German musicologist, teacher, writer, and pianist.

Career Summary

Nagel studied musicology at the Humbold University of Berlin (Spitta, Bellermann). In 1888 he completed his Habilitation at the University of Zurich, where he taught musicology until 1893. From 1893 to 1896 he lived in London and conducted research into English music. From 1898 to 1913 he taught musicology and piano in Darmstadt, then edited the Neue Musikzeitung 1917–21 while combining that work with teaching piano, theory, and music history at the Hochschule für Musik Stuttgart, and working as music critic for the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Nagel published on English and French music, and most notably on Beethoven and Brahms, and the history of music in Darmstadt.

Nagel and Schenker

Schenker probably became aware in 1912 of Nagel’s work on Beethoven (1903–05) when working on the secondary literature coverage of Op. 109 for his Erläuterungsausgabe. All four volumes quote Nagel at great length, critiquing him harshly on technical and formal issues, and for trusting unreliable sources. He refers to him occasionally in his diaries, and discusses Nagel’s Beethoven work with his pupils, as recorded in his lessonbooks. No contact between the two men is known of.

The two articles by Nagel on the Brahms piano sonatas, in the Neue Musikzeitung (1913), are preserved among Schenker’s papers (OC B/454–455), and Nagel’s book on the Beethoven piano sonatas was in his personal library at his death (Musik und Theater enthaltend die Bibliothek des Herrn †Dr. Heinrich Schenker, Wien (Heinrich Hinterberger, [c. 1936] [auction catalog]).

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