Ludwig Ritter von Köchel

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Image:Ludwig von Kochel.jpgLudwig Alois Ferdinand Ritter von Köchel (January 14, 1800 – June 3, 1877) was a musicologist, writer, composer, botanist and publisher. He is best known for cataloguing the works of Mozart and originating the "K" numbers by which they are known.

Born in the small town of Stein, Lower Austria, he studied law in Vienna and for 15 years he was the tutor of the four sons of Archduke Charles of Austria.

Köchel's reward was a knighthood and a generous financial settlement which permitted him to spend the rest of his life as a private scholar. Scientists of his day were greatly impressed by his botanical researches in North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, the United Kingdom, the North Cape and Russia.

In addition to botany, he was interested in geology and mineralogy, but he also loved music and was a member of the Mozarteum Salzburg.

In 1862 he published the Köchel catalogue, a chronological and thematic register of the works of Mozart. This catalogue was the first on such a scale and with such a level of scholarship behind it. It has undergone several revisions since. Mozart's works are often referred to today by these numbers, known as the K number (see opus number) - for example, the Symphony No. 41 (the Jupiter symphony) is K. 551.

Köchel also arranged Mozart's works into 24 categories which were used by Breitkopf & Härtel when they published the first complete edition of Mozart's works from 1877 to 1910 (a venture funded in part by Köchel himself).

Ludwig Ritter von Köchel died on June 3, 1877 in Vienna, Austria.

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Note regarding personal names: Ritter is a title, translated approximately as Knight, not a first or middle name. There is no equivalent female form.