Richard Heinrich Stein

Richard Heinrich Stein (28 February 1882 – 11 August 1942) was a German composer and musicographer. He is best known for the symbols he developed to notate quarter-tones, which Stein first used in his Op. 26 pieces, the Zwei Konzertstücke für Violoncello und Klavier. Three of the symbols Stein uses in these pieces have become part of the standard system of quarter-tone notation known as the Stein-Zimmermann accidentals. The Zwei Konzertstücke are among the earliest pieces of music published in Europe to incorporate quarter-tones. From 1891 through 1898, Stein attended the Hallenser Städtische Gymnasium in Halle. He later attended schools in Wernigerode and Merseburg before graduating from the Königliche Domgymnasium in Magdeburg. Stein received his doctorate from the University of Erlangen in 1911 after completing his dissertation on psychologist Wilhelm Wundt. Stein left Germany during World War I and lived in the Canary Islands between 1914 and 1919. After returning to Berlin, Stein directed his own music school in Nikolassee from 1920 to 1922, served as the musical director at the Urania Theater, and directed the Berliner Rundfunk for a short time. Stein was an advocate for quar