Austrian writer on music; born Sept. 17, 1857, in Moravia; educated at the universities of Breslau and Vienna. He also studied at the Conservatorium of the latter city, in which institution he was lecturer from 1882 till 1884, and thenceforward teacher of musical esthetics. In the latter year, also, he took his degree of Ph.D.
Hirschfeld is the author of "Joh. de Muris" (1884), and of "Das Kritische Verfahren E. Hanslicks" (3d ed., 1885), an important polemical pamphlet against Hanslick, written in defense of the old "a-cappella" music, to promote the cultivation of which Hirschfeld founded the Renaissance Abende. He also prepared an edition of the songs of Oswald von Wolkenstein, with the melodies, and of Schubert's "Der Vierjährige Posten" (1897).