Charles Rosen

Charles Welles Rosen (May 5, 1927 – December 9, 2012) was an American pianist and writer on music. He is remembered for his career as a concert pianist, for his recordings, and for his many writings, notably the book The Classical Style.

He was born in New York City. His father Irwin Rosen worked as an architect; his mother, née Anita Gerber, was a semiprofessional actress and amateur pianist.

Rosen began his musical studies at age 4 and at age 6 enrolled in the Juilliard School. At age 11 he left Juilliard to study piano with Moriz Rosenthal. and with Rosenthal's wife Hedwig Kanner. Rosenthal, born in 1862, had been a student of Franz Liszt. Rosenthal's memories of the 19th century in classical music were communicated to his pupil and appear frequently in Rosen's later writings. Every year from the ages of three to twelve, Rosen heard Josef Hofmann play, and he later suggested that Hofmann had a greater influence on him than Rosenthal.

Rosen's family background was not wealthy. The Guardian editor Nicholas Wroe interviewed him in old age and reported:

At age 17, Rosen enrolled in Princeton University, where he studied French, also taking courses in mathematics and philosophy. When he graduated in 1947, he was offered a fellowship of $2,000 to continue at Princeton in the French graduate program. While in graduate school he roomed with his fellow student Michael Steinberg, who also went on to become a classical music critic and scholar of renown.

Rosen attained his status as a musical scholar with very little classroom training. Although Rosen in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is referred as one of the musicologist Oliver Strunk's students, he never formally studied musicology with Strunk or anyone else. Rosen's very extensive knowledge of music appears to have arisen partly from a culturally rich family background and partly from reading. Nicholas Wroe reported:

Ivan Hewett suggests that a major temptation of Rosen's 1947 fellowship offer was that it offered him time to practice and to read extensively in the Princeton library.

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