Studio photograph of Hans Rott, aged about 20

Hans Rott (August 1, 1858 - June 25, 1884) was an Austrian composer. His music is little-known today, though he received high praise in his time from the likes of Gustav Mahler and Anton Bruckner. Image File history File links PiRott1. ... Image File history File links PiRott1. ... August 1 is the 213th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (214th in leap years), with 152 days remaining. ... 1858 (MDCCCLVIII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... June 25 is the 176th day of the year (177th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 189 days remaining. ... 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... This article cites its sources but does not provide page references. ... Anton Bruckner (4 September 1824 – 11 October 1896) was an Austrian composer whose mature music was written at the end of the Romantic era. ...

Life

Rott was born in Braunhirschengrund, a suburb of Vienna. His mother Maria Rosalia (1840 - 1872, maiden name Lutz) was an actress and singer. His father Carl Mathias Rott (real name Roth, born 1807, married 1862) was a famous comic actor in Vienna, was crippled in 1874 by a stage accident, and died two years later. Inhabitants according to official census figures: 1800 to 2005 Vienna in 1858 Vienna (German: Wien ) is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine States of Austria. ... 1840 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1872 (MDCCCLXXII) was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... 1807 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1862 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Inhabitants according to official census figures: 1800 to 2005 Vienna in 1858 Vienna (German: Wien ) is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine States of Austria. ... 1874 (MDCCCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

Studies

Hans was left alone to continue his studies at the Conservatory. Fortunately, both his skill and financial need were recognized and he was excused from paying tuition. While studying, he briefly roomed with Gustav Mahler and Rudolf Krzyzanowsky. He studied piano with L. Landskron, harmony with H. Graedener, counterpoint and composition - like Mahler - with F. Krenn. This article cites its sources but does not provide page references. ...

He studied organ with Bruckner, starting in 1874, and graduating from Bruckner's organ class in 1877, with honors. Bruckner said that Rott played Bach very well, and even improvised wonderfully (a high compliment since Bruckner himself was a great improviser). Rott was also influenced by the works of Wagner, and even attended the very first Bayreuth Festival in 1876. Anton Bruckner (4 September 1824 – 11 October 1896) was an Austrian composer whose mature music was written at the end of the Romantic era. ... 1874 (MDCCCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1877 (MDCCCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The 1748 Haussmann portrait of the composer Bach redirects here. ... Wilhelm Richard Wagner (Leipzig, May 22, 1813 – Venice, February 13, 1883) was an influential German composer, conductor, music theorist, and essayist, primarily known for his operas (or music dramas as he later came to call them). ... Bayreuth Festspielhaus, as seen in 1882 The annual Bayreuth Festival in Bayreuth, Germany is devoted principally (but not exclusively) to performances of operas by the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner. ... 1876 (MDCCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ...

Compositions

During that time Rott was also organist at the Piarist church "Maria Treu" in Vienna. For the final year of his studies in 1878, Rott submitted the first movement of his Symphony in E major to a composition contest. The jury - except Bruckner - was very derisive of the work. After completing the Symphony in 1880, Rott showed the work to both Brahms and Hans Richter, in order to get it played. His efforts failed. Brahms did not like the fact that Bruckner exerted great influence on the Conservatory students, and even told Rott that he had no talent whatsoever and that he should give up music. Unfortunately, Rott lacked Mahler's inner resolve, and whereas Mahler was able to overcome many of the obstacles in his life, Rott was brought down by mental illness. The Pauline Congregation of the Mother of God or short Piarists is name of a Catholic educational order, the clerici regulares scholarum piarum, the , founded by Joseph Calasanza (Josephus a Matre Dei) at Rome in the beginning of the 16th century. ... 1878 (MDCCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Hans Richter (1843–1916), Austrian conductor (born in what is now Hungary), studied at the Vienna Conservatory (showing a special interest in the horn) and developed his conducting career at several opera-houses in the Austro-Hungarian empire. ... Mental Illness is a concept in psychiatry and other mental health professions referring to mental abnormality associated with distress and/or dysfunction. ...

Final years

Rott was committed to a mental hospital in 1881, where despite a brief recovery, he sank into depression. By the end of 1883 a diagnosis recorded 'hallucinatory insanity, persecution mania - recovery no longer to be expected.' He died of tuberculosis in 1884, aged only 25. Many well-wishers, including Bruckner, attended Rott's funeral at the Zentral-Friedhof in Vienna. 1881 (MDCCCLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Look up depression in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 1883 (MDCCCLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for Tubercle Bacillus) is a common and deadly infectious disease caused by the mycobacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis or Mycobacterium_bovis, which most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system, lymphatic system, circulatory system, genitourinary system, bones and joints. ...

Legacy

Mahler called Rott

a musician of genius ... who died unrecognized and in want on the very threshold of his career. ... What music has lost in him cannot be estimated. Such is the height to which his genius soars in ... [his] Symphony [in E major], which he wrote as 20-year-old youth and makes him ... the Founder of the New Symphony as I see it. To be sure, what he wanted is not quite what he achieved. … But I know where he aims. Indeed, he is so near to my inmost self that he and I seem to me like two fruits from the same tree which the same soil has produced and the same air nourished. He could have meant infinitely much to me and perhaps the two of us would have well-nigh exhausted the content of new time which was breaking out for music.^[1]

Thanks to Rott's friends, some of his music manuscripts have survived in the music collection of Vienna's national library. This includes Rott's Symphony in E major, and sketches for a second Symphony that was never finished. The completed symphony is remarkable in the way it anticipates some of Mahler's musical characteristics. In particular the third movement is unnervingly close to Mahler. The Finale includes references to Brahms's First Symphony. Mahler also spoke well of Rott's Lieder, but regrettably, none of those survive. We also know of a Sextet, which Mahler never heard and has also been lost. In his last years, Rott wrote a lot of music, only to destroy what he wrote soon after writing it, saying it was worthless.

Bruckner and Mahler were the first to recognise Rott's talent. Mahler himself included references to Rott's work in his own music. However, in the 20th Century, Rott's work was largely forgotten; and only in 1989 was Rott's E major Symphony was finally premiered by the Cincinnati Philharmonia Orchestra under Gerhard Samuel, in a performing edition prepared by Paul Banks. A CD recording followed. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Cincinnati, Ohio viewed from the SW, across the Ohio River from Kentucky. ...

Other recordings of the symphony have since been issued, and other Rott works have been revived sometimes, including his Julius Caesar Overture, Pastoral Overture and Prelude for Orchestra.

Bruckner believed one day great things would be heard from Rott. Today it seems that Rott's time has come, as Mahler's eventually did.

References

1. ^ Quoted in the liner notes for the Gerhard Samuel recording of Rott's Symphony, Hyperion Records (1989)

Hyperion Records is an independent British classical record label, named after Hyperion, one of the Titans of Greek mythology. ...

External links

• Internationale Hans Rott Gesellschaft