German scholar, one of the principal figures in 19th-century musicology and author of the first comprehensive work on Johann Sebastian Bach.

Spitta studied at Göttingen and in 1874 helped found the Bachverein (Bach Society) in Leipzig. In 1875 he became professor of musical history at the University of Berlin. His Johann Sebastian Bach, 2 vol. (1873–80), dealt with Bach's life and with religious and technical aspects of his work. His editions of the works of Heinrich Schütz and Dietrich Buxtehude established a high standard of scholarship. With Johannes Brahms, K.F.F. Chrysander, and others, he was a chief founder, in 1892, of the great edition of the works of German composers, Denkmäler deutscher Tonkunst (“Monuments of German Music”). He also founded, with Chrysander and Guido Adler, the first true journal of musicology, “Vierteljahrsschrift für Musikwissenschaft” (1885–94; “Quarterly Journal of Musicology”).