ALOIS HABA Composer autographed envelope, 1936 inventor of Quarter Tone Music

Description: Rare autographed envelope by the Czech composer and inventor of quarter tone music, July 16, 1936. Haba signs his name in translation, Professor Alois Haba music composer. He writes to Kamil Krofta (1876-1945) Czech Diplomat, Historian & Holocaust victim.Hába (1893-1973) was perhaps the most original Czech composer of the 20th Century. Martinu tended to write big pieces and whilst Hába certainly wrote orchestral pieces, his originality was based on his invention, the quarter tone piano. Haba started his career with a strong background, a pupil of Vitezslav Novak at the Prague Conservatory, between 1914 and 1915, he sought out a more original mentor Franz Schreker in Vienna and then followed him to Berlin between 1918 and 1922. Ferrucio Busoni took a shine to Haba’s works and helped him to get performances. He arrived back in Prague in 1923 and joined the Prague Conservatory faculty as a Professor in 1924. He taught there through 1951. In the early 1910’s he became fascinated with the music of East Asia and the traditional small intervals in their music led to the “discovery” of quarter tone music. His first work was his second String Quartet op. 7 which he composed in 1920 using the quarter tone method. Between 1924 and 1931, Hába commissioned the August Förster Piano Company to make three different quarter tone pianos based upon his design. Förster an old piano manufacturer dating to 1859 has always been willing to do unique things, including manufacturing one of the first electric pianos in 1937. Other instrument makers created a quarter tone guitar, clarinet and trumpet based on his specifications. In 1936 another firm yet created a quarter tone harmonium. The composer was a visionary in the field and his unique perspective and compositions caught the attention of the European new music community. Early on, Artur Schnabel, Walter Gieseking and Paul Hindemith all saw merit in Hába’s work and programmed his music in their concerts. Bela Bartok, Karol Szymanowski and Josef Suk, the elder all took great interest in Hába’s work and theories. His students included a number of important Czech composers including his younger brother composer Karel Hába, Erwin Schulhoff, Vaclav Dobias, Stepan Lucky, Jiri Srnka, Rudolf Kubin, Ivo Jirasek, and Miroslav Ponc. Non Czech composers included students from Slovenia and Yugoslavia, Austria, Germany, Turkey, Bulgaria and England among others; Constantin Ilev, Necil Kazin Akses, Marijan Lipovsec, Slavko Osterc, Jan Wieczorek, Frank Wiesmeyer, and Mikola Kolessa were all pupils. Three important young Czech Jewish composers who studied with Hába lost their lives in the Nazi concentration camps including, Gideon Klein, Zikmund Schul and Viktor Ullmann. Composer Karel Reiner and Conductor Karel Ancerl, were also Holocaust victims who survived, but were among Haba’s most important students and a great proponents of his work. Even Bertholdt Brecht’s musical partner Hans Eisler who studied with Arnold Schoenberg studied with Hába and was influenced by his avant garde theories.

Price: 68 USD

Location: New York, New York

End Time: 2024-03-07T17:54:31.000Z

Shipping Cost: 9 USD