).<ref>Allen, Warren Dwight (1962), "Philosophies of Music History - A Study of General Histories of Music - 1600-1960", pg vi, Dover 0-486-20282-8</ref>  Although these works have been superseded by more recent research in some respects, they are still seen as essential texts in the field.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Marcel-Dubois |first=Claudie |date=1960 |title=Curt Sachs |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/835452 |journal=Journal of the International Folk Music Council |volume=12 |pages=88–89 |doi=10.1017/S0950792200018937 |jstor=835452 |issn=0950-7922}}</ref>

Sachs died in 1959 in New York City. In honor of Sachs' legacy, the [[American Musical Instrument Society]] established the [https://web.archive.org/web/20140226050238/http://amis.org/awards/sachs/index.html Curt Sachs Award] in 1983, which it gives each year to an individual who has made significant contributions to field of organology.