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Hartmann is the next significant symphonist in the Austro-German tradition after Mahler, and the last 30 years of his career can be viewed as primarily a dialogue with symphonic form, an attempt to establish whether it can have continuing relevance in the terrible times the composer was living through. The elements of Hartmann’s language, ranging from jazz to post-Bergian expressionism and post-Hindemithian motoric toccata writing, often — perhaps predominantly — may seem to fail to cohere into an expressive unity. The symphonies are monumental constructions with fractured, facetted surfaces and a deep vein of existential Angst. (In this sense there is a kinship of expression with Allan Pettersson.) After his death the eight numbered symphonies were discovered to have been preceeded by an equal number of unnumbered symphonic works, some of which were partly re-composed in the post-war scores, making his catalogue quite complex.

Operas

• Waschfigurenkabinett (1929-30), five little operas to libretti by Erich Bornemann, as follows (only Nos.1 & 5 complete in Hartmann’s manuscript):
  1. ’Leben und Sterben des heiligen Teufels’
  2. ’Der Mann, der vom Tode auferstand’ (reconstructed from sketches by Gunter Bialas and Hans Werner Henze)
  3. ’Chaplin-Ford-Trott’ (reconstructed from sketches by Hans Werner Henze)
  4. ’Fürwahr ...?!' (reconstructed from sketches by Winfried Hiller)
  5. ’Die Witwe von Ephesus’
• ’Simplicius Simplicissimus’, 3 scenes from his Youth, opera after Grimmelhausen with libretto by Hartmann, Scherchen and Wolfgang Petzet (1934-35; rev. 1956)

Symphonic Works

• Symphonie-Divertissement for bassoon, trombone, double bass and chamber orchestra (1932-33; partly lost)
• ’Miserae’, Symphonic Poem (1934)
• Symphony ‘L’Oeuvre’ after Zola (1937-38: partly revised into Symphony No.6)
• Symphony for string orchestra and voice (1938; later revised into Symphony No.4
• without the vocal movement - a setting of Klabund - which is lost)
• Sinfonia Tragica (1940-43: partly re-used in Symphony No.3)
• Symphonische Ouverture (1942)
• Symphonisches Hymnen (1942)
• Symphonic Suite ‘La Vita Nuova’ for speaker and orchestra (1943, lost)
• Symphony ‘Klagegesang’ (1944: partly re-used in Symphony No.3)
• Symphony No.1 ‘Versuch eines Requiem’ for alto and orchestra to texts by
• Whitman (1950 revision of 1936 Kantate, previously (1948) called Symphonisches Fragment)
• Symphony No.2 ‘Adagio’ (1945 rev. 1946)
• Symphony No.3 (1948-49; incorporates revisions of parts of Sinfonia Tragica and Klagegesang)
• Symphony No.4 for string orchestra (1946-47; new version of 1938 Symphony for strings and voice)
• Symphony No.5 ‘Symphonie Concertante’(1950; revised version of 1932 Trumpet
• Concerto via Concerto for wind, basses and 2 solo trumpets)
• Symphony No.6 (1951-53; partly derived fom Symphony ‘L’Oevre’)
• Fugue-Scherzo for percussion orchestra (1956-57)
• Symphony No.7 (1957-58)
• Symphony No.8 (1960-62)

Concertos

• Kammerkonzert for clarinet. string quartet and string orchestra (1930/35)
• Kleines Konzert for string quartet and percussion (1932)
• Concerto for Trumpet and wind chamber orchestra (1932; only second movement, ‘Lied’, survives)
• Cello Concerto (1932-33; lost)
• Concerto Funebre for violin and string orchestra (1939 rev. 1959)
• Concerto for wind ensemble, double-basses and two solo trumpets (1948-49; recomposed from 1932 Trumpet Concerto, further recomposed into Symphony No.5)
• Concerto for piano, wind and percussion (1953)
• Concerto for viola and piano accompanied by wind and percussion (1955)

Chamber Music

• 4 Sonatas for solo violin (1927)
• Tanzsuite for wind quintet (1931)
• Burleske Musik for wind, percussion and piano (1931)
• Toccata Variata for 10 wind instruments, percussion and piano (1932)
• String Quartet No.1 ‘Carillon’ (1922)
• String Quartet No.2 (1945-46)

Vocal Music

• Kantate for a cappella chorus on texts by Marx and Becher (1929)
• Profane Messe (1929)
• Kantate for voice and orchestra on words of Whitman (1936; revised as Symphony No.1)
• Friede Anno ‘48 for chorus and piano (1936-37; rev. 1955 as Lamento)
• Ghetto Cantata (1960-61)
• Gesangsszene aus Sodom und Gomorra for baritone and orchestra, text by Giradoux (1962-3; unfinished)

Piano Music

• Jazz Toccata and Fugue (1928)
• Sonatine (1931)
• Piano Sonata No.1 (1932)
• Piano Sonata No.2 ‘27. April 1945’ (1945)

(contribution by Malcolm MacDonald <macvalcompuserve.com>)

Hartmann was the son of one painter and the brother of another. He studied with Joseph Haas at the Akademie der Tonkunst in Munich (1924-27) and afterwards was encouraged by Hermann Scherchen. After the Nazis came to power he refused to allow his music to be performed in Germany (instead several important premieres took place abroad) and he remained an “internal exile” during the War, refusing to co-operate with the regime. In 1941-2 he studied privately with Anton Webern. After the War, partly because he was politically untainted, Hartmann was appointed Musikdramaturg at the Bavarian State Opera and founded the “Musica Viva” Festival Concerts in Munich to present music that had been banned during the Nazi era and to encourage the production of new music by German composers. He thus became a key figure in the revival of music in Germany and wielded considerable powers of patronage. He gave encouragement to Hans Werner Henze and befriended Dallapiccola. He received many honours and was invited to become professor of Music at the Hochschule in Cologne and in the Berlin Conservatory, but declined and preferred to stay in Munich. Despite his position of influence, his personal popularity and his unquestioned rectitude of principle, Hartmann’s own music — especially his devotion to symphonic form — was probably viewed by many of the younger generation as old-fashioned, and even now is probably not rated at its proper worth.

(contribution by Malcolm MacDonald <macvalcompuserve.com>)

• http://orelfoundation.org/index.php/composers/article/karl_amadeus_hartmann/

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