JADASSOHN, SALOMON

JADASSOHN, SALOMON (1831–1902), composer, music theorist, and conductor. Born in Breslau, Jadassohn studied in Leipzig and then under Liszt in Weimar (1849–52). He came back to Leipzig, where he studied privately with Moritz Hauptmann and later developed and worked as a multifaceted musician. In the 1860s he conducted several groups, among them the Leipzig synagogue choir. Later he focused on composition and theory. He composed numerous works in the general style of Brahms, especially for piano, but also orchestral, vocal, and chamber music. Jadassohn is chiefly remembered as a theorist. He wrote textbooks for all major subjects of music theory, combined in the comprehensive project Musikalische Kompositionslehre (1883–89), including Harmonielehre (1883, 1903), English Manual of Harmony (1912), Kontrapunkt (1884), Kanon und Fuge (1884), and Die Formen in den Werken der Tonkunst (1889). Jadassohn's vertical theoretical orientation, his inclination to discover many modulations in chromatic passages, and the lack of almost any examples make his books difficult for the modern reader. His students include Busoni, Chadwick, Delius, and Grieg. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: NG2; MGG; B. Hiltner. Salomon Jadassohn, Komponist – Musiktheoretiker – Pianist – Pädagoge: eine Dokumentation über einen vergessener Leipziger Musiker des 19. Jahrhunderts (1995). (Yossi Goldenberg (2nd ed.)