Kauder Society

Hugo Kauder (1888-1972) was an Austrian composer, violinist and writer on music. His formal musical training consisted of violin lessons in his home town. In 1905 he moved to Vienna, where he played in the orchestra of the Konzertverein (1910-1919). Self-taught as a composer, he studied the scores of Josquin des Prez and other 15th- and 16th-century Franco-Flemish composers while a student at the Technische Hochschule and Universität Wien. His own style is characterized by contrapuntal textures and conservative harmonies. Other influences include the conductors Ferdinand Löwe and Franz Schalk, the poets Rudolf Pannwitz and Otto zur Linde, and the linguist and anthropologist Helen Guttman, whom he married in 1923. His writings include two books, Entwurf einer neuen Melodie- und Harmonielehre (Vienna, 1932) and Counterpoint: an Introduction to Polyphonic Composition (New York, 1960), critical essays on musical events (1920-1950) and articles for Musikblätter des Anbruch (1919-1922). He moved to the Netherlands in 1938, but went on to England two years later. He settled in the United States in 1940. His honors include the City of Vienna composition prize (1928) for his First Symphony and a Fromm Foundation Award (1953).

The Hugo Kauder Society was founded in 2002 to foster awareness and appreciation of the composer Hugo Kauder and to provide opportunities to emerging musicians to perform or even premiere his works.

The Society was created in part as a response to the growing numbers of audience, performers, and scholars who are giving a fresh look at the work of composers whose access to the public was denied by the Third Reich. Hugo Kauder was one of these composers, forced to leave his beloved Vienna to continue his career. He was able to resume teaching and writing in New York, eventually completing over 300 compositions, but only about one quarter of these works are commercially available. Many others, held by his estate, are yet to be published.

The Society seeks to preserve and promote this body of work by archiving original manuscripts, scores, and writings; organizing world-premiere recordings and performances of previously unpublished works; and presenting an annual music competition for outstanding young musicians ages 35 and under. Each competition features a different body of Kauder works and instruments.

Sources: Thomas L. Gayda. "Kauder, Hugo." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/48451(accessed July 6, 2011).

http://www.hugokauder.org (accessed June 10, 2011)