The Life and Legacy of Franz Xaver Hauser: A Forgotten Leader in the Nineteenth-Century Bach Movement

Franz Xaver Hauser (1794–1870), born near Prague in Czechoslovakia, combined his career of singing and teaching with a consuming interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Hauser was a colleague of Felix Mendelssohn, Moritz Hauptmann, Robert Schumann, Jenny Lind, and Otto Jahn; author of a text on vocal pedagogy that stayed in print for more than a century; founder of the Munich Tonal Academy, which is still in existence; and the primary private contributor to the complete edition of Bach’s works.

In this remarkable biography, Dale A. Jorgenson discloses the existence of the great legacy left by Hauser. Although his achievements were many, Hauser’s greatest contribution was his determined effort to catalogue all the known works of J. S. Bach, collect and share all the original manuscripts and authentic copies of Bach’s work, and make his unpublished catalogue, the manuscripts, and his professional guidance available to the Bach Society, which was founded in Leipzig in 1850.

This activity provided a meaningful dimension to Hauser’s life apart from his stage career. He made a wide circle of significant friends who loved Bach’s music or who were themselves leaders in literature and the arts—Ludwig Tieck, Schumann, the Grimm Brothers, and many others.

This remarkable man had slipped into obscurity. Jorgenson’s biography will enhance Hauser’s reputation and remind the world of his achievements. Jorgenson’s book also is an invaluable asset to scholars of nineteenth-century music, culture, and the arts, particularly to those who share Hauser’s enduring interest in Bach.

Dale A. Jorgenson is a professor emeritus of music at Northeast Missouri State University.