German musicologist, expert on Turkish folk music: Who is Ursula Reinhard?

Ursula Reinhard (10 May 1915 – 29 June 2005) continued her Germanistic and musicology education, which she started in Danzig and Freiburg, at the University of Munich, where she met Kurt Reinhard. 

The couple, who got married in 1939, settled in Berlin after World War II. They went to Turkey together for the first time in 1956 for field research.

The first product of her research in Turkey, her book titled "Vor seinen Häusern eine Weide", was published in 1965; "Auf der Fiedel mein... Volkslieder von der osttürkischen Schwarzmeerküste", in which the texts of folk songs they compiled from the Eastern Black Sea region were given in Turkish and German, was published in 1968, and their first comprehensive book about Turkey, "Turquie", was published in 1969. This book was followed by the two-volume "Musik der Türkei" (1984), which they also wrote together.

Continuing her research after the death of her husband (1979), Ursula Reinhard's own work, “Sänger und Poeten mit der Laute – Türkische Âşık und Ozan”, was published in 1989 with “Song Creators in Eastern Turkey”, which includes the records of the minstrels and Ursula Reinhard's article on the subject. ” titled CD was released by Smithsonian Folkways in 1993.

Ursula Reinhard, who conducted field research in Albania between 1993 and 1995 and in Brazil between 1998-2000, published "Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik", "The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians" between 1988-2001. ” and “The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music”, she co-authored Turkey articles in encyclopedias that are considered fundamental for musicology and ethnomusicology studies.

The personal collections and abandoned documents of Ursula Reinhard and Kurt Reinhard are located in the Ethnology Museum in Berlin.

Kurt Reinhard

Kurt Reinhard is of German origin and was born in Giessen (a town north of Frankfurt) in 1914. He spent his youth in Wetzlar and started his musicology studies in Cologne and Leipzig in 1933. Immediately afterward, he started his higher education in composition and piano.

After the war, he became a professor of music and criticism, and from 1948 he taught comparative musicology courses at the "University Ubre" in Berlin. He received the title of professor in 1950 and worked as a chair professor after 1951. In 1948, he took a job in Berlin at the Archives Enregistrees, which Voli Hombostel had managed for many years and which was almost completely destroyed during the war, now forming part of the Museum of Music Ethnology. Kurt Reinhard started research trips in Turkey starting in 1955. His wife Ursula also helped him in this research. He has researched Classical Music and Folk Music, combining many recordings.