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H. C. Robbins Landon

Howard Chandler Robbins Landon (March 6, 1926 – November 20, 2009) was an American musicologist, journalist, historian and broadcaster, best known for his work in rediscovering the huge body of neglected music by Haydn and in correcting misunderstandings about Mozart.

The son of a musician, Landon became enthusiastic about Haydn's compositions in high school and was eager to pursue a career in Haydn scholarship. He studied with, among others, Karl Geiringer, an authority on Haydn, graduating with a music degree in 1947. He moved to Europe, where he lived for the rest of his life. He co-founded the Haydn Society in 1949, the goal of which was to publish and record Haydn's works. Gaining access to archives in countries throughout Europe, he spent decades researching the life and works of Haydn. He rescued, published critical editions of, wrote books about, and with the society arranged for the recording of, numerous forgotten works. He finally published his five-volume study, Haydn: Chronicle and Works, between 1976 and 1980.


In addition to his work on Haydn, Landon and the society recorded neglected works of Mozart, and he published five popular books about Mozart, dispelling myths about the composer's life. He had written 28 books by 1996. Landon also wrote regularly for music magazines and newspapers, especially the longest-established London paper, The Times. He was a popular broadcaster for the BBC on radio and television and was praised for his ability to enthuse general audiences with his chosen subject. From the 1970s, he was a sought-after lecturer and held appointments with colleges in the US and the UK.

Life and career[edit]

Early years[edit]

Landon was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of William Grinnell Landon, a writer of Huguenot descent, and his wife Dorothea LeBaron née Robbins, a musician.[1][2] He was educated at Aiken Preparatory School, Lenox School for Boys and Asheville School.[1][3] While at the last he discovered the music of Haydn, which became his lifelong study.

Reputation and honors[edit]

The New York Times said of Landon, "Though a serious and prolific scholar, Mr. Landon also had a knack for making musicology seem exciting to the general public."[16] Charles Rosen, in a review of Landon's five-volume Haydn compendium, expressed admiration and gratitude to the author for his energy in bringing all of Haydn's music, particularly the complete symphonies, to publication: "Only a few decades ago there were still immense tracts of unexplored Haydn. ... That we are better off today is owing in large part to the work of Robbins Landon." However, he faults Landon for haphazard scholarship and analysis, observing that "much of what he writes is sensitive and penetrating, and it is all informed by a great love of Haydn and an enthusiasm which would be infectious if the book were not so disorganized and unsystematic. ... He writes like a man going quickly through the pages of Haydn's works and pointing out to a friend the passages he likes most."[20]


Landon was granted honorary doctorates by Boston University (1969), Queen's University, Belfast (1974), Bristol University (1981) and the New England Conservatory (1989), and was an honorary fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, (1980). He was awarded the Siemens Prize (1991) and the Medal of Honor of the Handel and Haydn Society (1993).[8] He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1991.[21] He received the Verdienstkreuz für Kunst und Wissenschaft from the Austrian Government in 1972 and the Gold Medal of the City of Vienna in 1987.[14]

The Symphonies of Joseph Haydn, 1955

The Mozart Companion (co-ed with Donald Mitchell), 1956

The Collected Correspondence and London Notebooks of Joseph Haydn, 1959

Critical edition of the 107 Haydn Symphonies, completed 1968

Essays on Eighteenth-Century Music, 1969

Ludwig van Beethoven: A Documentary Study, 1970

Haydn: Chronicle and Works

Haydn: A Documentary Study, 1981

Mozart and the Masons, 1982

Handel and his World, 1984

1791: Mozart's Last Year, 1988

Haydn: His Life and Music (with David Wyn Jones), 1988

Mozart: The Golden Years, 1989

The Mozart Compendium (ed), 1990

Mozart and Vienna, 1991

Five Centuries of Music in Venice, 1991

Vivaldi: Voice of the Baroque, 1993

The Mozart Essays, 1995

Horns in High C (memoirs), 1999

Scholarly editions of eighteenth-century music (various European publishing houses)

Landon's output was huge; a tribute volume published for his 70th birthday in 1996 contained a bibliography listing 516 publications by him, including 28 books. In his Who's Who entry Landon selected as his major publications:

Rosen, Charles (2000). . Critical Entertainments. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-17730-4.

"The rediscovering of Haydn"

Schumann, Robert (1983). Wolff, Konrad (ed.). On Music and Musicians. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.  0-520-04685-4.

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