Siegfried Dehn was a German music theorist, editor, teacher and librarian.

Born in Altona, Hamburg

Altona, Hamburg

Altona is the westernmost urban borough of the German city state of Hamburg, on the right bank of the Elbe river. From 1640 to 1864 Altona was under the administration of the Danish monarchy. Altona was an independent city until 1937...

, Dehn was the son of a banker and learned to play the cello as a boy. Intent on becoming a diplomat, he studied law in Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 but also took music lessons from J.A. Dröbs. While attached to the Swedish embassy in Berlin, Dehn developed an interest in musical research, studying with Bernhard Klein

Bernhard Klein

Bernhard Klein was a German composer.Klein was born in Cologne. He married Lilly Parthey , who was the sister of Gustav Parthey and the granddaughter of Friedrich Nicolai...

. He was left destitute by the failure of the family bank in 1830 and decided to devote himself to music; he soon became known and respected widely as a musical theorist and teacher.

In 1842, composer Giacomo Meyerbeer

Giacomo Meyerbeer

Giacomo Meyerbeer was a noted German opera composer, and the first great exponent of "grand opera." At his peak in the 1830s and 1840s, he was the most famous and successful composer of opera in Europe, yet he is rarely performed today.-Early years:He was born to a Jewish family in Tasdorf , near...

 recommended Dehn to fill the post of custodian of the Prussian royal library. Dehn threw himself into cataloging the collection, bringing it into order and adding to it copiously from libraries all over Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

. Among the collections he amassed were those of Anton Schindler and Georg Pölchau; the latter was especially notable for its manuscripts by Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

 and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

right|250pxCarl Philipp Emanuel Bach was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and second son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach...

. Dehn was also editor of Cäcilia from 1842 to 1848 and professor of the Royal Academy of the Arts from 1849. On the death of Griepenkerl in 1849, Dehn helped edit J.S. Bach's instrumental music for the Peers Edition. He was responsible for, among other works, the first publishing of the Brandenburg concertos

Brandenburg concertos

The Brandenburg concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig, margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, in 1721 . They are widely regarded as among the finest musical compositions of the Baroque era...

. He also edited a large number of Lassus motets.

Dehn was widely respected as a teacher. His students included Albert Becker

Albert Becker (composer)

Albert Ernst Anton Becker was a German composer and conductor of the Romantic period.Becker was born in Quedlinburg. In 1853–1856 he studied music composition under Siegfried Dehn in Berlin. He taught on the faculty of the Akademie der Künste where his famous pupils included Johan Halvorsen and...

, Ludwig Bussler

Ludwig Bussler

Ludwig Bussler was a German musical instructor, critic and conductor. He was born in Berlin on 26th November 1838. His father, Robert Bussler, was a painter, author and privy counsellor. He was a pupil of A.E. Grell, Siegfried Dehn , and W.E. Wieprecht...

, Peter Cornelius

Peter Cornelius

Carl August Peter Cornelius was a German composer, writer about music, poet and translator. He was born and died in Mainz where his grave in the Hauptfriedhof survives....

, Mikhail Glinka

Mikhail Glinka

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka , was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition within his own country, and is often regarded as the father of Russian classical music...

, Heinrich Hofmann

Heinrich Hofmann (composer)

Heinrich Karl Johann Hofmann was a German composer and pianist. He was a pupil of Theodor Kullak, Eduard Grell, Siegfried Dehn and Richard Wüerst...

, and Anton Rubinstein

Anton Rubinstein

Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein was a Russian-Jewish pianist, composer and conductor. As a pianist he was regarded as a rival of Franz Liszt, and he ranks amongst the great keyboard virtuosos...

.

Works

• Theoretisch-praktische Harmonielehre mit angefügten Generalbaßbeispielen, Berlin, 1840
• Analyse dreier Fugen von S. Bach und einer Vocalfuge von A. M. Bononcini's, 1858
• Lehre vom Contrapunkt, Canon und Fuge, 1859
• Orlandus Lassus Psalmi VII poenitentiales o.J. (Hg.)
• 12 Hefte mehrstimmiger Gesänge des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts, o.J. (Hg.)

Editions

• Bach, J. S.
  Johann Sebastian Bach
  Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
  
  , [BWV 211] Joh. Seb. Bach. Komische Cantaten. No. I. Schlendrian mit seiner Tochter Liefsgen (Coffee-Cantate:). Herausgegeben von S. W. Dehn. Interdum et Socrates equitabat arundine longa, [ca. 1830], 31 pp. (Partitur)
• Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685-1750), [BWV 1042], Deuxieme Concerto en Mi majeur pour le Violon avec Accompagnament de deux Violons, Viola et Basse…, publie pour la premiere fois par S. W. Dehn [Partitur]. Leipzig, Peters (V. Nr. 3888) [ca. 1875]. 20 lithogr.