Gerlinde Haid (1943-2012)
The Institute of Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology presented a Bio-Bibliography of Gerlinde Haid, on the anniversary of her death in remembrance ofher on the 29th of November 2013.
It is an internet-publication in German language, including two different approaches to her biography by Nicola Benz and Maria Walcher, life, a Laudatio by Walter Deutsch, a so far unpublished manuscript by Gerlinde Haid on the history of Folk Music Research in Austria and lists of all her publications and lectures.
The presentation included statements by all the authors and also selected musical contributions that characterized some of her research interests.
Ursula Hemetek & Ulrich Morgenstern (Hg.):
Gerlinde Haid (1943-2012). Eine Biobibliographie.
klanglese 8, Institut für Volksmusikforschung und Ethnomusikologie, Wien 2013
link: https://www.mdw.ac.at/ive/?PageId=3650
For the included audio examples the Adobe reader is necessary.
The opportunity to remember Gerlinde Haid is perceived by many people in the hall prevails despite overcrowding a highly concentrated atmosphere
Ruza-Nikolic-Lakatos sings a very personal song of farewell from
the Roma tradition.
Walter Deutsch presents his composition, an Adagio "Tears for Gerlinde"
With deep regret we wish to announce that our dear colleague, teacher and friend Gerlinde Haid passed away on 29 November 2012. This happened only one year after her retirement in 2011. She would still have had so much to give, and we would have needed her gentle, inspiring and wise advice in scholarly as well as human terms. The people who had the privilege to work with her will be able to draw from her gifts, and she will always be with us in the energy of her fieldwork and her scholarly legacy.
Gerlinde Haid was born on 19.4.1943 in Bad Aussee, Styria. After primary school in Bad Aussee she attended the Gymnasium at the provincial school at Schloss Traunsee in Altmünster, which she completed with her university entrance examination in 1961. She went to Vienna to study music education and German, earning her teaching qualifications in 1965. When beginning to work as a research assistant at the newly founded Institute of Folk Music Research at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, she was inspired by the former director of that Institute, Walter Deutsch, to continue her studies in ethnology and musicology. She earned her PhD in 1974. From 1975 - 1989 she served as General Secretary of the Austrian Volksliedwerk. In 1989 she obtained the position of an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Musical Folklore in Innsbruck (Director, Professor Dr. Josef Sulz).
In 1994 Gerlinde Haid earned the position of University Professor in History and Theory of Folk Music at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. She also served as Director of the Institute for Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology from 1994-2010.
This was a time when the institute flourished and many new research interests were implemented, which in 2001 finally found expression in the renaming of the institute to Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology. The staff was enlarged considerably and international activities increased. The most important activity was the organisation of the ICTM World Conference in 2007 under Gerlinde Haid’s guidance. She was the president of the Austrian National Committee of the ICTM from 2002-2007. The introduction of the focus on Music and Minorities in 1990 as well as the Research Centre for European Multipart Music in 2003 was possible due to her encouragement as a wise, inspiring and loyal director.
She was a member of several Study Groups of the ICTM, even from the very beginning, when the first meeting of the Study Group “Systematization of Folk Melodies” of the IFMC took place in Vienna (22 – 26. 11. 1966). Gerlinde was the organizer of that meeting as the research assistant of Walter Deutsch. Later on she also joined the Study Group for Music and Minorities as well as the Study Group for Multipart Music.
Her publications in German are unmatched, not only in their style of writing, and they are numerous. Her primary research interests were the folk music of the Alps and Austrian folk music in a social context, and her best-known publication deals with the Alps: the CD series Musica alpina (1-8, 1993-2009) which she published together with her husband, the ethnologist Hans Haid. This series goes beyond the Austrian borders because it includes Italian and Slovenian Alpine regions and is multilingual. Gerlinde Haid also published in English and Italian and her works on Austrian folk music have the status of standard works. She was the editor of the institute’s Schriften zur Volksmusik series and co-editor (together with Ursula Hemetek) of klanglese.
In her academic life she was honoured in 2011 with the Gold Medal for Services to the Vienna University of Music and the Performing Arts, and the Walter Deutsch Prize, awarded by the Federal Ministry of Science and Research in 2010, and with the Cross of Honour for Science and the Arts 1st Class, awarded by the President of the Republic of Austria in 2003.
Gerlinde Haid was an outstanding scholar in international and Austrian academia and a wonderful person whom we miss tremendously. Her spirit will be with us.
Adelaida Reyes sent us the following words of comfort: “the burden of grief, when shared, becomes lighter, and the joy of beautiful memories, when shared, is intensified”.
Ursula Hemetek
