Friedrich Wilhelm (Frederick William) Sternfeld

Born:	09-25-1914
Faculty:	Philosophical School
Category:	Expelled student

Friedrich Wilhelm (Frederick William) STERNFELD (born on September 25^th, 1914 in Vienna/Austro-Hungarian Empire (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna, citizenship 1938: Austria), son of Arthur Sternfeld (1884-1983, clerk, general manager) and Dorothea Sternfeld-Rosenhauch, née Gruenwald. After the parents divorced he lived with his father in Vienna's 19^th district, first in Osterleitengasse 8, 1936 in Hardtgasse 21 and 1937 in Reithlegasse 14 and had successfully passed the school-leaving examination (Matura) at the Bundesrealgymnasium in Vienna's 9^th district on June 20^th, 1933 and began to study musicology at the Philosophical School in the fall term of 1933/34. After a term abroad at the University of Cambridge/England in 1934, he was last enrolled in Vienna in the spring term of 1937 and was then in the examination stage. He had registered for the final examinations/viva voce in musicology on June 21^st, 1937, and passed the one-hour viva voce or "philosophicum" with distinction on July 2^nd, 1937, under the supervision of the philosopher Robert Reininger and the pedagogue Richard Meister. The Absolutorium, the confirmation that he had fulfilled all study requirements for taking the final examinations, was issued on September 29^th, 1937, However, before he could submit a dissertation and take the two-hour main rigorosum, the examination process was interrupted. He was forced to abandon his studies and leave the University of Vienna for "racial" reasons under National Socialism. The leaving certificate was issued on June 6^th, 1938, his planned dissertation supervisor Egon Wellesz, who himself was expelled in 1938, expressed his regret in his letter of recommendation, which he gave to Friedrich Wilhelm Sternfeld, for having abandoned the examination due to the political events, and Robert Lach also issued him a confirmation of study or a letter of recommendation on May 9^th, 1938. after  Friedrich Wilhelm Sternfeld was able to emigrate in time - in 1938 via England/Great Britain to the USA. He took a course as librarian at the NY College of Music in 1938/39 and was able to continue his studies at Yale University in 1940 and to receive his doctorate with a dissertation on "Goethe and Music" in 1943. He changed his first name to "Frederik William" and was already teaching at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, from 1940, and at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH, from 1946. In 1954 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship, and in 1954/55 he was a member of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, NJ. He was married to Sophia Young (1884-1993). He returned to England in 1956, where he succeeded his Viennese teacher Egon Wellesz as professor of musicology at Oxford University and became a British citizen. Sternfeld focus was on music from the 16^th to the 20^th centuries, with an emphasis on the relationships between music and poetry, on the 16^th century, and on general cultural and intellectual history, publishing "Music From The Middle Ages To The Renaissance" and "Birth of the Opera" among other works and was a fellow worker at the "New Oxford History of Music".
He was a board member of the American Musicological Society and the Royal Musical Association. He died on January 13^th, 1994 in Oxfordshire, England/Great Britain.

Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") PHIL 1933-1938, final examination file and registry ("Rigorosenakt & -protokoll") PHIL 13672; ROEDER 1983, 1129; BLUMESBERGER 2002, 1327; Horst WEBER & Stefan DREES, ed., Sources relating to the History of Émigré Musicians 1933–1950, vol. 2, Munich 2005, 270; BRANDSTETTER 2007, 154; MGG Online, ed. Laurenz LUETTEKEN, Kassel, Stuttgart, New York 2016ff., first published 2006, online 2016; LexM.

Herbert Posch