Josef Matthias Hauer

He had an early musical training in cello, choral conducting, and organ, and claimed to have been self-taught in theory and composition.

This he developed and first articulated theoretically in Vom Wesen des Musikalischen (1920), before the Schoenberg circle’s earliest writings on twelve-tone technique.

In many ways Hauer's use of chance elements, and especially his deep interest in the I Ching, are parallel to those of American composer John Cage.

Late in life Hauer spoke about Thomas Mann, as well as Theodor W. Adorno, with great bitterness, for he felt that both men had misunderstood him.

Because of his later achievements and developments it has also been assumed by many scholars that Hauer is also a model for the "Joculator Basiliensis" in Hermann Hesse's The Glass Bead Game.

[9] 576 works are known (Lafite index[10]), amongst which are: Hauer is considered an important figure in the development of twelve-tone theory and aesthetics.

His early published writings Vom Wesen des Musikalischen (1920) and Deutung des Melos articulate the more theoretical and aesthetic aspects of Hauer's thought, while Vom Melos zur Pauke (1925) and Zwölftontechnik, Die Lehre von den Tropen (1926) provide detailed musical examples.

For Hauer, this twelve-tone world offers one access to the fundamental truths of existence, transforming composition from an act of personal expression into one of devotion and contemplation.

This mystical approach to music is drawn from 19th-century romanticism and is certainly not exclusive to Hauer, though he may have been the most publicly vocal proponent of this idea in the Vienna of his day.

Hauer often refers to the scientific writing of Goethe (the Theory of Colors especially), which most likely came to him through the editions and commentary of Rudolf Steiner.