In it he attempted to provide a philosophical underpinning for tonality based on the idealistic Philosophy of Totality[4] propounded by Othmar Spann, of whose teachings Steinbauer was an enthusiastic adherent between 1925 and 1930.
[5] In February 1928 Steinbauer set up a chamber orchestra, the "Wiener Kammer Konzert Vereinigung" which performed successfully under his direction for the next three years in Germany and Austria.
A friendship developed between them which included exchanges of ideas in the field of music theory, and which led, on 7 March 1930, to the first performance of Hauer's Symphonic Pieces Op.
[6] Based on the insights provided by Hauer, Steinbauer went on to develop his own "twelve tone theory" which he first summarised in a (never finished) manuscript as a "doctrine of sound and melody" (Klang- und Meloslehre) in 1934.
The years from 1930 to 1935 he devoted, primarily, to composition and other work around his new doctrine, most of which was developed during this period even though it was not till the end of the 1950s that it acquired the soubriquet Klangreihenlehre (commonly translated as "twelve tone technique").
Early in 1938 Austria was merged into an enlarged Nazi German state and the regional Gauleiter (governor), Odilo Globocnik, gave orders for the establishment of a new music academy for Vienna, to be divided into two sections.
One would focus on members of the Hitler Youth organisation and be headed up by Gottfried Preinfalk, and a second for German adult education under the auspices of the Nazi Strength Through Joy (Kraft durch Freude) leisure time and recreation operation.
He also found time to invent a new type of violin based instrument, the so-called "Viellen", patented in 1951[7] and said to be particularly suitable for making music in the home.
In 1961, after his retirement, he founded the Institute for Twelve-tone Composition in Vienna" (Seminar für Klangreihenkomposition in Wien) which he headed till his death the next year.
[3] Steinbauer died on 5 September 1962 while taking a summer break at Altenburg (Wilhelmsburg) in the Lower Austrian countryside to the west of Vienna.