Ludwig Ritter von Köchel
Austrian musicologist (1800-1877)
Ludwig Ritter von Köchel (German: [ˈkœçəl]; born Ludwig Alois Friedrich Köchel; 14 January 1800 – 3 June 1877) was an Austrian musicologist, writer, composer, botanist, and publisher. He is best known for cataloguing the works of Mozart and originating the 'KV-numbers' by which they are known (KV for Köchel-Verzeichnis).
Life
Ludwig Alois Friedrich Köchel was born in the town of Stein, Lower Austria. He studied law in Vienna and graduated with a PhD in 1827. For fifteen years, he was tutor to the four sons of Archduke Charles of Austria. Köchel was rewarded with a knighthood and a generous financial settlement, permitting him to spend the rest of his life as a private scholar. Contemporary scientists were greatly impressed by his botanical researches in North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, the United Kingdom, the North Cape, and Russia. In addition to botany, he was interested in geology and mineralogy, but also loved music, and was a member of the Mozarteum Salzburg. He died of cancer at age 77 in Vienna.
Köchel catalogue
In 1862 he published the Köchel catalogue, a chronological and thematic register of the works of Mozart.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ludwig Ritter von Köchel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.