Selmar Bagge as Theory Teacher at the "Allgemeine Musikschule Basel" (1867–1896)

In 1867 the composer and music scholar Selmar Bagge became first Director of the Conservatory in Basel (“Allgemeine Musikschule Basel”). Until his death in 1896 he was not only the head of the institution, but the sole teacher for composition and music theory. Bagge himself was trained in Prague and Vienna, where he held a teaching position at the Conservatory. Before moving to Basel however, he lived in Leipzig and was in close contact to members of the Leipzig Conservatory, especially Moritz Hauptmann, one of the leading authorities in the musical world of his times. That is why Leipzig became a role model for his new task in Basel. A great deal of Bagge’s teaching documents have survived and are now preserved in the Universitätsbibliothek Basel. Among these manuscripts a Harmonielehre, counterpoint studies and some solfeggio exercises are of particular interest. The object of my research is to investigate these materials and to get detailed insights in the compositional and theoretical education and the concrete teaching situation of a conservatory in the late 19th century.