In the notebook of Egon Lustgarten is an entry from Josef Matthias Hauer. Preceding this beautifully scripted entry is a zwolftonspiel from Hauer’s Op. 47, 6th Suite for Orchestra. Following Hauer’s autograph is an autobiography, written and dedicated to “one of the recognized and respected musicians in musical circles in my home country” (Lustgarten), and a short entry on the influence of J.S. Bach on his harmonic conception of twelve-tone music. I (obviously) had difficulty translating this entry. Patricia Peterson of the University of Toronto graciously accepted the translation, and made quick work of it, at that. Below is her translation.Josef Mattias Hauer
Josef Mattias Hauer, Opus 47, Sixth Suite for Orchestra, first movement, 4/4 time, VI 38 trope, Ritmico e marcato alla marcia
[Insert handwritten notation – 15 measures]
Vienna, December 16, 1927. J.M. Hauer
Hauer, Josef Mattias composer and music theorist, born March 19, 1883 in Wiener-Neustadt, where he attended the teacher training college and received instruction in all aspects of music. He was an assistant teacher in Krumbach in lower Austria, and studied autodidactic composition [especially as per the writings of Dr. Hugo Reimann]. He passed his teacher training exams, qualifying to teach music in high schools and teacher training colleges in Vienna, where he has lived since 1915, composing and developing his system of twelve tone music. Hauer derived his twelve tone theory from the “Well-tempered Klavier” by J.S. Bach and from his own compositions. This twelve tone theory culminates in the pure melodic line [Melos] of the twelve equally tempered tones of the piano. He uses the word atonal to describe the playing of the twelve tones of closed circles of fifths and fourths, played singly in an even, rhythmically unaccented manner. It is pure melodic music, because it depends only on that which exists between the tones, on the Melos, on the purely melodic, while the tones with their inner powers act solely as relatively equal end markers [boundaries?] for the individual intervals. One can follow the [Mete] development of Hauer in his compositions; the difference between his large orchestra works and his first piano pieces and Lieder exists only in their technical development. According to Hauer, the equal temperament of the piano and the organ is the purest temperament, while he considers all other temperaments more or less false. This places Hauer in obvious opposition to most theorists and practitioners. When Hauer, despite this, composes for orchestra and choir, he does so trusting in the intonation and tempering of the musicians and singers, who are forced by the chromatic music in common use, to adapt knowingly and instinctively to the temperament of the piano, that “percussion instrument”, which is used most often.
All of Hauer’s works contain a common element, a peculiarity of style, which make them easily recognizable: this is the pure twelve tone harmony. Twelve tone harmony also has modes; and it has cadences based on these modes similar to earlier music. However, the situation here is substantially more complicated. Instead of the two modes – major and minor with their transpositions, with their [emotional content/temperaments -Stimmungsgehalt], twelve tone music has 44 modes [Hauer calls these tropes, phrases] also with their transpositions, also with their [emotional content/temperaments -Stimmungsgehalt] and – it has twelve tone cadences that develop melodically, logically as a consequence of these modes. For these harmonic cadences one can use all imaginable two, three, four or five tones, the known and the “unknown”, if those still exist, depending on how many voices in these harmonic cadences - two, three, four, or five, voices that often extend over large arcs. The new and peculiar in Hauer’s twelve tone music does not exist principally in the chords and tones, but in the melodic and logical interaction of tones that are more or less familiar. It exists not in the chordal but in the harmonic and polyphonic that is appropriate to style and trope.
The special invention of Hauer, specifically this mandatory harmony is the underpinning of a universal musical language that is absolutely instinctive in every musical person [to be awakened in him]. This is a language that all can agree on and that no one can ignore; a language that the really progressive must accept. In the end it will secure the future importance of the Austrian J.M. H.
N.I. [?]
I have purposely written this autobiography in the diary of one of the recognized and respected musicians in musical circles in my home country.
Vienna, December 17, 1927
Josef Mattias Hauer
I would like to confess something else in this diary: from the very beginning I was convinced that composing large polyphonic works for orchestra and choir must have been child’s play for the man who wrote the first Prelude in the “Well-tempered Klavier”. My own development has proved this to be true. It is also easy for me to write large, complicated polyphonies / polyphonic works based on my twelve tone cadences that are compositions effective for large international audiences, as my experience in Frankfurt am Main has shown. But to demonstrate how that which we humans call progress is merely a trifle in eternity, I begin in the musical example below with the Bach prelude and continue with the fragment of the first movement of my Sixth Suite for Orchestra. In doing so I pay homage to the man whom I consider the most modern of all composers and whom I have to thank for everything: