Friedrich W. Riedel (1929-2020)
Thursday, September 24, 2020
Prof. Dr. Friedrich W. Riedel, who led the RISM Zentralredaktion from 1960 to 1967 when it was in Kassel, died on 10 September 2020.
Friedrich Wilhelm Riedel was born in 1929 in Cuxhaven and studied sacred music in Lübeck and music, history, and liturgics in Kiel, earning his doctorate in 1957. After his employment at RISM, he started teaching at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität in Mainz, where he also earned his Habilitation. He was conferred emeritus status in 1995 and retired to Sonthofen (Allgäu, Bavaria).
For several decades, Riedel served as an expert on historic organs for the state of Rheinland-Pfalz’s office for historic preservation and was the chair of the study group for sacred music in the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung (1982-2004).
During his time as director of the Central Office, the first RISM publications from Series B appeared (Recueils imprimés, XVIe-XVIIe siècles in 1960 and Recueils imprimés, XVIIIe siècle in 1964). Furthermore, he was heavily involved in preparing Series A/I, Einzeldrucke vor 1800, for publication.
Organizing and cataloging the significant and comprehensive music archive of the Benedictine monastery Göttweig Abbey was a matter dear to Riedel’s heart and kept him occupied for many decades.
We will always keep him in our memory.
The RISM Zentralredaktion
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