Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup tuning Re: Digest Number 5863- Haba

Hi, Mr. Stearns,

your interesting and to me slightly surprising message about Alois
Haba forced me to switch from lurking mode (ROM = reading only
member) and I'm trying to compose my first message here and add
something to yours as I think I had maybe something to say.
Concerning my lurking mode, first - English is not my native
language, second - I'm shy person usually in the beginning of
communication (which can quickly change), third - there's not too
much time in a fight for my daily bread to be deeply involved even in
very interesting discussions, done by prominent members here, fourth
- one of my former students, Petr Parizek, is here enough active to
write and do a lot in the direction I taught him... But in the worse
case I can write more about myself and my work if somebody is
interested which I doubt. In the meantime you are welcome to visit my
web pages and eventually listen to some of my music crimes (some of
them microintervallic):

www.soundclick.com/forrotronics
daikichi.p-kit.com
www.forrotronics.cz

As a person who
- is Czech origin
- is a founder and chairman of Czech Society for Microintervallic
Music (I don't like a term "microtonal", "microtonality" as it evokes
"small tonality", in Czech language we use "mikrointerval" =
"microinterval")

of course I know something about the facts you have written. You are
pretty well informed about lot of things, maybe just a few additional
facts from my side.

First I would say there is internationally renowned term "Haba
School", which doesn't mean at all "microintervallic music" school.
Haba was excellent and influential teacher with very wide knowledge,
open to all new ideas. His lessons were more like a seminar, lectures
widely oriented on experimental acoustics, analysis of "Oriental"
music, (in those times Czech terminology Turkey, Near East, Arabia,
Egypt, North African countries, and maybe more to the East), role of
music in society etc. - nobody did those times anything similar.
Haba was a lecturer at Prague Conservatory since 1923, since 1924 he
started his course of quartertone music, opened for everybody who was
interested! He became officially Professor since 1934 and "Departmentof Quartertone and Sixthtone Music" (not microtonal as you wrote, OK,
you didn't quoted anything, it's just a translation) was established.
First those times AFAIK term "microtonal" was not used, second he
probably wanted to attract foreign students from "oriental" countries
using relatively known terms. Haba and his students even took part
and have been demonstrating quartertone music for about sixth month
period at the very first (and for longer time the last one) Frankfurt
Music Fair in 1927 and some students (I think mainly Miroslav Ponc)
have been demonstrating "quartertone music" in lectures and concerts
with success, and public was attracted. I'm not sure if they were
there because Haba was those times internationally renowned, or if
his good fame came after this event. But probably thanks to this
event Haba got some foreign students...

Many of Haba students just visited his lessons for inspiration, they
didn't compose microintervallic works at all. Classes continued even
during German occupation 1939-1945, but principially they couldn't
work fully as official German propaganda those times considered all
experimental music to be "entartete Art" (perverse art) and similar
music was officially prohibited as well as "inferior nigger's jazz".

Now I haven't here at my hand a book about Haba written by Brno
musicologist Jiri Vyslouzil for quoting more details, but foreign
students as you write were by names from former Yugoslavian Kingdom
(Slovenia, Serbia... there were more: Maric, Vuckovic, Ristic...),Bulgaria (Iliev studied with him after WW II, another student was V.
A. Bozinov), Turkey (Mr. Ozan, do you know somehing about?),
Kacinskas was Lithuanian, Wiesmayer was British violinist. AFAIK
nobody of them composed microintervallic music in big numbers, and as
their main compositional method. To my surprise many of them wrote
very conventional music, or neoclassical... They took it just as an
additional course. My theory is somehow those times maybe probably
they considered it fashionable, somehow they felt they are "in".
Maybe. Or they just like to visit Haba's lessons as for sure he was a
great personality.

Concerning his Czech students, it's interesting many of them were in
fact of Jewish descent with all those terrible consequences which
came after 1939... Haba tried to help to his Jewish students so even
his life was endangered.

What I remember roughly:
Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944) was born in Silesia, German-Jewish origin,
not Czech. One of those so called "composers of Terezin (in German
language Theresienstadt) ghetto" and died in Oswiecim (Ausschwitz)...
He finished his study with Haba in 1937. Name of his opera written in
Terezin was "Die Tod-Verweigerung" (1943). There were more Czech
composers of Jewish origin in Terezin, for example Pavel Haas...
Thanks to political changes in former Czechoslovakia after 1989 and
personal effort of some people those authors were brought from
oblivion and become little bit famous, even fashionable.
[Ad Terezin: this relatively small city was garrison city from the
middle of 18th century, built as a fortress with fortification, named
by Maria Theresia, and well preserved until now in this state. Nazis used it as an ideal station for concentration of Jewish people before
sending them to other places where they were assasinated, because
such city was easy to close and control. There was always a big
amount of people, whole families including children, and people
wanted desperately to live despite many of them probably could feel
they will soon die. So even some kind of culture was there, Nazis
disused it for propaganda when Red Cross people come to check the
conditions there. There were music concerts, even some orchestra.
Composer Hans Krasa composed there his opera for children Brundibar,
and it wan performed many times there, very often children performers
were sent after performance to Ausschwitz... and training with new
performers started next day again... ]

Jiri Srnka (1907-1982) become later famous and sought composer of
film music, otherwise he is now forgotten.

Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942) of German/Jewish origin was interesting
person, pupil of Max Reger, excellent pianist and composer, also
influenced by jazz or what he considered to be jazz those times (we
know now it was more exactly American pop based on some jazz
elements, in the sense of what Gershwin did). He performed on
quartertone piano and did more demonstrating tours with Haba in
Germany in 20ies. His works are unknown to the Czech public now.
Politically he was of course naîve and wrong when he believed in
bolshevism. Solzhenicyn describe in his history of Gulag many cases
that sympatizant foreigners who came to Russia were
propagandistically disused and many of them disappeared in the hell
of working camps with whole families. So if Schulhoff isn't killed by
one totalitarian establishment, for sure he would be terminated in
Stalin's Soviet Union like many others. (What more: there was not so
much sympathy to Jewish people as well in SU despite the fact that
some leading persons of KGB were Jewish.) As a composer he was
brilliant.

Karel Reiner (1910-1979), studied with Haba 1934-35, was not so
famous as a composer, more as a theoretician, teacher and pianist
(quartertone piano including), later also in Terezin and other camps,
he was even selected to "march of death" but survived. Now he is
almost forgotten.

Miroslav Ponc (1902-1976) was another very interesting and
unfortunately in Czech Republic now almost forgotten artist, who did
lot of incidental music for theatre, film and radio drama music, also
early experiments with optophony, audiovisual art and similar. He
studied with Haba in 1934-35 as his exclusive student (lot of the
other studied composition with different teachers, and just visited
Haba's lessons as a part of their study).

Stepan Lucky (1919-2006) studied with Haba 1946-48 (after 1948
communistic regime closed Department of Quartetone Music), composed
lot of incidental music for theatre, radio, film... Most of his works
are tonal, traditional. I found only one quartertone work on his
list - Three Studies for quartertone piano.

Rudolf Kubin (1909-1973) studied with Haba 1925-26 has only few
quartertone works, which is strange, he was another exclusive student
of him.

Jaroslav Jezek (1906-1942) was heavily eye-handicapped, almost blind,
but talented expressionistic composer and pianist. He studied with
Haba in 1927-28. I don't know any of his microintervallic works, but
until now he is very famous as an author of revual music and pop
songs for theatre, inspired by American pop. His songs are in Czech
Republic well know, almost like a part of folklore... On the other
side his serious works are not performed at all.

Vaclav Dobias (1909-1978), with Haba in 1939-40, after his promissing
avantguarde period he changed during the war his compositional stylewhich become totally conform and traditional. Which helped him to
become one of the prominent composers of communistic regime after
1948, he wrote mass propagandistic songs and similar works. He left
only few quartertone works, his main idol was Bedrich Smetana (and
Smetana has NO quartertone piece!), he returned to his style. He
doesn't deserve to be mentioned. Such "artists" serving as political
propaganda supporters should be forgotten. In fact recently his works
are not performed, that way he got what he deserved. History has no
mercy... sometimes...

Karel Ancerl was known more as a conductor, I didn't know at all he
also composed...

There were more students, some deserve to be named:
Miroslav Kabelac (1908-1979) - outstanding composer, studied with
Haba 1930-31.

Karel Haba (1898-1972) - violinist and composer, brother of Alois,
studied with him 1923-1925. Few quartertone works.

Jan Rychlik (1916-1964) - excellent composer, one of the most
interesting Czech composers. Unfortunately not known.

Gideon Klein (1919-1945) - also Jewish origin, studied with Haba as
his exclusive student 1939-40. He was as well in Terezin ghetto
(1941-44), where he wrote few works, and then he met his fate in
Ausschwitz.

After the WW II Haba established "Department for Quartertone and
Sixthtone Music" even on Prague Music Academy (AMU), 1946-1950.

Haba published early book on microintervals:
1922 - Harmonicke zaklady ctvrttonove hudby (Harmonic Ground ofQuartertone Music), later in his own translation to German, which was
revisited by E. Steinhard and publish under the title Neue
Harmonielehre, Leipzig 1927
This book you offered for download, thank you very much, I didn't
have it (does it mean you can understand Czech?). Right now after
downloading I have read it, it has just few pages and I have learned
fast-reading mode in my childhood. It's full of very funny
statements, and my opinion about his late-romantism esthetic starting
point was only confirmed. On one side he started to use something
very unusual, on the other side he used there such terms like
kvintakord (triad), septakord (seventh chord) etc. until 13, that
means totally traditional classical chord structure based on thirds,
just with quartertone alterations of more or less notes... He talks
even about "modulation" etc., which is funny in context with
quartertone terrain. And musical examples, when you erase all
incidentals, look like Schumann or Wagner (OK, Mahler) :-)

and article in German:
Die Theorie der Vierteltöne - Theory of Quartertones (1925 in "Von
neuer Musik" - About New Music)

It was written somewhere that he found microintervals in Moravian
folklore in region he was born and started to derive his theories
from this "scientific folklorism". I don't think so. If we compare
with Janacek: Janacek learned from Moravian folklore many things,
modality of Eastern, Byzantinian type in melodics, modal harmonic
progressions older then Baroque/Classicism functional harmony,
unusual chromatic jumps and modulations caused probably mainly by
lack of "academic" knowledge of theory by uneducated folk performers,
but mainly some elements of arrangement, tectonics (irregularity in
period's and motifs length), rhythm (irregularity, or opposite -
regular ostinato, motoric rhythms)... But why Janacek didn't used at
all microintervalls? A man who used very exact scientific methods for
folklore analysis didn't mention some microintervals? Who collected a
lot of folk tunes? Such job asks very good hearing, no doubt Janacek
had perfect pitch.
I have simple answer. In Moravian music there are NOT intentional
microintervals. If you hear some, then they are caused by bad quality
and distuned instruments, lack of knowledge and playing skills by
uneducated folk players, who are usually only music amateurs, even
autodidacts without any higher formal music education, many of them
"help" themselves during folk dancing parties with pretty good amount
of pretty good Moravian wines or even stronger alcohol - no wonder
music can be slightly out of tune, out of rhythm... Just my personal
theory based on deep knowledge of Moravian folklore (and Moravian
wine - I'm half Moravian).

In my opinion the biggest problem of Haba was a great disproportion
between his let's say proclaimed avantguardism (expressed in quite
unusual composing with microintervals, and he used them not only in
melodic sense but also for chords, OK, out of tune triads..., and I
have to mention here his "athematic style") and quite traditional
compositional method based on folklorism, late romanticism wide
tonality, partly cool boring panchromatic expressionism... If I am
very sarcastic it can be said his music sound like Mahler, Strauss,
Debussy, Rimskij-Korsakov played by more or less drunken performers
with intentionally distuned instruments and singers (and to be REALLY
sarcastic I would say singers don't need to be drunken, thay just can
sing like they are used to). Totally common, conform music style,
which is just somehow out of tune. :-)
Such composers like Janacek, Bartok, Holst, Stravinski, even Debussy
were in certain sense more far in compositional thinking despite the
fact they could use standard tuning systems, common diatonic scales,
modes, or chromatic... Their modernism is more in tectonics,
microtectonics, work with meter, rhythm... Just my opinion.

Another problem with Haba's music is that of course it's pretty tough
job to perform it, and not well accepted from public as result is not
nice sounding music even when done perfectly. There are recently no
musicians educated in microtonal performing in Czech Republic, so his
music is not performed at all. Consequently not newly recorded, and
what I have heard and could judge with my perfect pitch, it's only a
very approximative attempt to play his music. In fact it has nothing
to do with exact quartertones or other systems, it's just music which
is totally out of tune, that's all.

I can't help myself to add another point of criticism of Haba music:
he used only equal temperaments, that means another divisions of
imperfect 12 ET system. Which beauty we can expect from such
mathematically exact system? Nor mathematical neither artistic... It
just sounds terribly. I personally don't like quartertones despite
the fact I used them more times, and consider them to be rather unpleasant for listening. So in my opinion it was a big mistake of
Haba to use only such systems, and not do some steps in direction of
just intervals or systems with steps of different size... Which is
quite strange when we remember he started with folklorism and even
said that he derived microintervals from folklore music. What a
contradiction!

I don't think he wrote too much compositions - over 100. And about
half of it are in quartertone system. That means approx. two works
per year only...

What's interesting he was follower of Steiner's anthroposophy.

Concerning some of his instruments - during my study at Brno
Janacek's Academy of Music after 1986 there was Haba's quartertone
Foerster piano rented from Prague Museum, unfortunately later it
disappeared, probably returned to the museum. When I started my work
there as a teacher in 1990, it was not to find. Haba wrote in his
book that president Masaryk supported Haba's work and granted him
big amount of money to build this piano.

Fate of his sixthtone harmonium with six small manuals is sad as
well: this instrument was during my Conservatory study of pipe organ
and composition (1973-1979) deposited in organ classroom, somewhere
in dark corner behind the school organ, full of dust, nobody used it
and it slowly started to become a ruin. I remember still my surprise
to find it there, nobody knew any details about it, I liked to
improvise on it sometimes, it still worked. (Maybe here my interest
in microintervals started, who knows...) When after political changes
in 1989 it was possible to ask such questions, and I wanted to buy
the ruin, restore it and use, I was told it was destroyed. Such
ignorant idiots were on important leading places before 1989, and
they could do such decisions... What a pity. (I'm afraid situation
now doesn't differ too much...)

Sorry for rather too long message, I couldn't resist.

Have a nice day.

Daniel Forro

On 24 Sep 2008, at 4:18 PM, tuning@yahoogroups.com wrote:

>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> __
> ______________________________________________________________________
> __
> 4. harmonicke zaklady ctvrttonove soustavy
> Posted by: "daniel_anthony_stearns"
> daniel_anthony_stearns@... daniel_anthony_stearns
> Date: Tue Sep 23, 2008 4:36 pm ((PDT))
>
> Alois Haba was an early microtonalist and a proponent of various
> fractional divisions of the octave . Few articles would serve as a
> better introduction to Haba than this one:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/6xpmo9
>
> I thought the bit in about Haba's ascension to professorship at the
> Prague Conservatory was very interesting... for ten years Haba taught
> at the Conservatory on the basis of an annually renewed permission to
> hold "courses in microtonal music"------->microtonal music was not a
> separate subject in the curriculum, but was considered a department
> of the composition class and could only be taken by students who had
> already taken the required composition subjects. It wasn't until 1934
> that Haba was appointed a professor of composition at the
> Conservatory. Among his many students, several of whom went on to
> produce and promote fractional interval music themselves, were
> Ljubica Maric, Jeronimas Kacinskas, Viktor Ullmann, Slavko Osterc,
> Constantin Iliev, Jiri Srnka, Necil Kazim Akses, Erwin Schulhoff,
> Karel Reiner, Miroslav Ponc, Stepan Lucky, Rudolf Kubin, Jaroslav
> Jezek, Vaclav Dobias, Karel Ancerl, and many, many others.
>
> Haba composed an awful lot of quarter-tone music, including a full
> quarter-tone opera, Matka, and six string quartets (nos. 2, 3, 4, 6,
> 12 and 14), six suites, eleven fantasies and a sonata for piano, and
> two suites for guitar. Haba also composed pieces using other
> fractional divisions of the tone, like string quartet no. 16 in fifth-
> tones, and string quartets (nos. 5, 10 and 11) and suites for solo
> violin and cello in sixth-tones. Unfortunately, almost all of Haba's
> recordings are very difficult to find and usually quite expensive as
> well.
>
> Haba, like Carrillo in Mexico, was also influential enough to managed
> to have special microtonal instruments made to his specifications.
> For example, the piano manufacturer A. Forster built a quarter-tone
> piano and a sixth-tone harmonium at his request. He also convinced
> other manufactures to make him a quarter-tone clarinet and trumpet,
> and later a quarter-tone guitar. Haba also wrote two important
> microtonal textbooks, Neue Harmonielehre des diatonischen,
> chromatischen, Viertel-, Drittel-, Sechstel-, und Zwolfteltonsystems
> and Harmonicke zaklady ctvrttonove soustavy. FWIW, I have the latter
> of these in Czech transferred to PDF at yousendit, and I'd be happy
> to share it with anyone who'd be interested:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/4cbtuj
>
> It's also, of course, striking what a dark time in the development of
> the modern psyche this whole period was set in, and the unimaginable
> consequences it brought about. Just out of the very small and
> particular group of composers I mentioned here as former students of
> Haba, two were killed in the concentration camps; Viktor Ullmann and
> Erwin Schulhoff. After the Nazi seizure of Czechoslavakia, Ullmann
> was sent to Theresienstadt, where he somehow manager to compose a one-
> act opera, Der Kaiser von Atlantis, which was based on a tyrannical
> monarch who outlaws death only to later beg for its return to relieve
> humanity from the horrors of living. He later died, most likely at
> Auschwitz. Schulhoff was a member of the communist party, and after
> the Nazi occupation in 1939 was granted Soviet citizenship to protect
> him from arrest. But after the 1941 Nazi invasion of Russia, he was
> arrested and later died in the concentration camps. Others, like
> Stephan Lucky (detained at Terezin, Dachau, and Auschwitz) and Karel
> Reiner (detained at Bucharest, Auschwitz and Buchenwald) miraculously
> survived and even composed again after liberation. I can't even begin
> to imagine.
>
> http://netnewmusic.ning.com/profile/danstearns
> http://zebox.com/daniel_anthony_stearns/
> http://zebox.com/danstearns_4/
> http://www.youtube.com/user/danstearns
> http://zebox.com/danstearns_5/
> http://zebox.com/avantgarde_jazzguitar/
>
>

🔗Torsten Anders <torsten.anders@...>

🔗Ozan Yarman <ozanyarman@...>

Dear Mr. Forro,

Thank you for your participation with such an informative post.
Unfortunately, my knowledge is limited on the subject of modern
(westernized) Turkish composers using microtones. I am not aware of
any micro-intervallic piece by Kazim Akses or any other of the Turkish
Five. Given the aversion of the ruling elite of the young Turkish
Republic to "quarter-tones" (that was frequently associated with
Arabism and Byzantinism - which was considered abominable to
modernized Turkish taste) I do not think that these composers, who
were subsisting on state funds, could risk their livelihood composing
avant-garde music employing "Arabic" or "Byzantine" intervals shunned
as a state policy. As a matter of fact, you can read Adnan Saygun's
and Cemal Reshid Rey's (best known of the Turkish Five) as well as
Osman Zeki Ungor's outbursts on this topic in support of the state
policy in my doctorate dissertation. Consider, that the richly micro-
intervallic maqam music tradition has been subjected to abuses
starting from 1926. The situation did not change with the death of
Kemal Ataturk and the rise to power of Ismet Inonu, since Inonu fully
supported the westernization efforts in culture and economical/
political integration with USA. It is ironic that the West has made
great strides in musical exploration outside of 12 equal semitones to
the octave since, while Turkiye has succumbed to pre-1945 methods and
aspirations of polyphony consigned to 12 equal tones per octave.

Cordially,
Oz.

On Sep 24, 2008, at 6:27 PM, Daniel Forro wrote:

> Hi, Mr. Stearns,
>
> your interesting and to me slightly surprising message about Alois
> Haba forced me to switch from lurking mode (ROM = reading only
> member) and I'm trying to compose my first message here and add
> something to yours as I think I had maybe something to say.
> Concerning my lurking mode, first - English is not my native
> language, second - I'm shy person usually in the beginning of
> communication (which can quickly change), third - there's not too
> much time in a fight for my daily bread to be deeply involved even in
> very interesting discussions, done by prominent members here, fourth
> - one of my former students, Petr Parizek, is here enough active to
> write and do a lot in the direction I taught him... But in the worse
> case I can write more about myself and my work if somebody is
> interested which I doubt. In the meantime you are welcome to visit my
> web pages and eventually listen to some of my music crimes (some of
> them microintervallic):
>
> www.soundclick.com/forrotronics
> daikichi.p-kit.com
> www.forrotronics.cz
>
> As a person who
> - is Czech origin
> - is a founder and chairman of Czech Society for Microintervallic
> Music (I don't like a term "microtonal", "microtonality" as it evokes
> "small tonality", in Czech language we use "mikrointerval" =
> "microinterval")
>
> of course I know something about the facts you have written. You are
> pretty well informed about lot of things, maybe just a few additional
> facts from my side.
>
> First I would say there is internationally renowned term "Haba
> School", which doesn't mean at all "microintervallic music" school.
> Haba was excellent and influential teacher with very wide knowledge,
> open to all new ideas. His lessons were more like a seminar, lectures
> widely oriented on experimental acoustics, analysis of "Oriental"
> music, (in those times Czech terminology Turkey, Near East, Arabia,
> Egypt, North African countries, and maybe more to the East), role of
> music in society etc. - nobody did those times anything similar.
> Haba was a lecturer at Prague Conservatory since 1923, since 1924 he
> started his course of quartertone music, opened for everybody who was
> interested! He became officially Professor since 1934 and "Department
> of Quartertone and Sixthtone Music" (not microtonal as you wrote, OK,
> you didn't quoted anything, it's just a translation) was established.
> First those times AFAIK term "microtonal" was not used, second he
> probably wanted to attract foreign students from "oriental" countries
> using relatively known terms. Haba and his students even took part
> and have been demonstrating quartertone music for about sixth month
> period at the very first (and for longer time the last one) Frankfurt
> Music Fair in 1927 and some students (I think mainly Miroslav Ponc)
> have been demonstrating "quartertone music" in lectures and concerts
> with success, and public was attracted. I'm not sure if they were
> there because Haba was those times internationally renowned, or if
> his good fame came after this event. But probably thanks to this
> event Haba got some foreign students...
>
> Many of Haba students just visited his lessons for inspiration, they
> didn't compose microintervallic works at all. Classes continued even
> during German occupation 1939-1945, but principially they couldn't
> work fully as official German propaganda those times considered all
> experimental music to be "entartete Art" (perverse art) and similar
> music was officially prohibited as well as "inferior nigger's jazz".
>
> Now I haven't here at my hand a book about Haba written by Brno
> musicologist Jiri Vyslouzil for quoting more details, but foreign
> students as you write were by names from former Yugoslavian Kingdom
> (Slovenia, Serbia... there were more: Maric, Vuckovic, Ristic...),
> Bulgaria (Iliev studied with him after WW II, another student was V.
> A. Bozinov), Turkey (Mr. Ozan, do you know somehing about?),
> Kacinskas was Lithuanian, Wiesmayer was British violinist. AFAIK
> nobody of them composed microintervallic music in big numbers, and as
> their main compositional method. To my surprise many of them wrote
> very conventional music, or neoclassical... They took it just as an
> additional course. My theory is somehow those times maybe probably
> they considered it fashionable, somehow they felt they are "in".
> Maybe. Or they just like to visit Haba's lessons as for sure he was a
> great personality.
>
> Concerning his Czech students, it's interesting many of them were in
> fact of Jewish descent with all those terrible consequences which
> came after 1939... Haba tried to help to his Jewish students so even
> his life was endangered.
>
> What I remember roughly:
> Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944) was born in Silesia, German-Jewish origin,
> not Czech. One of those so called "composers of Terezin (in German
> language Theresienstadt) ghetto" and died in Oswiecim (Ausschwitz)...
> He finished his study with Haba in 1937. Name of his opera written in
> Terezin was "Die Tod-Verweigerung" (1943). There were more Czech
> composers of Jewish origin in Terezin, for example Pavel Haas...
> Thanks to political changes in former Czechoslovakia after 1989 and
> personal effort of some people those authors were brought from
> oblivion and become little bit famous, even fashionable.
> [Ad Terezin: this relatively small city was garrison city from the
> middle of 18th century, built as a fortress with fortification, named
> by Maria Theresia, and well preserved until now in this state. Nazis
> used it as an ideal station for concentration of Jewish people before
> sending them to other places where they were assasinated, because
> such city was easy to close and control. There was always a big
> amount of people, whole families including children, and people
> wanted desperately to live despite many of them probably could feel
> they will soon die. So even some kind of culture was there, Nazis
> disused it for propaganda when Red Cross people come to check the
> conditions there. There were music concerts, even some orchestra.
> Composer Hans Krasa composed there his opera for children Brundibar,
> and it wan performed many times there, very often children performers
> were sent after performance to Ausschwitz... and training with new
> performers started next day again... ]
>
> Jiri Srnka (1907-1982) become later famous and sought composer of
> film music, otherwise he is now forgotten.
>
> Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942) of German/Jewish origin was interesting
> person, pupil of Max Reger, excellent pianist and composer, also
> influenced by jazz or what he considered to be jazz those times (we
> know now it was more exactly American pop based on some jazz
> elements, in the sense of what Gershwin did). He performed on
> quartertone piano and did more demonstrating tours with Haba in
> Germany in 20ies. His works are unknown to the Czech public now.
> Politically he was of course naîve and wrong when he believed in
> bolshevism. Solzhenicyn describe in his history of Gulag many cases
> that sympatizant foreigners who came to Russia were
> propagandistically disused and many of them disappeared in the hell
> of working camps with whole families. So if Schulhoff isn't killed by
> one totalitarian establishment, for sure he would be terminated in
> Stalin's Soviet Union like many others. (What more: there was not so
> much sympathy to Jewish people as well in SU despite the fact that
> some leading persons of KGB were Jewish.) As a composer he was
> brilliant.
>
> Karel Reiner (1910-1979), studied with Haba 1934-35, was not so
> famous as a composer, more as a theoretician, teacher and pianist
> (quartertone piano including), later also in Terezin and other camps,
> he was even selected to "march of death" but survived. Now he is
> almost forgotten.
>
> Miroslav Ponc (1902-1976) was another very interesting and
> unfortunately in Czech Republic now almost forgotten artist, who did
> lot of incidental music for theatre, film and radio drama music, also
> early experiments with optophony, audiovisual art and similar. He
> studied with Haba in 1934-35 as his exclusive student (lot of the
> other studied composition with different teachers, and just visited
> Haba's lessons as a part of their study).
>
> Stepan Lucky (1919-2006) studied with Haba 1946-48 (after 1948
> communistic regime closed Department of Quartetone Music), composed
> lot of incidental music for theatre, radio, film... Most of his works
> are tonal, traditional. I found only one quartertone work on his
> list - Three Studies for quartertone piano.
>
> Rudolf Kubin (1909-1973) studied with Haba 1925-26 has only few
> quartertone works, which is strange, he was another exclusive student
> of him.
>
> Jaroslav Jezek (1906-1942) was heavily eye-handicapped, almost blind,
> but talented expressionistic composer and pianist. He studied with
> Haba in 1927-28. I don't know any of his microintervallic works, but
> until now he is very famous as an author of revual music and pop
> songs for theatre, inspired by American pop. His songs are in Czech
> Republic well know, almost like a part of folklore... On the other
> side his serious works are not performed at all.
>
> Vaclav Dobias (1909-1978), with Haba in 1939-40, after his promissing
> avantguarde period he changed during the war his compositional style
> which become totally conform and traditional. Which helped him to
> become one of the prominent composers of communistic regime after
> 1948, he wrote mass propagandistic songs and similar works. He left
> only few quartertone works, his main idol was Bedrich Smetana (and
> Smetana has NO quartertone piece!), he returned to his style. He
> doesn't deserve to be mentioned. Such "artists" serving as political
> propaganda supporters should be forgotten. In fact recently his works
> are not performed, that way he got what he deserved. History has no
> mercy... sometimes...
>
> Karel Ancerl was known more as a conductor, I didn't know at all he
> also composed...
>
> There were more students, some deserve to be named:
> Miroslav Kabelac (1908-1979) - outstanding composer, studied with
> Haba 1930-31.
>
> Karel Haba (1898-1972) - violinist and composer, brother of Alois,
> studied with him 1923-1925. Few quartertone works.
>
> Jan Rychlik (1916-1964) - excellent composer, one of the most
> interesting Czech composers. Unfortunately not known.
>
> Gideon Klein (1919-1945) - also Jewish origin, studied with Haba as
> his exclusive student 1939-40. He was as well in Terezin ghetto
> (1941-44), where he wrote few works, and then he met his fate in
> Ausschwitz.
>
> After the WW II Haba established "Department for Quartertone and
> Sixthtone Music" even on Prague Music Academy (AMU), 1946-1950.
>
> Haba published early book on microintervals:
> 1922 - Harmonicke zaklady ctvrttonove hudby (Harmonic Ground of
> Quartertone Music), later in his own translation to German, which was
> revisited by E. Steinhard and publish under the title Neue
> Harmonielehre, Leipzig 1927
> This book you offered for download, thank you very much, I didn't
> have it (does it mean you can understand Czech?). Right now after
> downloading I have read it, it has just few pages and I have learned
> fast-reading mode in my childhood. It's full of very funny
> statements, and my opinion about his late-romantism esthetic starting
> point was only confirmed. On one side he started to use something
> very unusual, on the other side he used there such terms like
> kvintakord (triad), septakord (seventh chord) etc. until 13, that
> means totally traditional classical chord structure based on thirds,
> just with quartertone alterations of more or less notes... He talks
> even about "modulation" etc., which is funny in context with
> quartertone terrain. And musical examples, when you erase all
> incidentals, look like Schumann or Wagner (OK, Mahler) :-)
>
> and article in German:
> Die Theorie der Vierteltöne - Theory of Quartertones (1925 in "Von
> neuer Musik" - About New Music)
>
> It was written somewhere that he found microintervals in Moravian
> folklore in region he was born and started to derive his theories
> from this "scientific folklorism". I don't think so. If we compare
> with Janacek: Janacek learned from Moravian folklore many things,
> modality of Eastern, Byzantinian type in melodics, modal harmonic
> progressions older then Baroque/Classicism functional harmony,
> unusual chromatic jumps and modulations caused probably mainly by
> lack of "academic" knowledge of theory by uneducated folk performers,
> but mainly some elements of arrangement, tectonics (irregularity in
> period's and motifs length), rhythm (irregularity, or opposite -
> regular ostinato, motoric rhythms)... But why Janacek didn't used at
> all microintervalls? A man who used very exact scientific methods for
> folklore analysis didn't mention some microintervals? Who collected a
> lot of folk tunes? Such job asks very good hearing, no doubt Janacek
> had perfect pitch.
> I have simple answer. In Moravian music there are NOT intentional
> microintervals. If you hear some, then they are caused by bad quality
> and distuned instruments, lack of knowledge and playing skills by
> uneducated folk players, who are usually only music amateurs, even
> autodidacts without any higher formal music education, many of them
> "help" themselves during folk dancing parties with pretty good amount
> of pretty good Moravian wines or even stronger alcohol - no wonder
> music can be slightly out of tune, out of rhythm... Just my personal
> theory based on deep knowledge of Moravian folklore (and Moravian
> wine - I'm half Moravian).
>
> In my opinion the biggest problem of Haba was a great disproportion
> between his let's say proclaimed avantguardism (expressed in quite
> unusual composing with microintervals, and he used them not only in
> melodic sense but also for chords, OK, out of tune triads..., and I
> have to mention here his "athematic style") and quite traditional
> compositional method based on folklorism, late romanticism wide
> tonality, partly cool boring panchromatic expressionism... If I am
> very sarcastic it can be said his music sound like Mahler, Strauss,
> Debussy, Rimskij-Korsakov played by more or less drunken performers
> with intentionally distuned instruments and singers (and to be REALLY
> sarcastic I would say singers don't need to be drunken, thay just can
> sing like they are used to). Totally common, conform music style,
> which is just somehow out of tune. :-)
> Such composers like Janacek, Bartok, Holst, Stravinski, even Debussy
> were in certain sense more far in compositional thinking despite the
> fact they could use standard tuning systems, common diatonic scales,
> modes, or chromatic... Their modernism is more in tectonics,
> microtectonics, work with meter, rhythm... Just my opinion.
>
> Another problem with Haba's music is that of course it's pretty tough
> job to perform it, and not well accepted from public as result is not
> nice sounding music even when done perfectly. There are recently no
> musicians educated in microtonal performing in Czech Republic, so his
> music is not performed at all. Consequently not newly recorded, and
> what I have heard and could judge with my perfect pitch, it's only a
> very approximative attempt to play his music. In fact it has nothing
> to do with exact quartertones or other systems, it's just music which
> is totally out of tune, that's all.
>
> I can't help myself to add another point of criticism of Haba music:
> he used only equal temperaments, that means another divisions of
> imperfect 12 ET system. Which beauty we can expect from such
> mathematically exact system? Nor mathematical neither artistic... It
> just sounds terribly. I personally don't like quartertones despite
> the fact I used them more times, and consider them to be rather
> unpleasant for listening. So in my opinion it was a big mistake of
> Haba to use only such systems, and not do some steps in direction of
> just intervals or systems with steps of different size... Which is
> quite strange when we remember he started with folklorism and even
> said that he derived microintervals from folklore music. What a
> contradiction!
>
> I don't think he wrote too much compositions - over 100. And about
> half of it are in quartertone system. That means approx. two works
> per year only...
>
> What's interesting he was follower of Steiner's anthroposophy.
>
> Concerning some of his instruments - during my study at Brno
> Janacek's Academy of Music after 1986 there was Haba's quartertone
> Foerster piano rented from Prague Museum, unfortunately later it
> disappeared, probably returned to the museum. When I started my work
> there as a teacher in 1990, it was not to find. Haba wrote in his
> book that president Masaryk supported Haba's work and granted him
> big amount of money to build this piano.
>
> Fate of his sixthtone harmonium with six small manuals is sad as
> well: this instrument was during my Conservatory study of pipe organ
> and composition (1973-1979) deposited in organ classroom, somewhere
> in dark corner behind the school organ, full of dust, nobody used it
> and it slowly started to become a ruin. I remember still my surprise
> to find it there, nobody knew any details about it, I liked to
> improvise on it sometimes, it still worked. (Maybe here my interest
> in microintervals started, who knows...) When after political changes
> in 1989 it was possible to ask such questions, and I wanted to buy
> the ruin, restore it and use, I was told it was destroyed. Such
> ignorant idiots were on important leading places before 1989, and
> they could do such decisions... What a pity. (I'm afraid situation
> now doesn't differ too much...)
>
> Sorry for rather too long message, I couldn't resist.
>
> Have a nice day.
>
> Daniel Forro
>
>
> On 24 Sep 2008, at 4:18 PM, tuning@yahoogroups.com wrote:
>
>>
>> ______________________________________________________________________
>> __
>> ______________________________________________________________________
>> __
>> 4. harmonicke zaklady ctvrttonove soustavy
>> Posted by: "daniel_anthony_stearns"
>> daniel_anthony_stearns@... daniel_anthony_stearns
>> Date: Tue Sep 23, 2008 4:36 pm ((PDT))
>>
>> Alois Haba was an early microtonalist and a proponent of various
>> fractional divisions of the octave . Few articles would serve as a
>> better introduction to Haba than this one:
>>
>> http://tinyurl.com/6xpmo9
>>
>> I thought the bit in about Haba's ascension to professorship at the
>> Prague Conservatory was very interesting... for ten years Haba taught
>> at the Conservatory on the basis of an annually renewed permission to
>> hold "courses in microtonal music"------->microtonal music was not a
>> separate subject in the curriculum, but was considered a department
>> of the composition class and could only be taken by students who had
>> already taken the required composition subjects. It wasn't until 1934
>> that Haba was appointed a professor of composition at the
>> Conservatory. Among his many students, several of whom went on to
>> produce and promote fractional interval music themselves, were
>> Ljubica Maric, Jeronimas Kacinskas, Viktor Ullmann, Slavko Osterc,
>> Constantin Iliev, Jiri Srnka, Necil Kazim Akses, Erwin Schulhoff,
>> Karel Reiner, Miroslav Ponc, Stepan Lucky, Rudolf Kubin, Jaroslav
>> Jezek, Vaclav Dobias, Karel Ancerl, and many, many others.
>>
>> Haba composed an awful lot of quarter-tone music, including a full
>> quarter-tone opera, Matka, and six string quartets (nos. 2, 3, 4, 6,
>> 12 and 14), six suites, eleven fantasies and a sonata for piano, and
>> two suites for guitar. Haba also composed pieces using other
>> fractional divisions of the tone, like string quartet no. 16 in
>> fifth-
>> tones, and string quartets (nos. 5, 10 and 11) and suites for solo
>> violin and cello in sixth-tones. Unfortunately, almost all of Haba's
>> recordings are very difficult to find and usually quite expensive as
>> well.
>>
>> Haba, like Carrillo in Mexico, was also influential enough to managed
>> to have special microtonal instruments made to his specifications.
>> For example, the piano manufacturer A. Forster built a quarter-tone
>> piano and a sixth-tone harmonium at his request. He also convinced
>> other manufactures to make him a quarter-tone clarinet and trumpet,
>> and later a quarter-tone guitar. Haba also wrote two important
>> microtonal textbooks, Neue Harmonielehre des diatonischen,
>> chromatischen, Viertel-, Drittel-, Sechstel-, und Zwolfteltonsystems
>> and Harmonicke zaklady ctvrttonove soustavy. FWIW, I have the latter
>> of these in Czech transferred to PDF at yousendit, and I'd be happy
>> to share it with anyone who'd be interested:
>>
>> http://tinyurl.com/4cbtuj
>>
>> It's also, of course, striking what a dark time in the development of
>> the modern psyche this whole period was set in, and the unimaginable
>> consequences it brought about. Just out of the very small and
>> particular group of composers I mentioned here as former students of
>> Haba, two were killed in the concentration camps; Viktor Ullmann and
>> Erwin Schulhoff. After the Nazi seizure of Czechoslavakia, Ullmann
>> was sent to Theresienstadt, where he somehow manager to compose a
>> one-
>> act opera, Der Kaiser von Atlantis, which was based on a tyrannical
>> monarch who outlaws death only to later beg for its return to relieve
>> humanity from the horrors of living. He later died, most likely at
>> Auschwitz. Schulhoff was a member of the communist party, and after
>> the Nazi occupation in 1939 was granted Soviet citizenship to protect
>> him from arrest. But after the 1941 Nazi invasion of Russia, he was
>> arrested and later died in the concentration camps. Others, like
>> Stephan Lucky (detained at Terezin, Dachau, and Auschwitz) and Karel
>> Reiner (detained at Bucharest, Auschwitz and Buchenwald) miraculously
>> survived and even composed again after liberation. I can't even begin
>> to imagine.
>>
>> http://netnewmusic.ning.com/profile/danstearns
>> http://zebox.com/daniel_anthony_stearns/
>> http://zebox.com/danstearns_4/
>> http://www.youtube.com/user/danstearns
>> http://zebox.com/danstearns_5/
>> http://zebox.com/avantgarde_jazzguitar/
>>
>>
>
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🔗Daniel Forró <dan.for@...>