Other compositions and writings

Earlier, I described von Hausegger as the least absolute composer of modern times. As he himself noted, every work he wrote had either a program, a text or a libretto. All his juvenilia have poems, legends or titles supporting them - Mendelssohnian songs without words or Fieldian nocturnes. Even before his teens, he wrote musical “character studies” of Classical heroes inspired by his reading, e. g., one of Epaminondas. In his adolescence he began a Spring Symphony for an “impossible orchestra” needing 40-staff paper (Die Natursymphonie at times uses 38).

While I’m concentrating on his five symphonic works, Hausegger composed a large body of work in other media, e. g., a piano fantasia The Devil’s Elixir after E. T. A. Hoffmann and especially, vocal music. He included his first opera Helfried among his juvenilia, along with the Mass for chorus and orchestra alluded to earlier.

Early program notes and Arthur Elson’s book Modern Composers of Europe (1905) mention a “symphonic ballad” named Odinsmeeresritt (Odin’s Ride Over the Sea), presumably inspired by Uhland’s poem. Eugen Jochum wrote me that, though he never heard or saw the piece, he thought he remembered hearing of a work with that name.

However it’s not listed in any catalogue of Hausegger’s works, including one he himself prepared, nor does he mention it in his autobiography Betrachtungen zur Kunst. The Library of Congress has no record of it, nor do those of Graz or Munich. Furthermore, his son wrote me that he was unaware of its existence and had never heard it mentioned. Currently, we must list it among Hausegger’s lost juvenilia.

His opera Zinnober, also from Hoffmann, dates from his mid-twenties, as does the onset of his career as an important lieder composer. He wrote over 60 lieder with piano accompaniment, as well as several with orchestra, the most outstanding being Three Hymns to the Night for baritone and orchestra with texts by Gottfried Keller

His choral works include an a cappella Requiem, with text by Hebbel, written in 1907. Works for mens’ chorus and orchestra include Schmied Schmerz (Pain the Blacksmith) and Neuweinlied , texts by Bierbaum, dating from 1897-98. Mixed choir compositions include

Totenmarsch of 1902, text by Boelitz; Sonnenaufgang (Sunrise), text from Keller and Weihe der Nacht (Consecration of the Night) from Hebbel both from 1908.

Among his arrangements are Six Folksongs for mixed chorus, done in 1915 at the request of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Gesang der Geister über den Waßern (Song of the Spirits Over the Waters) of Schubert for 8-part choir with orchestral accompaniment. Although he composed little after Aufklänge (1917), there are some unpublished later works. Das Mariannle, 1919, music to a childrens’ tale with illustrations by Willy von Beckerath, and Die Goldene Kette (The Golden Chain), 1938, music for a puppet play both use texts written by Hella von Hausegger. His last published work, of 1938, was three mixed choruses on texts by Weinheber.

Hausegger gathered his principle writings in 1920 in the book Betrachtungen zur Kunst (Reflections on Art). The essential Hausegger reference, it contains a short autobiography, descriptive essays on his most important works and several polemic articles, some written during WW I. His brief article National Versus Patriotic Art is a key to understanding his position on what has become the third rail of German music.

He edited a collection of his father’s writings, Gedanken Eines Schauenden, (The Thoughts of An Observer) in 1903. In 1908, he wrote what is still the only biography of his father-in-law, the composer Alexander Ritter, and in 1920, edited Wagner’s letters to Julie Ritter.