Search - Josef Matthias Hauer, Steffen Schleiermacher :: Josef Matthias Hauer: Atonale Musik, Op. 20

Neglected atonalist in the shadows

scarecrow | Chicago, Illinois United States | 12/01/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hauer lived from 1883 to 1959 and travelled(more or less) within the same circles as the Second Viennese School,(He was born in Vienna)i.e. Schoenberg, Berg,Webern,and Eisler(often left out). He was exposed to the innovative times of Vienna a city obsessed with itself, with sex,with largeness of scale,with the science of the mind,the subconscious and games at this time roughly the first 20 years of the last century when Freud had already published important essays on"The Future of Illusion" dialogues with the false spirit of religion,dreams, the subconscious.



Hauer was deeply committed to the Atonal language and found no other to preserve the pure state of music. His music many times is a bit facile,often needlessly extroverted,'on-the'surface'not really mining the depths of its materials,i.e. timbral placements within differing registers, as in piano solo music, high middle and low,all have unique points to explore. Rhythm as well is fairly one-dimensional within his works.



"Atonale Musik"Opus 20 is his first and only extended work for the piano, and unfolds much like miniatures, short fragments of ideas. By comparison it is obvious to see that Schoenberg had takened this early atonal much further as in his Opus 11 and the Five Pieces for Orchestra, as well as the "Cubist" like "Third String Quartet", and the additional voice in the Second Quartet. Hauer it seems had no affinity for the conceptual, placing this newly found language within newly found contexts. (Even the young Boulez during the WW2 had found Schoenberg not advanced enough in structural design).



Hauer music is important for its transitional position,and is deeply engagin to listen to.



Schlierermacher knows this music very well and did hold back when required. The danger here is that the music can suggest a Romantic demeanor,Brahms that is totally unwanted here. Hauer still utilized octaves (anathema to 12 tone practice) that renders the music with a foot still harboring the past."