After training at Kaiserslautern to be a teacher, he studied music in Kassel with Otto Kraushaar and Louis Spohr, and in Leipzig with Ferdinand David and Ernst Richter; he also studied in Dresden, Dessau and Berlin.
In 1878 he was awarded an honorary degree Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Tübingen, for his works on the history of music.
The change in prevailing taste caused his resignation as conductor of the Oratorio Society, not long before his death.
His wife, violinist Hortensia Zirges (a niece of Admiral Karl Rudolf Brommy) died in 1904.
[2] He published several books about the history of music, including Die Entstehung der Oper ("The Origin of Opera"; Nördlingen 1873); Studien zur Geschichte der französischen Musik ("Studies on the History of French Music"; Berlin 1884/85) and Die Ahnen moderner Musikwerke ("The Ancestors of Modern Musical Works"; Leipzig 1882).