Ernst Kurth

Ernst Kurth, (1 June 1886, Vienna – 2 August 1946) was a Swiss music theorist.

Kurth studied musicology with Guido Adler (a student of Bruckner and Hanslick) in Vienna, and earned his Ph.D (1908) with a thesis about Christoph Willibald Gluck's operatic style. In a relatively short publishing career of about 15 years, Kurth wrote four enormously influential works: Grundlagen des Linearen Kontrapunkts (Foundations of Linear Counterpoint), Romantische Harmonik und ihre Krise in Wagners "Tristan" (Romantic Harmony and its Crisis in Wagner's "Tristan"), Bruckner, and Musikpsychologie. Since the 1940s, Kurth was gradually eclipsed by other theorists (notably Heinrich Schenker). However, his concept of 'developmental motif' has remained influential. A developmental motif is one which gradually changes or grows, becoming a structural carrier of formal developments. An example is the triadic motif heard at the beginning of the first movement of Beethovens' third symphony which only becomes a closed theme at the culminating closing of the movement. Unfortunately, only a small selection of excerpts from Kurth's writings was translated into English by Lee A. Rothfarb.

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