Haas, Pavel
Haas, Pavel
Haas, Pavel, Czech composer; b. Brünn, June 21, 1899; d. in the concentration camp in Auschwitz, Oct. 17, 1944. He studied piano and composition in Brünn. He was a soldier in the Austrian army in World War I. After the Armistice, continued his study with Petrželka at the Brno Cons. (1919–21) and at the master class there with Janáček (1920–22). He tried to leave Czechoslovakia after its occupation by the Nazi hordes, but the outbreak of World War II made this impossible. In 1941 he was deported to the Jewish ghetto camp in Theresienstadt, where he continued to compose until, in Oct. 1944, he was sent to Auschwitz and put to death. His extant MSS are preserved in the Moravian Museum in Brno.
Works
dramatic: Opera: Šarlatán (The Charlatan), to his own libretto (1934-37; Brno, April 2, 1938). orch:Zesmutnělé Scherzo (Mournful Scherzo) (1921); Předehra pro rozhlas (Overture for Radio) for Narrator, Men’s Chorus, and Orch. (1930); Sym. (1941; unfinished); Studie for Strings (1943; Theresienstadt camp, Sept. 13, 1944); Variations for Piano and Orch. (1944). CHAMBER: 3 string quartets (1920, 1925,1938); Fata morgana, piano quintet, with Tenor Solo (1923); Wind Quintet (1929); Suite for Piano (1935); Suite for Oboe and Piano (1939). VOCAL: Introduction and Psalm XXIX, cantata (1931); songs.
Bibliography
L. Peduzi, P. H.:Života dilo skladatele (Brno, 1993).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire