Martin Staehelin

Martin Staehelin (Basel, 25 September 1937) is a Swiss musicologist whose work focuses on the music of the Josquin era, the late Renaissance, and the work of Beethoven. His career combines source research, critical editing and the direction of institutions devoted to Central European music.

His initial training was as a teacher of music and classical languages in secondary education in Basel, the city where he also obtained the diploma of flute teacher with Joseph Bopp in 1962. He then studied Latin and Greek philology and, between 1963 and 1967, musicology with Schrade and Schmitz. He received his doctorate from the University of Basel in 1967 with a dissertation on the masses of Heinrich Isaac. With a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (1968–1971), he prepared his habilitation, also centred on Isaac's masses, under the supervision of Kurt von Fischer at the University of Zurich, which he completed in 1971.

Apparently, in 1963 he was appointed director of the Swiss Folksong Archive, although this date is not known with certainty, as it coincides with his years of training. He served on the council of the Swiss Musicological Society, whose Basel section he chaired between 1971 and 1973, and represented Switzerland on the IMS committee between 1972 and 1977. In 1975 he received the Edward J. Dent Medal for musicology. In 1976 he moved to Bonn to direct the Beethoven-Archiv and the Beethoven-Haus, and in 1983 he was appointed professor in the musicology department of the University of Göttingen.

His research on the music of the Josquin era is distinguished by its precision and by its knowledge and analysis of sources, qualities evident in his edition of Isaac's masses, which remains a reference for the study of the period. His later work includes articles on Mozart and Beethoven, a monograph on Hans Georg Nägeli and numerous studies on the history of musicology itself. His combination of critical editing and source study places him among the most consulted specialists on the German Renaissance.