Ilmari Krohn

Ilmari Krohn (1867-1960), the “founder of Finnish musicology”, was born in Helsinki into a family steeped in culture, graduated in Finland and after wide-ranging studies at the Leipzig Conservatory was awarded a Doctorate by the University of Helsinki in 1900. His was the first Finnish doctoral dissertation in music and it was entitled Über die Art und Entstehung der geistlichen Volksmelodien in Finnland” (On the Nature and Origin of Sacred Folk Melodies in Finland, 1899). Oriented towards Germany for family and professional reasons, and having a German wife born in St. Petersburg, Krohn had previously had little contact with his colleagues in France. According to him, his sojourn abroad in 1900, during which he attended a major scientific event in his field of study, the first international congress of music history ever to be held, in Paris, opened his eyes to the extent and scope of this branch of learning. He became aware of the obligations imposed on him by the post of senior lecturer newly established at the University of Helsinki and from then onwards regarded himself as a musicologist. His scrapbook begins, most revealingly, with an item on the paper he gave in Paris, based on his doctoral dissertation. Musical research, at university level, developed in Finland apace with that in France, though on a narrower front. The first French doctoral dissertation devoted exclusively to music dates from 1893. Its author, Jules Combarieu, edited an anthology of the papers, Krohn’s included, given at the Paris congress.