Moritz Hauptmann

Moritz Hauptmann (13 October 1792, Dresden – 3 January 1868, Leipzig), was a German music theorist, teacher and composer.

In 1842, Hauptmann became Thomaskantor in Leipzig (a post once held by Johann Sebastian Bach) as well as professor of music theory at the newly founded conservatoire at the invitation of Felix Mendelssohn.

In this capacity, his unique gift as a teacher developed and it was readily acknowledged by his enthusiastic and quite-often distinguished pupils.

His theory is described as "Hegelian" and he emphasized concepts of unity, opposition, and reunion, which he finds in chords, scales, key relationships, and meter.

Unlike the Romantic trends of continuous legato, he considered any "metrical first" (i.e. downbeat – implied or actual) to be automatically accented.