Pavel Haas hailed from a Jewish family in Brno. His younger brother Hugo was a renowned theatre and film actor. Pavel Haas studied at the conservatory with Jan Kunc and Vilém Petrželka, following which he attended the master class led by Leoš Janáček. A member of the Moravian Composers Club, he also worked as a music critic and writer. His best-known works include the tragicomic opera The Charlatan, completed in 1938. In the wake of the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939, just like other Jews, he was persecuted by the occupation authorities, before, at the end of 1941, being deported to the Theresienstadt camp-ghetto. Notwithstanding the harsh conditions, Haas continued to compose. On 16 October 1944, Pavel Haas was transported to Auschwitz, where the next day he was murdered in a gas chamber.
Pavel Haas
Personal data
Pavlas, Ivan
Profese / činnosti
Práce
Works with Opus Number
Op.1 – Šest písní v lidovém tónu (Six Songs in Folk Tone) for Soprano and Piano or Orchestra (1918-19, 1938)
Op. 2 – Tři písně (Three Songs) for Soprano and Piano (1919-1920)
Op. 3 – String Quartet No.1 in C♯ minor (1920, published 1994)
Op. 4 – 3 Čínské písně (Chinese Songs) for Alto and Piano (1920/1921?, premiered 1922)
Op. 5 – Zesmutnělé scherzo (Scherzo triste) for Orchestra (1921)
Op. 6 – „Fata morgana“, Klavírní kvintet se sólovým zpěvákem tenorového hlasu (“Fata morgana” for Piano Quintet with Tenor Solo) (1923)
Op. 7 – String Quartet No.2 „Z opičích hor“ (“From the Monkey Mountains”) (1925, published 1994)
Op. 8 – Vyvolená (The Chosen One) for Tenor, Flute, Horn, Violin and Piano (1927)
Op. 9 – Karneval (Carnival) for Male Chorus (1928-29)
Op.10 – Dechový kvintet (Wind Quintet) (1929, published 1934)
Op.11 – Předehra pro rozhlas (Overture for Radio) (1931)
Op.12 – Žalm 29 (Psalm XXIX) for Baritone, Female Chorus and Chamber Orchestra with Organ (1932)
Op.13 – Suita pro klavír (Suite for Piano) (1935, published 1937)
Op.14 – Šarlatán (The Charlatan), Opera in 3 Acts (1934-37) (Wikipedia article. Premiered 1938, then not again performed until 1997.)
Op.15 – String Quartet No.3 (1938, published 1994)
Op.16 – Vom Abend zum Morgen (Od večera do rána), Bearbeitung slowakischer Volkslieder für Gesang und Orchester (1938)
Op.17 – Suite for Oboe and Piano (Suita pro hoboj a klavír) (1939-1941, published 1962)
Op.18 – Sedm písní v lidovém tónu (7 Songs in Folk Style after words by F. L. Čelakovský) (1940, published 1994)
Works without Opus Number and Incomplete Works
Allegro moderato for Piano (1938)
Al s’fod (Do Not Lament) for Male Chorus (1941) (may relate to: )
Al Sefod : mužský sbor : Ghetto Terezín, 30.XI.1942 (published 1994, 2002. Text by David Shimoni?)
The advent for Mezzo-soprano, Tenor and Quintet
Fantasy on a Jewish Melody
Čtyři písně na slova činské poezie (4 Songs on Chinese Poetry) (1944, published 1971, 1992)
Partita in Olden Style for Piano [lost]
Šest písní v lidovém tónu pro soprán a klavír (published 1994) (may relate to Op.18?)
Studie pro smyčcový orchestr (Study for String Orchestra) (1943, published 1991)
Symfonie (1940-1941) [unfinished]
Terezín Songs
Three Pieces for Mezzo-soprano, Tenor, Flute, Clarinet and String Quartet [lost]
Variace pro klavír a smyčcový orchestr (Variations for Piano and String Orchestra)
Život je pes (Life Is a Dog) (1933), Music for the Film
Mazlícek (The Little Pet) (1934), Music for the Film
Kvočna (Mother-Hen) (1937), Music for the Film
Literatura
CzechD 1989
Danuta Czech: Kalendarium der Ereignisse im Konzentrationslager Auschwitz-Birkenau 1939–1945, Reinbek: Rowohlt, 1989.
DögeK 2002
Klaus Döge: Haas, Pavel, in: Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik, Personenteil, Bd. 8, Ludwig Finscher (Hg.), 2. überarb. Aufl., Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2002, Sp. 342–344.
DümlingA 2004a
Albrecht Dümling: Künstlerische Gegenentwürfe zum Ghetto: Zum 60. Todestag von Pavel Haas, Hans Krása und Viktor Ullmann, in: mr-Mitteilungen, Nr. 52–53, musica reanimata. Förderverein zur Wiederentdeckung NS-verfolgter Komponisten und ihrer Werke e. V., Berlin: 2004, S. 1–3.
EcksteinP 1999b
Pavel Eckstein: Pavel Haas (1899–1944), in: Komponisten in Theresienstadt: Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, Hans Krása, Karel Reiner, Siegmund Schul, Viktor Ullmann, Initiative Hans Krása (Hg.), Hamburg: Initiative Hans Krása, 1999, S. 9–20.
Odkazy
http://www.bibliothek.uni-regensburg.de/dbinfo/einzeln.phtml?bib_id=bsb&colors=127&titel_id=3171 (Stand: 25. Sept. 2007)
World Biographical Information System
http://www.yadvashem.org/ (Stand: 13. Juni 2012)
Yad Vashem, Shoa Victims’ Database
http://encyklopedie.brna.cz/home-mmb/ (Stand: 3. Aug. 2013)
Enzyklopädie der Stadt Brünn, Einträge Pavel Haas, Hugo Haas, Olga Haasová, Olga Haasová-Smrčková, Soňa Nikolajevna Haasová, Zikmund Haas
http://www.pavelhaasquartet.com (Stand: 5. Nov. 2013)
Homepage des Pavel Haas Streichquartetts
