Emsheimer Ernst

Ernst Emsheimer (b. January 15, 1904, Frankfurt am Main – d. 1989, Stockholm) was a folklorist, ethnographer, musical expert. He was originally from Germany. He studied at the universities of Vienna and Freiburg (under the guidance of H. G. Adler, W. Fischer, W. Gurlitt). In 1932–1936, he worked at the Department of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Leningrad Academy of Sciences. During this period, the musical creativity of the peoples of the Caucasus was the subject of his research. In particular, Emsheimer studied, deciphered and transcribed Ossetian (more than 100) and Gurian (30) folk songs. He studied Mongolian, Yugoslav, Albanian, African, and Siberian folk music. He had a collection of folk musical instruments (one of the largest in the world). From 1961, along with E. Stockmann, he started publishing Handbuch der europäischen Volksmusikinstrumente (Handbook of European Folk Music Instruments); he was interested in polyphony. In 1937, he led a folklore expedition to the North Caucasus. He devoted works to the issues of polyphony: Some Remarks on European Folk Polyphony (1964) and Georgian Folk Polyphony (1967).

 

N. Kalandadze