Hans Rott: A Missing Link Between Wanger, Bruckner and Mahler?
Hans Rott, composer, organist, and musician perhaps ahead of his time, was born on August
1, 1858 in a Viennese suburb, and later died on June 25, 1884 from contracting tuberculosis after
many suicide attempts in the Provincial Lunatic Asylum of Lower Austria. What happened between
those two dates in music history was once the subject of intense study, being deemed, “the
musicological sensation of the 1990’s.” Once a little-known footnote in the historical writings about
Mahler, upon the centennial of his death, Rott’s thoughts, compositions and life became the focus
of a new scholastic effort to provide a “missing link” from Wagner and Bruckner to Mahler. This
paper intends to present the most current knowledge of Rott’s life, as well as analyze his music in
two facets. The first is the connection of his style to the composers Richard Wagner and Anton
Bruckner. Then the paper will look at how Mahler responded to Rott, specifically looking at what
inspiration Mahler draws from how Rott composed his symphony.
Before stating Rott’s currently known biography, it must be stated that there is little
scholarship available on him. This biographical account represents the best knowledge found. Hans
Rott was born on August 1, 1858 as the illegitimate child of Carl (Roth) Mathias Rott and Maria
(Christina) Rosalia Lutz. Both people were involved in local theater and musical productions. His
father was a popular comic actor. Not much is known about his mother, who was a singer and died
in 1860. Hans started receiving a general education at age 8 at a local Gymnasium, but later was
transferred out by his father to a commercial school, where he graduated in 1874.1 Banks speculates
that this change could have been an effort from his father to discourage an artistic career. At age 16
he was accepted into the “Conservatoire for Music and Performing Arts of the Society of the
Friends of Music in Vienna.” There he studied piano, organ, harmony and composition; his teachers
1
Banks, Paul. “Hans Rott, 1858 - 1884.” The Musical Times 125, no. 1699 (1984): 493–95.
were Leopold Landskron, Anton Bruckner, Herman Grädener and Franz Krenn respectively.2 In
many sources, Bruckner took a special interest in Rott, defending his music on multiple occasions.
He was his best student by multiple accounts, and he often went out of his way to get jobs for him.
Multiple sources list Rott as a member of the Viennese Academic Wagner Society, and say he
attended the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876. It is unclear if he continued to attend thereafter. In the
same year his father passed away. It must be noted that multiple sources cite this as the moment
Hans Rott became emotionally unstable. However, Bruckner will provide his thoughts on this
through the scholarly work of Paul Banks later. While at the conservatory, he was employed as an
organist at the Piaristen Church in Vienna and lived in the monastery.3 In 1878, Rott entered the
Conservatory Composition Competition. While there is no official record of what he submitted, it is
very likely, according to Paul Banks, that it was the first movement of the E Major Symphony. The
submission was famously laughed off the stage, to which Bruckner said, “Sirs, don't laugh, you will
hear great things of that name4.” Rott was undeterred from this failure and did complete the
Symphony in E Major in 1880.
Rott graduated in 1878 and promptly quit his job at the Piaristen Church and found another
church job in Mühlhausen. He tried to avoid the job, presumably to compose5. Banks says he
applied for a state stipend, “successfully, it turned out, but too late for Rott-the stipend was awarded
six months after his mental breakdown.” Rott entered the full Symphony in E Major, as well as a
string quartet in the Beethoven Competition of 1880. Losing this competition is what began the
musical troubles for Rott. By 1880, Rott had begun his downward spiral. He began advocating for
2
Brilla, Martin. Hans Rott - The Founder Of The New Symphony, 2002.
McClatchie, Stephen. “Review: Recovering Rott.” Music & Letters 81, no. 3 (August 2000): 392–401.
4
Banks, Paul. “Hans Rott, 1858 - 1884.” The Musical Times 125, no. 1699 (1984): 493–95.
5
McClatchie, S. “Hans Rott, Gustav Mahler And The 'New Symphony': New Evidence For A Pressing Question.”
Music and Letters 81, no. 3 (2000): 392–401.
3
himself by setting up appointments with Hans Richter and Johannes Brahms. Banks recalls that
Richter was complimentary of the symphony, and did seriously consider programming it. However,
he later rescinded for an unknown reason. The final straw for Rott’s sanity came from Johannes
Brahms. During a September 17, 1880 interview, Brahms was very critical of the work. He was not
impressed with how his Beethoven theme was quoted, and urged Hans Rott to stop composing. As
Banks recalls, “just over a month later, on 23 October, Rott was admitted to the psychiatric clinic of
the general hospital in Vienna, having suffered a nervous breakdown. He never recovered his
sanity.”6 Rott was traveling by train to his new job in Mühlhausen, when a passenger began to light a
cigar. He pulled a pistol on the passenger to prevent his from lighting it, claiming that Brahms had
filled the train with dynamite.”7 Bruckner placed the weight of the loss of Rott’s sanity on Brahms.
“In February 1881 Rott was transferred from Vienna to the Provincial Lunatic Asylum of Lower
Austria. The diagnosis was insanity: hallucinatory persecution mania. He continued composing at the
asylum. He gradually developed a deep depression and destroyed some of his compositions.
Following several attempts of suicide, he finally died of tuberculosis on June 25, 1884 not yet 26
years old.”8 Friends of Rott and Mahler, Friedrich Löhr and Joseph Seemüller gathered the
remaining musical compositions and sketches of Rott and compiled them into Rott’s Nachlass. “In
1950 Loehr gave most of Rott's Nachlass to the Musiksammlung, then under the direction of
Leopold Nowak, who later published a thematic catalogue.”9
6
Banks, Paul. “Hans Rott, 1858 - 1884.” The Musical Times 125, no. 1699 (1984): 493–95.
Brilla, Martin. Hans Rott - The Founder Of The New Symphony, 2002.
8
Brilla, Martin. Hans Rott - The Founder Of The New Symphony, 2002.
9
McClatchie, S. “Hans Rott, Gustav Mahler And The 'New Symphony': New Evidence For A Pressing Question.”
Music and Letters 81, no. 3 (2000): 392–401.
7
Now that we understand who Rott is, it is possible to look at his music thorough this
biographical lens and see how others may have inspired him. We know from his biography that Rott
thought of himself as a Wagnerian. The extent of his passion for Wagner is unclear. For example,
did he believe in the concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk? Would Rott have written an opera? Are
there existing sketches in the Nachlass? These are questions that warrant more contemporary
research. Banks says, “In the Vienna of the time, this affiliation carried with it a host of aesthetic and
philosophical presuppositions, the most important of which was an adherence to the
Schopenhauerian-Wagnerian aesthetic of Musik als Ausdruck. Under such an aesthetic system,
musical gestures were held to transmit the emotional states of the ingenious composer himself, and
to offer access to the noumenal realm of presence, of the Absolute, out of which a musical work was
unconsciously conceived. Rott's symphony should be seen within this tradition.”10 It is under this
belief that one can see how the total rejection of his work, his genius, especially by a high-profile
composer like Brahms can lead one to lose all hope in life and go insane; his purpose unfulfilled. He
attended the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876. We know he heard the complete Ring Cycle, as that was
the first production. Rott’s symphony is in cyclic form, meaning that a theme occurs more than once
across all movements or sections of a work. This idea works as Rott’s leitmotif,11 for the opening 30
or so bars of Rotts Symphony in E Major is the basis of the first, third and second half of the fourth
movements. Wagner’s operas feature very heavy use of the brass section. Rott also makes use of the
brass, as the symphony opens with a trumpet and horn playing half of the leitmotif, with the whole
section being implemented at very tense moments of the music. The extended sections of multiple
horns, trumpets and massive four trombone section harkens to Wagner’s large orchestras of
multiple people per instrument part. The first climactic moment of the piece, right after the main
10
McClatchie, S. “Hans Rott, Gustav Mahler And The 'New Symphony': New Evidence For A Pressing Question.”
Music and Letters 81, no. 3 (2000): 392–401.
11
“Richard Wagner.” English National Opera.
theme is expanded upon approximately two minutes into the piece, features an extended chromatic
descent before a resolution to C Major (the flattened sixth scale degree, and foreshadowing of the
third movement’s key).
Rott’s composition was mostly influenced by his organ teacher, Anton Bruckner. As
discussed in his biography, Rott was the favored pupil of Bruckner, who reportedly would defend
Rott’s musical ideas on his behalf. He would go on to defend the Symphony in E Major, as well as
Rott himself after his sanity was lost. With regard to the style Rott composed in, you needn’t look
further than the opening of the first movement. Rott held two organ positions while at the
conservatory, and one could imagine the first movement being played on an organ. The beginning
of the symphony is a very light, three stops out texture with solo instruments playing over high
harmonic notes. As the theme progresses and becomes more chromatic, more stops are pulled out
until it becomes a massive wall of sound. There is an arpeggio played four times, once in the alto,
then tenor, then soprano, then bass range. Upon first listen one might think of this as a lazy
compositional technique to draw out thematic development. However, if one remembers that Rott
was an organist, one can easily see how these are actually organ stops, wrapped up by the foot pedals
supplying the groundwork for the bass to carry the chromatic resolution. From there, Rott plays
with the color of the piece by alternating between major and minor. It then feels as if he pushes in
all the stops and allows the woodwinds to carry the main theme forward. This is taken up by a duet
of horn and trumpet, which leads the orchestra to a fugue. The resolution of the fugue brings the
tonal center back to an ambiguous color shifting idea that the trumpet beings back to the main
theme. The horns present a counter theme, which builds as the whole orchestra is given the main
theme as all stops are pulled out.
The second movement offers a more solemn approach to the cyclic idea. It starts with a
piano A Major chord that sets up the tonality of the “A” theme for the movement. It is a soft string
melody that is very stepwise and in reminiscent of a church organ playing before mass. As the “A”
theme develops, it becomes filled with leaps and chromaticism, eventually ending up in B Major.
The theme is played is segments by different instruments until the deceptive cadence approximately
2:10 in the recording.12 About six minutes in Rott uses the fugue again, with the resolution being a B
Major seventh chord that resolves the movement into E Major.
The third movement is where Rott differs from his organ-like approach. It almost feels like a
mesh of Wagner with his heavy brass textures, and a Tchaikovsky waltz. The movement begins with
a trumpet call that leads into a very rich, dark string melody that serves as this movement’s “A”
theme. This is immediately followed by the “B” theme for the movement. After a development, and
modulation to Eb Major, the horns return the orchestra to C Major. The first half of the movement
ends on a dominant “G” pedal (perhaps another organ reference), and becomes Phrygian in tonality
as a flattened second scale degree is used in the tonal areas ahead. The third movement moves
around tonally after this, with traditional tonic and dominant tonicization, but with the Phrygian
second scale degree. The movement ends with a descending 3^-2^-1^ pattern.
The fourth movement is long; 22 minutes of Rott combining the previous three movements.
The beginning starts off in B Major, with minimal stops. The sparse texture is quickly added upon
with the addition of the horns, who being the orchestra into F# Major, only to use the sixth of that
chord, the D#, to act as a pedal leading tone to E. This leads into a brass chorale that develops into
a Phrygian horn call with oboe answer. The leitmotif in this movement is the fifth, which will
develop into a quotation of Brahms’ Beethoven theme. The first half of the first movement explores
12
Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt: Paavro Jarvi. Hans Rott: Sinfonie Nr. 1 E-Dur, Suite fur Orchester B-Dur. RCA
Red Label. 2012, CD.
the tone color on the Phrygian pallet and multiple key areas. The leitmotif of the fifth is used to
introduce material, as well change key areas. At 8:25, the key and mood shift from ambiguity to a
defined E Major. This is the quote of the Beethoven theme from Brahms’s First Symphony. This is
where the interval of the fifth leitmotif heads. Then Rott writes a fugue based off this theme. It
develops into a transition that brings the original theme from the first movement back. The
development ends with a giant B Major seventh dominant chord at 12:15.13 At 12:16, the horn
brings back the Brahms-Beethoven theme. This recapitulation develops in a fugue that ends is a
large half cadence leading into c# minor.
As the Beethoven theme is played out in c# minor, it modulates into major and becomes
much like a march. Which uses the Mozart Mannheim Rocket theme to modulate between keys and
change the color of the piece. The development ends in A Major as the horns play the Beethoven
theme in that key. There’s is another fugue that develops the “fifth interval” leitmotif into the
original first movement leitmotif at 18:20.14 However, this time both the first and fourth movement
leitmotifs are written complimentary to each other to create a new musical idea. This new idea shifts
in tone color from major to minor and back often. Verbatim, the second half of the leitmotif of the
first movement is played to close the symphony; the piece fading away on an E Major chord in
decrescendo.
Now that the symphony and its sources of inspiration have been explored, the second
portion of this paper may now explore how Rott and his symphony impacted the man who is
responsible for carrying his name through history for 100 years after his death: Gustav Mahler. For
this section of the paper, it must be noted that most of the existing material comes from two
13
Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt: Paavro Jarvi. Hans Rott: Sinfonie Nr. 1 E-Dur, Suite fur Orchester B-Dur. RCA
Red Label. 2012, CD.
14
Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt: Paavro Jarvi. Hans Rott: Sinfonie Nr. 1 E-Dur, Suite fur Orchester B-Dur. RCA
Red Label. 2012, CD.
academics: Stephen McClatchie and Paul Banks. While the information provided from 1984 to now
has largely remained consistent, there are gaps in the material. There are multiple discrepancies
amongst the sources of early Mahler, late Mahler, and Rott biographical material, as well as official
forms from schools and competitions. The author of this essay will balance the available accounts
and present the most cohesive, up to date timeline that is possible. All evidence and statements will
be provided. However, more research is needed in the area between Mahler and Rott. Mahler,
writing to Natalie Bauer-Lechner about Rott, would state:
“What music has lost in him is immeasurable. His First Symphony, written when he was a
young man of twenty, already soars to such heights of genius that it makes him-without
exaggeration-the founder of the New Symphony as I understand it . . . His innermost nature is
so much akin to mine that he and I are like two fruits from the same tree, produced by the same
soil, nourished by the same air. We would have had an infinite amount in common. Perhaps we
two might have gone some way together towards exhausting the possibilities of this new age that
was then dawning in music.”15
The phrase upon the centennial of Rotts death that intrigued scholars was, “the founder of
the New Symphony as I understand it.” This phrase has sparked vigorous debate as of late on who
Rott is, what did he write, and how much of an impact did he have on Mahler?
We know that the two composers knew each other. From Rott’s biography, we know that he
attended the same conservatory as Mahler at the same time (Mahler attended from 1875 to 1878,
one year after Rott was there). While we don’t know the extent of their personal friendship, we do
know that two years after their departure from the conservatory, Mahler wrote to his friend, Emil, in
November 1880 that, “My friend Hans Rott has become insane!”16 In other contexts, Mahler recalls
15
McClatchie, S. “Hans Rott, Gustav Mahler And The 'New Symphony': New Evidence For A Pressing Question.”
Music and Letters 81, no. 3 (2000): 392–401.
16
Mahler, Gustav, and Knud Martner. Selected Letters of Gustav Mahler: the Original Edition Selected by Alma
Mahler.
the closeness of him and Rott. “If the jury of the Conservatoire... had awarded me the Beethoven
Prize of 600 guilders for Das klagende Lied, my whole life would have taken a different course ...
Instead, however, Herr Herzfeld got the first prize in composition, and Rott and I went away emptyhanded. Rott became depressed, went mad, and died soon after. And I was condemned for good to
this hellish life in the theater.”17 Mahler considered himself close to Rott. He considered himself so
close in fact, that two consequences exist. First, Mahler had always referred to the Symphony in E
Major as, “Rott’s First Symphony,” implying he knew of a second symphony.18 This most likely
comes from the fact that Mahler was friends with the men who saved Rott’s manuscripts. Second,
there are examples of direct quotation of Rott’s Symphony in E Major in Mahler’s symphonies.
It is important to remember two concepts when talking about Rott and Mahler. First, both
men were educated in the same part of the world, with the same musical teachers and musical scene
surrounding them. That is to say, they both studied with Franz Krenn, listened to Bruckner, Wagner
and Brahms, and shared music with each other. The second is that creative minds brought up in the
same time and place have the potential to create similar products. With that said, Paul Banks does a
wonderful job in his article, “Hans Rott, 1858 – 1884,” of providing some musical examples of
where this direct quotation could be taking place. The author refers you his article on page 495 of
“The Musical Times,” Vol. 125, No. 1699 (Sep., 1984). McClatchie also has a table of supposed
references in the article, “Hans Rott, Gustav Mahler and the ‘New Symphony’: New Evidence for a
Pressing Question.” These examples are quite convincing. However, there are serious questions in
the scholarship regarding two claims by Mahler. The first is the closeness of their friendship. How
close were they exactly? Was Rott reciprocating of the friendship at the time? The second claim in
17
Banks, Paul. “Hans Rott, 1858 - 1884.” The Musical Times 125, no. 1699
McClatchie, S. “Hans Rott, Gustav Mahler And The 'New Symphony': New Evidence For A Pressing Question.”
Music and Letters 81, no. 3
18
question is regarding the earlier statement of Rott being, “the founder of the New Symphony.” Is it
true that Rott’s symphony really opened Mahler’s creative mind? Or is this situation one of
reflection and lament on a conservatory classmate?
To answer the first question, we must look at the accounts available of Mahler, Rott and
their friends. Rott’s surviving correspondence is scarce. Upon his death, only a few articles were
saved. Of what has been saved, Rott does not seem to mention Mahler with any grave importance.
A joint friend of the two men, Heinrich Krzyzanowski, says, “As much as they were together, a real
friendship never arose between Rott and Mahler, principally because Rott opposed it. Out of
jealousy. His love for my brother could not bear it that [Rudolf] was also a close and intimate friend
of Mahler. Moreover, there were a good number of Jewish and non-Jewish ill-mannered habits
which did not lend grace to the small, gnome-like, unpolished Mahler; these habits repelled not only
Rott, who was sensitive for a number of reasons, but others as well who nonetheless were to
become Mahler's friends later on. In fact, one could not imagine a greater contrast than the proud,
noble, almost colossus like figure of Rott, which looked distinguished even in rags, with that of the
nimble, fidgety, gamboling, jerking little Mahler, in his over-large coat that almost swept the
ground.”19 Of the examples we have talking about Rott, this could prove to be a damning charge to
any notion of a “close” friendship on Rott’s end; proving Rott was not reciprocal of Mahler’s
feelings. Banks points out that Mahler made these comments approximately 20 years after Rott’s
death, so the possibility of a faulty memory exists. This is compounded by another quote from
Mahler. Mahler recalls the Beethoven competition in which he entered Das klangende Lied and
lost.20 That recollection has one major error: Rott and Mahler never competed in the same
19
McClatchie, S. “Hans Rott, Gustav Mahler And The 'New Symphony': New Evidence For A Pressing Question.”
Music and Letters 81, no. 3
20
Banks, Paul. “Hans Rott, 1858 - 1884.” The Musical Times 125, no. 1699 (1984): 493–95.
Beethoven competition. When you couple the Krzyzanowski comments with this major lapse in
memory, it begs more research from academia. The implications could change our notion of this
relationship, and who really created “The New Symphony.”
To answer the second question, we must turn to the music. Did Rott truly inspire Mahler
with his unsung masterwork to redefine the symphonic genre, or, does Mahler simply cut from the
same cloth as Rott? The biggest question that must be answered is when did Mahler hear Rott’s
symphony? Banks writes about this extensively. The traditional narrative reads like that of a
Schubertiade. Rott often played his compositions for his friends, and “Krzyzanowski does include
Mahler in Rott's circle of friends for the years 1877-8.”21 It stands to reason that Mahler heard it
directly from Rott. Case closed. However, there are many complications. The first movement was
composed in 1878, and there’s no doubt Mahler had the potential to hear it directly from Rott then.
However, the entire symphony was not completed until 1880, and by that point Rott had lost almost
all contact with his conservatory friends. Krzyzanowski writes, “I regard it as absolutely fateful that
at this time Rott was almost without contact-or at least intimate contact-with his old school friends
and musical colleagues. His new friends… surrounded him as a musical genius, they were almost a
hazard for him.”22 It seems by the symphony’s completion, Rott was out of contact, and only
months away from losing his sanity. Mahler almost certainly would not have heard the entire work
from Rott himself. However, as much as there is little proof, there is room to defend this theory.
More research in this area can clarify the traditional tale. For now, the consensus seems to be that
newer evidence shows that most likely, Mahler was exposed to the whole completed symphony
while studying it on a vacation. This was for a possible performance with the Vienna Philharmonic
21
McClatchie, S. “Hans Rott, Gustav Mahler And The 'New Symphony': New Evidence For A Pressing Question.”
Music and Letters 81, no. 3
22
McClatchie, S. “Hans Rott, Gustav Mahler And The 'New Symphony': New Evidence For A Pressing Question.”
Music and Letters 81, no. 3
in 1900.23 However, the next year he abdicated the position and never conducted the piece with
Vienna.
In conclusion, this paper sought to perform two functions. First, to present the best-known
information on Hans Rott’s life. We know very little of his life other than the biography provided.
Simply put, he was a student at the Viennese Conservatory, and primarily through his organ teacher
Anton Bruckner, he was given legitimacy as a musician. He potentially influenced Mahler during
their time together with the idea of the ‘New Symphony.’ We can speculate that because of his belief
in the Wagnerian doctrine of Musik als Ausdruck, the total rejection of his work by Brahms led him
to his mental breakdown and later death. Second, this paper proceeded to provide the argument for
the “missing link” idea that Rott was a source of inspiration for Mahler. The author of this paper
finds insufficient evidence for either side of this issue. For this argument lies a string of primary
accounts from Mahler on the subject directly. This, coupled with direct quotation of Rott’s
symphony, presents a clear-cut case for the influence. Further research from Rott’s side of the
subject would strengthen this argument. Against this argument however is contemporary evidence
that suggests Mahler may have mis-remembered certain key events, such as the Beethoven
competitions and when he first had Rotts manuscript. Strengthening the ‘against’ argument is
contemporary evidence that Mahler and Rott never competed in the same Beethoven competition.
There are second hand contemporary accounts of the friendship between Rott and Mahler that
describe the two as not the closest of friends. However, neither side is fully flushed out enough to
make a concrete assertation, and therefore, the ultimate conclusion of this paper is as follows: Hans
Rott is an extremely influential musical figure in Vienna during the late 1800’s, and needs further
23
McClatchie, S. “Hans Rott, Gustav Mahler And The 'New Symphony': New Evidence For A Pressing Question.”
Music and Letters 81, no. 3
research that will cement his legacy as the man who introduced Mahler to the ‘New Symphony’
concept, or show that he was ahead of his time.
Bibliography
1. Brilla, Martin. Hans Rott - The Founder Of The New Symphony, 2002. http://www.hansrott.de/indexe.htm.
2. “Wagnerian.” Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. Accessed May 2, 2020.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Wagnerian.
3. “Richard Wagner.” English National Opera. Accessed May 2, 2020.
https://eno.org/composers/richard-wagner/.
4. Mahler, G. “Vienna, Bad Hall, Laibach and Olmutz.” Essay. In Selected Letters of Gustav Mahler,
64–65-388. London: Ebenezer Baylis and Son Ltd, 1979.
5. McClatchie, S. “Hans Rott, Gustav Mahler And The 'New Symphony': New Evidence For A
Pressing Question.” Music and Letters 81, no. 3 (2000): 392–401.
https://doi.org/10.1093/ml/81.3.392.
6. Banks, Paul. “Hans Rott and the New Symphony.” The Musical Times 130, no. 1753 (1989): 142.
https://doi.org/10.2307/1193822.
7. Banks, Paul. “Hans Rott, 1858 - 1884.” The Musical Times 125, no. 1699 (1984): 493–95.
https://doi.org/10.2307/962808.
8. McClatchie, Stephen. “Review: Recovering Rott.” Music & Letters 81, no. 3 (August 2000):
392–401.
9. Mahler, Gustav, and Knud Martner. Selected Letters of Gustav Mahler: the Original Edition
Selected by Alma Mahler. London: Faber and Faber, 1979.
10. Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt: Paavro Jarvi. Hans Rott: Sinfonie Nr. 1 E-Dur, Suite fur
Orchester B-Dur. RCA Red Label. 2012, CD.