1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Richter, Ernst Friedrich Eduard

RICHTER, ERNST FRIEDRICH EDUARD (1808-1879), German musical theorist, was born at Grosschönau in Saxony, on the 24th of October 1808. He first studied music at Zittau, and afterwards at Leipzig, where he attained so high a reputation that in 1843 he was appointed professor of harmony and counterpoint at the conservatorium of music, then newly founded by Mendelssohn. On the death of Hauptmann on the 3rd of January 1868, he was elected cantor of the Thomasschule, which office he retained until his death on the 9th of April 1879. He is best known by three theoretical works &mdash; Lehrbuch der Harmonie, Lehre vom Contrapunct and Lehre von der Fuge &mdash; valuable textbooks known to English students through the excellent translation by Franklin Taylor.