German musicologist, teacher, and music critic.

Career Summary

Krebs first studied Naturwissenschaft at the Hochschule in Freiberg before turning to music. In 1881–83 he studied piano at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin, before going on to the Königliche Hochschule, where he studied with Philip Spitta. He studied musicology and philosophy at the University of Berlin and gained his doctorate at Rostock in 1895 with a dissertation on Girolamo Diruta's Transilvano. In the same year he succeeded Spitta at the Königliche Hochschule, where he remained until 1923, serving also (1901–22) as a Senator and (from 1911) as second permanent secretary to the Berlin Akademie der Künste. He worked variously as music critic for the Vossische Zeitung, Die Moderne Kunst, Deutsche Rundschau, and Der Tag.

His published works include:

His work as an editor includes:

Krebs and Schenker

Two items of correspondence from Krebs to Schenker are known (OC B/277; OJ 12/21, [1]; a photocopy of the latter is found within OJ 41/6); Schenker’s letters to Krebs are not known to survive. Theodor von Frimmel alerted Schenker to Krebs's edition of the Beethoven piano sonatas in a letter of June 17, 1912 (in OJ 11/10, [13]), at a time when Schenker was seeking information on the whereabouts of the autograph manuscripts of the late sonatas in connection with his Erläuterungsausgabe. His own, annotated copy of Krebs's Urtext edition is at OJ 26/2–4. The diary entry for June 19, 1926 records Angi Elias's presentation as a birthday present to Schenker of a copy of Krebs's edition of the Brahms-Spitta-Dessoff correspondence.

Sources

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