Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Obituary
Scope and Content
Descriptive Summary
Title: Hugo Mansfeldt Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1871-1931
Collection number: ARCHIVES MANSFELDT 1
Creator:
Mansfeldt, Hugo, 1844-1931
Extent: Number of containers: 1 box (113 folders)
Repository: The
Music Library
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Shelf location: For current information on the location of
these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Donor:
Gift from Mrs. Ellen Spaethling on July 5, 1985.
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in
writing to the Head of the Music Library.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Hugo Mansfeldt papers, ARCHIVES MANSFELDT 1, The Music Library,
University of California, Berkeley.
Obituary
MANSFELDT, MUSICIAN AND TEACHER, DIES
Dean of California Pianists Was Friend and Pupil of Liszt; Married Four
Times
San Francisco, Jan. 2.-Hugo Mansfeldt, 87, dean of California pianists, friend and pupil
of the great Franz Liszt, and "teacher of teachers," is dead.
Mansfeldt succumbed yesterday at his home, 233 Cole Strret, following an illness of
several months. At his bedside when death came was his daughter, Miss Mabel Mansfeldt.
Born in Germany, Mansfeldt came to this country when he was 15 years old, and first
visited San Francisco in 1863. In 1884 he returned to Europe, to become one of Liszt's
favorite pupils at Weimar. After two years of study under the master, he returned to
California and achieved an international reputation as a concert pianist, instructor and
authority on musical technique.
He founded the Mansfeldt club, which became an important factor in bay region muscial
circles. Many of his pupils became well known teachers of piano.
Mansfeldt was married four times. His third wife, Elsie Loane Mansfeldt, who commited
suicide in Tunis, Algeria, in 1913, was reported to have been the first white woman to
explore the Sahara. She had become a convert to Mohammedanism, and was buried by her
husband according to the ritual of that religion.
Four months after the tragedy, Mansfeldt married Hazel Helma Hoss, beautiful San Jose
society girl and one of his pupils. She was 50 years younger than Mansfedlt.
This marriage lasted until last August, when Mrs. Mansfeldt secured a divorce on the
grounds of cruelty, declaring Mansfeldt was extremeley jealous. Besides the daughter,
Mansfeldt was the father of the late Theodore and Dr. Oscar Mansfeldt.
Services and interment were to be private.
Scope and Content
Memorabilia, autobiography, recollections, press notices, recital and concert programs,
musical compositions, pedagogical publications, and recital programs of his students and
the Mansfeldt Piano Club.
A revised version of this inventory was published by John A. Emerson in the
Inter-American Music Review volume VII:2 (Spring-Summer, 1986), pp.
85-87. This issue also contains a lengthy article on Mansfeldt by the editor,
Professor Robert Stevenson.