Karl Scheit Archive
The Scheit Archive
Karl Scheit (1909-1993) was one of the most important personalities for the guitar in Austria in the 20th century. As a teacher, he founded a new school based on melody playing. Between 1933 and 1985, he trained a whole series of prominent guitarists at the Vienna Academy (later the Academy) of Music and Performing Arts, who are active throughout Europe today.
Scheit was of great importance as an editor of guitar music. The series Musik für Gitarre (Music for Guitar) published by Universal-Edition Wien comprises around 150 works, as does the series Gitarre-Kammermusik (Guitar Chamber Music) published by Doblinger. He thus opened up music for the lute for the repertoire of the classical guitar, published study material and contemporary music.
Throughout his life, Karl Scheit collected everything that had to do with the guitar: Instruments, sheet music, tablatures, books, magazines, sound recordings, pictures and documents of all kinds. Although he lost everything in a bombing raid in the last year of the war and had to start all over again in 1945, he still managed to create one of the world's most important collections - an important source for his musical, pedagogical and editorial work. His widow Luise Scheit left the largest part of his estate to the University of Music and Performing Arts, where it now forms a first-class specialist library for students and teachers. In addition, historical music editions, manuscripts and archival materials are of the greatest value for guitar research worldwide.
The majority has been recorded in a database since 2005. In the meantime, the valuable historical prints have been separated from the other music editions, scientifically catalogued and the most important digitised. https://repo.mdw.ac.at/scheitarchiv/
The sifting through the material revealed some historical treasures that caused an international sensation. Among them were two previously unknown concertini for terz guitar and strings by Johann Padowetz, unknown songs by Fernando Sor and lost compositions by Giulio Regondi. All these works have since been published in new editions.
Since 2015, Prof. Dr. Stefan Hackl has been officially entrusted with the administration of the Scheit Archive (incidentally, he was the first visitor to the archive).
Stefan Hackl taught full-time at the Tyrolean State Conservatory in Innsbruck, and also at the Mozarteum in Salzburg/Innsbruck and at renowned major events such as Forum Gitarre Wien and the Liechtensteiner Gitarrentage. Stefan Hackl has written several books (Die Gitarre in Österreich - von Abate Costa bis Zykan and Stauffer & Co. - Die Wiener Gitarre des 19. Jahrhunderts), as well as numerous publications in specialist journals (Gitarre & Laute, Gitarre aktuell, Il Fronimo, Gendai Guitar, Soundboard, Classical Guitar Magazine, Zeitschrift für Musikpädagogik etc.), editions of sheet music (e.g., in the music journal "Die Gitarre in Österreich - von Abate Costa bis Zykan" and "Die Wiener Gitarre des 19. Jahrhunderts"). ), editions of sheet music (e.g. by Doblinger, Orphee, Chanterelle, Helbling) and CDs (e.g. the multimedia documentary 200 years of folk music guitar playing in Tyrol).
New: "The Renewed Guitar - The Instrument's Evolution Seen Through Period Pictures".
http://www.gitarre-archiv.at/
Opening of the digital portal
to the Karl Scheit Archive
September 24, 2021, 5:00 p.m.
mdw/Fanny Hensel Hall
The majority of the estate is now administered by the mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, which is consulted by people from all over the world. Since 2015, Stefan Hackl has been officially entrusted with the administration of the Scheit archive, which has since been digitized.
Programme of the opening of the digital portal_Heft.pdf
--> The opening can be rewatched, please click here!
Opening hours
in the winter semester 2021/22
Friday, November 5, 2021
Friday, 17 December, 2021
Friday, January 28, 2022
Always from 15:00 to 16:00 and by appointment.
Registration is requested or by appointment (contact: hackl@mdw.ac.at).
