Welcome to the Hugo Kauder Society

The Hugo Kauder Society and the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center are proud to present a special concert featuring the acclaimed Tesla String Quartet. 

Category: General

Posted by: Karl

Friday, Feb. 23rd at 7:00: The Hugo Kauder Society and the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center present a special evening of music with the Tesla String Quartet [56 Broadway St., Asheville, NC]. Kauder was the composer-in-residence as part of the BMC Summer Music Institute in 1945. 

The Tesla Quartet will be playing Kauder's String Quartet No. 4, one of several works originally featured during the composer's stay at the college in 1945. Please consider making a donation as part of our Kickstarter campaign for the event. There you will find a short informative video, which concludes with a brief introduction to the Tesla Quartet. The Society's continuing efforts to bring Kauder's music to new audiences and ensembles would not be possible without the support of our friends and allies around the world. Let us together continue to build upon past successes as we look forward to the new year. 

Hugo Kauder's String Quartet No. 4 was composed in Vienna in 1927. The piece consists of five short movements that the composer described as "character pieces". The music is not what one would expect from a composer living and working in 1920's Vienna amongst some of the leading figures of the Second Vienesse School. While many turned to dodecaphony and abstraction, Kauder simplified and was moving towards something more elemental and organic. Kauder makes use of pentatonic and modal scales to create simple yet expressive folk influenced melodies. He casts these melodies in intricate and rhythmically flexible contrapuntal structures. An easygoing pastoral mood prevails throughout, which subtly conceals the composer's masterful skill and technique. Kauder writes with an assured classical sense of formal balance, contrast and development. The open harmonies and crystalline textures resonate throughout with warmth and soulfulness.