Hans Rott - novel

[nordanland]

I have written a novel about Hans Rott. "Unfortunately" it is written in Swedish and so far printed in some few ex. It is to be published later on. It should of course be translated so it could be more widely read perhaps in specifically Austria and Germany ..? Maybe it will be translated further on. Anyone here may have some advice or opinion? The titel is: "Komponisten – eller att döda ett geni" in English: "The composer – or to kill a genius" It is about 270 pages.

Regards

[Alan Howe]

A better translation might be: "The composer – or how to kill a genius".

[nordanland]

Yes - that is the way I translated it actually - that little word "how" just disappeared ...   

[semloh]

nordanland, is it actually a novel - i.e. a work of fiction? Given that it's about Hans Rott, is it perhaps in the genre of 'faction' or semi-biography?

Hans Rott's tragic life - outlined in various places on the web - deserves a substantial, sensitive and accurate biography. There are many lessons to be learned.

[nordanland]

It is a novel and about 270 pages. The genre is "biofiction" and the view is "erlebte rede". There is also an afterword with appendix, sources, some of Rotts poetry and presentations of most people involved in his life. It is all like an "Aristotelic" drama. You presnt a problem, it grows to a point of turning and then the catastrophy. Just "sorry" it is written in Swedish, but that is my native language. I can make a simpel translation  to english of some chapter but have no time at the present. If you are somewhat interested I could mail you some pages and you can use Google for the translation. You might just get the picture.

[nordanland]

Maybe some of you already have read or know about the following books about Hans Rott. Anyway - I have had ver good use for them:

Johannes Volker Schmidt: "Hans Rott Lebend und Werk"
Georg Olms Verlag AG, Hildesheim 2010
   
Hans Rott (1858–1884): "Biography by Maja Löh, commented by Uwe Harten, Verlag: Der Österreischisen Akademie Der Wissenschaften, Wien 2000

[semloh]

Without disparaging your work, nordanland, it is a pity there isn't a straight biography in English.

[nordanland]

I agree fully. There are biographic articles about Rott on the net but no complete english translation of the german books. I have posted on other forums a "comment" on Rott and Brahms and Rotts fatal destiny. If you do not mind I post it here as well. For the readers who are not so familiar with the subject it might be of interest. So here it is:

About Rott and Brahms
Off course you cannot totally blame Brahms for Rotts menthal decease and disaster. There are always circumstances and more than one factor behind things like that. We might take a brief look at Hans Rotts life and situation in the late 1870:s. Rott adored his mother above all. She died from leukemia 1872 when he was 14 years of age. This was one of the first disasters in his life. A few years later his father - a famous actor in Vienna, had an accident on the stage that ended his brilliant career. The family's economy was totally ruined and Rotts father sold furniture and other things of some value to survive. In those days there were seldom "good pensions" or insurances that could cover for the unexpected. Two years after the accident Rotts father died. Hans Rott was then 18 and suddenly he and his younger brother was all that was left of the family. And Hans Rott was to struggle for their survival. Anton Bruckner had got him a job as organist in the Piaristen Church in Vienna. A much underpaid job but it gave him a department and a piano was placed in his room. Hans and his brother had to rely on help and gifts from friends to make it. Hans Rott was a deeply religious man and all his life he felt guilty because he and his half-brother had different fathers and that their parents were not married when they were born. He was also extremely sensitive and vulnerable. At the same time he had the highest plans and visions about his future as a conductor and composer. In the summer of 1879 he met the love of his life - Louise Löhr, a younger sister to his friend Freiedrich Löhr. In 1880 he had finished the orchestration work with his first symphony. He was about to marry Louise and hopefully thought he could win a scholarship with his symphony and maybe also the great Beethoven prize with a string sextet he had written. Anyway his great symphony should give him a "position in the society" and also a well paid job as an organist in one of the great churches or a prominent job as a conductor. He also contacted Hans Richter, the famous conductor, to have the Wiener Philharmonics to perform his symphony. 17 sept 1880 he stood in front of the mighty jury with the best and highest of hopes. And it turned out to become thee traumatic catastrophe of his life. There were three men in the jury, Eduardo Hanslick, Karl Goldmark and Johannes Brahms. Brahms accused Rott of theft and claimed Rott could by no means have written the symphony himself. He also recommended the young man to do whatever in life but dealing with music. Now, Hans Richter was Rotts last chance to stay and work in Vienna, the place he loved over all. If Richter would perform his symphony Rott did not have to accept a job as a choir leader in Mulhausen hundreds of miles from his beloved Louise and home city. But Richter turned him down. In a state of despair and defeat he got on the train to Mulhausen October 21. There was to be a stop at Linz and Rott had to spend the night at a hotel. We know he could not sleep because they heard him cry all night that Brahms was bolting in the walls all the time. We also know that he the next day threatened a man with a gun, shouting that Brahms had loaded the train with dynamite and he ordered the poor passenger to immediately "kill" his cigar. In the town of Simbach they arrested Rott and brought him to The Psychiatric Clinic of the General Hospital in Vienna "in a completely crazy state".
After an attempt to take his own life he was transferred the provincial Asylum of lower Austria. Here he stayed for almost four years and died from tuberculosis. From this one might realize that Johannes Brahms was perhaps not the one and only reason behind Rott collaps. It is quite evident though that he started the process that so sadly ended Rott in an asylum. We also know that Anton Bruckner openly accused Johannes Brahms - who also attended the ceremony - of Rotts mental collapse and early death. Right or wrong - Brahms was the evil daemon in Hans Rotts imagination and short life. One might add that Rott about five months after the fatal jury decision got his scholarship from the education department - despite Brahms harsh treatment. But then it was already too late and Rott was all indifferent.
There have been many speculations about Brahms very rough behavior against Rott. We can see two kinds of reasons here. First, Brahms might have had personal reasons to dislike Rott. Secondly, it was a matter of politics. Brahms and Hanslick were defenders of the old school. Their great antagonist was Wagner and they also saw Anton Bruckner as a Wagner follower. Especially Hanslick was full of disgust and hatred when he wrote his sarcasms over Bruckner and Wagner in the leading music journals and papers. Hans Rott was in Brahms and Hanslicks eyes a true Wagnerian and must be fought to any cost. But there might have been personal reasons. Rott used a Schumann motif a couple of times in his symphony which easily could remind Johannes Brahms of his beloved Clara Schumann. Rott also used some of Brahms motifs from his first symphony in the final. Brahms might have thought that the young man was making fun of him. And maybe another thing – Hans Rott was only 20 years of age when he wrote his first symphony. Brahms himself was 40! Bruckner at Rotts funeral speech accuses Brahms of nothing but pure jealousy.

[matesic]

Speaking of "many speculations", would anyone like to speculate on the "anticipations" of Mahler (particularly his 1st and 5th symphonies) that are to be found in Rott's symphony? As I write I am hearing the piece for the very first time, having previously read nothing on Rott apart from the contents of this thread. The extraordinarily familiar "anticipations" in the third movement caused my head to rotate abruptly through ninety degrees, and other stylistic and thematic resemblances are plentiful throughout. It's inconceivable to me that Mahler didn't know this score, and more than merely quoting from it magpie-fashion or out of respect (why should he offer Rott a musical tribute that none of his audience would have detected?) I suggest "used" it fundamentally when creating his own (not-so-?) individual voice!

[Mark Thomas]

Thank you, nordanland. I had no idea of any of this background to Rott's mental illness, never mind the involvement of Brahms, Goldmark and Hanslick. What a sad and sorry tale.

[jdperdrix]

Mahler knew Rott's symphony!
Here's what he wrote:

"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."

See also http://www.hans-rott.de/music.htm for more.

[matesic]

The possibility of Mahler's specific plagiarism of Rott's themes has been raised by Norman Lebrecht and doubtless others, and he's right that the most obvious quotations are to be found in Mahler's second, not the first and fifth as my Penguin Guide has it.

http://slippedisc.com/2014/09/something-rotten-in-the-state-of-mahler/

I see that Rott's symphony is contemporaneous with Das Klagende Lied at a time when the two composers were in direct contact, so maybe "drawing from the same well" is the charitable way to put it!

[matesic]

Ah, but actually it was recognizing the choppy violin theme from Movement III of Mahler 5 that caused me to put my neck out. Are we guessing the plot of nordanland's novel?

[semloh]

Thanks for giving us that "comment" on Rott's life. I am sure we all agree that it is a truly tragic story, and that we lost someone with the potential for greatness. Contrary to some claims, profound mental disorder is no stimulus to artistic creativity but rather its enemy, and not least because of the reactions of society.

Am I right in thinking that Rott was badly treated by people who would normally be honest and decent, or were their overly critical responses actually an artefact of Rott's paranoia?

[Double-A]

Am I right in thinking that Rott was badly treated by people who would normally be honest and decent, or were their overly critical responses actually an artefact of Rott's paranoia?

This last point seems important:  What sources does the report of Brahms/Goldmark/Hanslick's behavior rely on?  Just Rott?  Or are there independent/impartial witnesses?  The behavior as described in Nordanland's post goes way beyond rejection and can only be described as rude manners and total lack of professionalism, not to mention cruelty.  So I am a little skeptical:  Did Rott's paranoia result in an overly colorful account of the scene?  I can see Hanslick as overtly and overly partisan, but that Brahms himself would have been the most fanatical of the Brahmsians doesn't jibe with what I remember reading about the man.

BTW if Brahms suggested the symphony might be plagiarized, did he think it was stolen from Mahler, the other way around from some posts in this thread?