Scope and arrangement
The Hugo Kauder Society Records date from 1874-2006. They contain both the papers of the composer and the records of the Society dedicated to preserving and promoting his music. Kauder's papers include correspondence, scores for nearly all of his music, concert programs and the composer's writings. The Society's records primarily contain the correspondence of Kauder's son Otto, but also include concert programs, publishing contracts and correspondence, lists of Kauder's compositions, and research carried out by Otto Kauder on his father's work and professional relationships.
Hugo Kauder's correspondence is mainly with friends and colleagues, notably the poet and philosopher Rudolf Pannwitz, a friend of Kauder's who wrote many texts set by the composer. Kauder's music includes many chamber works, pieces for piano and organ, orchestral music, a musical drama, a significant set of vocal music (both solo and choral), and arrangements of music by other composers. His writings include essays on music history and musicology, counterpoint, music and poetry, and education. Most of the text in Kauder's papers and correspondence is in German or Dutch.
The Kauder Society records mainly contain Otto Kauder's correspondence about and research on his father and his efforts to publish his music. The records contain publishing contracts from the 1950s to the 1990s, concert programs, lists of Kauder's compositions, photographs of Hugo Kauder, and Otto Kauder's annotated copies of his father's correspondence, some received from other libraries and archives holding Kauder material, and writings about Hugo Kauder.
The Society records also contain 75 sound recordings, mostly audio cassettes and compact disks. These include recordings of Kauder's music produced during his lifetime and posthumously; interviews with Kauder and the conductor Ernst Levy; and recordings of the 2006 Hugo Kauder Music Competition for Cello. Inquiries regarding audio material in the collection may be directed to the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound (rha@nypl.org). Audio materials will be subject to preservation evaluation and migration prior to access.
The Hugo Kauder Society records are arranged in two series:
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1911-1972, 2002-2005
Kauder's papers consist of correspondence, concert programs, scores and writings. Most of this series is in German or Dutch.
The correspondence is with friends and colleagues. The four correspondents with the most letters are the poet and philosopher Rudolf Pannwitz; Siegmund Levarie, a musicologist; Willem Valkenier, a French Horn player; and H.F. Schimmerling. Valkenier inspired many of Kauder's compositions for horn. Most of his correspondence with Kauder is water-damaged and unavailable for research pending conservation treatment.
The correspondence with the Dutch poet Albert Verwey contains some of his typed poems. The Pannwitz and Verwey letters discuss Kauder's settings of their work. Kauder also maintained correspondence with Mea Nijland-Verwey, possibly the poet's wife. The Carol Brice letters discuss Kauder's settings of Verwey.
Not all the correspondence is original. The Egon Lustgarten letters are computer prints of transcribed correspondence. The folder of Otto Kauder correspondence contains only letters from Hugo Kauder to his son. This series also contains a folder of correspondence discussing a festival of Kauder's music held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1957, and a poetry notebook kept by Kauder which mostly contains quotes of Goethe.
The concert programs date from Kauder's entire career. Posthumous concert programs appear in Series II.
The scores are arranged and sub-arranged by instrumentation: chamber music, keyboard, orchestral, vocal, and other. See Series II for lists of Kauder's compositions. Nearly all of the scores are in manuscript form, or reproductions of manuscripts. Multi-instrumental pieces have both scores and parts unless otherwise noted.
By far the greatest number of scores are for chamber music. These are for solos, duos, trios, quartets, quintets and sextets, all for varying combinations of string and wind instruments. Included are solos for violin, French horn, English horn, flute and cello; duets for two violins, violin and cello, and unique combinations such as oboe and French horn; trios of similar combinations; 30 string quartets, as well as quartets mixing woodwinds, piano and strings; and quintets and sextets of equally unique orchestrations.
The keyboard works are mostly for piano but also contain three organ works. One of the piano pieces, Passacaglia, contains notes and information about the piece researched by Otto Kauder. Another, Twelve Suites, contains correspondence dating from 2002-2005 between Otto Kauder and Paola Prestini (a publisher).
The orchestral works are mostly concerti or symphonies, but also include smaller orchestral pieces.
The vocal music contains choral pieces and works for voice or voices and instruments. In addition to a Requiem and settings of folk songs, the choral music holds five books of music used in a chorus Kauder directed. These books may contain arrangements by other composers. Only the third Choral Book has a content listing. The second Choral Book contains settings of Goethe.
The works for voice and instruments are divided into texts by single authors, by multiple authors, and by unknown authors/traditional songs. They are for voice and piano unless otherwise noted. Kauder most often set texts by Goethe, Nietzsche, Stefan George, Albert Verwey, Otto Zur Linde and Rudolf Pannwitz. He also created settings for James Joyce, Christian Morgenstern, Eduard Mörike, Rudolf Paulsen, Alfred Mombert and George Trakl, among others. Kauder's "musical drama", Merlin, was written in collaboration with Pannwitz. The unknown authors heading mostly contains folksongs, but also has two folders of collected songs, one for voice and instruments and the other for three voices, which do not specify authors.
The scores under "other" contain arrangements of the music of other composers, incidental dramatic music, exercises, and score fragments and sketches. The arrangements include music by Schumann, Bach and Handel. The dramatic music is for two plays by Rudolf Pannwitz.
Kauder's writings consist of typed essays and clippings of published newspaper articles. Portions of this material, particularly the essay Counterpoint, may have been published wholly or in part. Other essay titles are History of Music, Musicology Considerations, and Some Thoughts On Musical Education. The general file includes the newspaper articles and unfinished manuscripts.
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1915-2006
The Kauder Society records consist of Otto Kauder's correspondence, Hugo Kauder's publishing contracts and correspondence with his publishers, a scrapbook of Hugo Kauder's home musical activity, concert programs dating from after Hugo Kauder's death, lists of Hugo Kauder's compositions, research on Hugo Kauder's creative relationships through analysis of his correspondence, photographs and a portrait of Kauder, papers documenting the founding of the Society, writings about Kauder, and copies of scrapbooks donated to the University of Minnesota.
The Otto Kauder correspondence is with friends and associates of his father, including Siegmund Levarie, and with libraries and archives holding Kauder or Kauder-related papers. These include the Jewish National and University Library and the Gefellfchaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna. Some publishing contracts date from Kauder's lifetime, and others were executed posthumously by Kauder's estate. Publishing correspondence is mainly with Southern Music Company and Seesaw Music Corporation. The Chamber Music At Home scrapbook is a daily log of music either practiced or performed by Hugo Kauder privately. The Rudolf Pannwitz papers are copies of Kauder's correspondence with Pannwitz, but reordered and annotated by Otto Kauder. The three photographs of Kauder (one in color) are undated but appear to have been taken when the composer was in his 60s (there is also a sketched portrait of Kauder, artist unknown). The writings about Kauder consist of general biographies published by the Society, a short story by Herman de Grab dedicated to Kauder, a short biography of Kauder by Siegmund Levarie, a paper by Levarie referring to Kauder's music, and papers on Kauder's music by Otto Kauder and Ruth Steinbach.