Hausegger’s Symphonic Works:
A disciple of Liszt, Wagner and
Bruckner, Hausegger’s music continues their tradition
in its programmatic emphasis, chromatic harmony and motivic
transformations. As a program musician, his forms have the narrative logic of a
symphonic poem, rather than the forensic logic of an “absolute” symphony. E.
g., in Classical terms, Wieland der Schmied ends in the key
of its second, rather than principle, subject group.
Though Richard Strauss was a
formidable aesthetic mentor, this rarely translates into the music itself. Only
some sections of Wieland actually sound as if they
could have been written by Strauss. If you do hear any of his contemporaries in
Hausegger’s music, it’s - fleetingly - Mahler. Though
the two seem, unfortunately, to have had scant mutual regard, there are occasional
passages in Hausegger with Mahler’s sound, especially
the pivotal use of bird-calls in Aufklänge. All of which is to say that like any sensitive
artist, Hausegger was alive to the currents of his
times.
Regarding musical quotations:
* Unless otherwise noted, quotations are at sounding pitch.
Extremes of registers - piccolos, tubas - may be up or down an octave to avoid
excessive ledger lines
* Names given to the various themes and motivs
are either Hausegger’s own or from articles he
approved. Unless otherwise noted, descriptions in quotes are by Hausegger himself.
* Natursymphonie
quotes courtesy of F. E. C. Leuckart,