The Art-Music, Literature and Linguistics Forum

I recently bought a small collection of autograph manuscripts and printed scores of the German composer Anton Bauer (1893-1950). Nowadays he is nearly forgotten and - if -only remembered for collecting and preserving Bavarian folk songs and melodies. But in my collection I also found a printed score of a "Twelve tone music, for piano" which dates from 1926. I am not very familiar with the history of the twwlve tone technique, but it seems that Anton Bauer early adopted the ideas of Schoenberg. I checked an online list of dodecaphonic compositions and beside the first works by Alban Berg or Anton Webern there no earlier works in this technique. So could this Bauer composition be one of the first dodecaphonic compositions ever? Or did a lot of little known composers write in that technique around 1925 and are now just forgotten? I would be grateful for some information on the history of dodecaphonic compositions and an evaluation how interesting the Bauer composition could be for the music history.

Joseph Mathias Hauer started using a twelve-tone system in late 1919, but using a different system from Schoenberg, who invented his method in, I think, 1921.

Yes, I read about that. And that the first dodecaphonic composition date from around 1925 if we talk about Schoenberg, Webern, Berg. So the "Zwölftönemusik" (Twelve tones music) by Anton Bauer from 1926 is definitely of - at least - historical importance.

Scriabin's so-called "mystic chord" and the ways in which he treated it might or might not be regarded as suggestive of a move towards a form of serialism; regardless of that or of anyone else's thoughts on this kind of thing in he early part of the last century, it's not all just about Schönberg, that's for sure!

Is this piece by Bauer composed according to Schoenberg's system, or Bauer's own? That is an important question either way.

This may be of interest

https://ianpace.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/yefim-golyshev-arnold-schoenberg-and-the-origins-of-twelve-tone-music/

I am not familiar with the dodecaphony principles, but you can look into the piece via my website:

https://www.tobias-broeker.de/rare-manuscripts/violin-concertos/anton-bauer/ (https://www.tobias-broeker.de/rare-manuscripts/violin-concertos/anton-bauer/)

Best,
Tobias

It looks like it might be a joke, to be honest ...

Why?

Joseph Mathias Hauer has some things on Utube and his work has caused great chagrin for Schoenberg enthusiasts who proclaim him as the father of "atonalism."
I don't want to get into the lurid details of musicology except to say I prefer Hauer's music much more than Schoenbergs. 

A combination of:

The title, "Modern suite";
The tempo indication "Tempo di foxtrot";
The music itself, which shows little sign of any system.

I am thinking it might be a parody along the lines of Nielsen's 6th.