Welcome to the Hugo Kauder Society

03/11/2004

New York City performance of Kauder

Hugo Kauder's Sonata for Flute and Piano was performed by flutist Norman Dee and pianist Josephine Chan Yung at a recital in New York City's Yeshiva University Museum on March 10, 2004. The performance, sponsored by the Hugo Kauder Society, was held in conjunction with the exhibition “Vienna: Jews and the City of Music 1870-1938” in the Manhattan Center for Jewish History.

The following is the speech that Mr. Dee delivered at the event.

On Playing Kauder

I first met Hugo Kauder when I was 15 years old when I had been introduced to him by my English teacher at New York’s High School of Music and Art, Ruth Steinbach. She often had students over her home to play chamber music as she was a musical amateur pianist. Little did I know she was a secret agent of the Kauder Circle. It was her mission in life to promulgate his music and bring musicians into his world.

As young talented musicians, we were training in 18th to 20th Century music and eager - especially as a wind player - to find new music.

We were, of course, smitten with the beauty of Mr. Kauder’s music and could not understand why it wasn’t holding its own in the music world. Our teachers had never heard of him. Once entering university and conservatory we soon became aware of the politics of music and the music business. Mr. Kauder did not write for the present. He wrote for the future when tonality and the meaning of his efforts would be in its right time and appreciated... but this is a longer story.

Because we were young and open, Mr. Kauder’s music had a direct appeal. The challenges of playing Kauder were in the same category of playing any of the other composers we were studying. However, in sharing our enthusiasm and working with other musicians over the years, the individual characteristics of Kauder have become apparent, as they are challenges to some.

Blatantly apparent to the performer, but not to the listener, is the lack of bar lines in Kauder’s music. He has been quoted as saying, “I don’t want those lines cutting through my music.” True, we musicians use bar lines like bases in a baseball game; where once arrived, one feels safe. In eliminating bar lines, Kauder’s music requires the musician to be listening and even more aware of what he and the music are doing. Does having bar lines prevent a musician from doing this? No. However, not having them forces the issue.

Another aspect of Kauder is in its intense polyphony and counterpoint - or as having been called before, “Kauderpoint”. His music is carefully composed, crafted in which the voices continue for entire sections; unlike many composers who occasionally break out into moments of polyphony only to retract to a simpler structure. Various techniques of canon, stretti, etc. require the musician to be very aware of who has the leading voice and what the music is doing. There is no “solo and accompaniment” in Kauder. The counterpoint emphasizes the reason for no bar lines. Each voice has, as part of its melodic rhythm, its own rhythmic emphasis. What is a downbeat for one voice, is not for another.

Kauder’s devotion to, and enrichment of Tonality has led to his use of the Double Scale in which accidentals (notes which deviate from the key signature) apply only to the note that immediately follows. This break with traditional nottion is a challenge to the novice to his music. In playing polytonal or atonal music the occasional mistake goes by unnoticed; but not in Kauder’s music. Every note is clearly within a tonal framework and sounds right or wrong. Kauder once said that “a wrong note is a lie!” This has established a standard of perfection which has been a challenge to all who perform.

Which leads me to my last point on playing Kauder. His music is so transparent that the best musicians feel exposed while performing Kauder. Only Mozart compares to this level of crystal-like clarity and exposure in performance. I have had many friends suddenly sound like students when playing Kauder. What creates this transparency? No unnecessary notes? Simple melodies? I can’t define it.

I was privileged to have known Mr. Kauder and hear him play in his weekly chamber music nights. He was not a virtuoso violinist. He barely used vibrato. But, he played with clarity and articulation. His Haydn quartet playing was memorable and exemplary of the music. His Brahms too was phenomenal though lacking the bravura we come to expect from Today’s electric artists. His ability to articulate a phrase unlocked the power of the music. As a musician, I have striven to achieve this simplicity. Playing Kauder requires a sense of articulation and clarity - letting the music play itself.