Kauder Society

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This page presents a provisional account of the Kauder Society, with discography.

It is part of the site Classical 'Society' Records by Nick Morgan.

In the late 1940s, two sets of 78 rpm records of compositions by Hugo Kauder (1888-1972) were issued in the name of the Society, which is otherwise undocumented.

The Kauder Society

It is not known when the Kauder Society was formed, by whom, for how long it existed, and whether or how it was connected with the Bohemian-born émigré composer, teacher and writer Hugo Kauder. The Society's existence is currently attested solely by four 78 rpm records issued in its name in the late 1940s.

In 2002 a new body was founded, the Hugo Kauder Society. Still active, it documents, preserves and promotes Kauder's works and teachings. In 2006 the Society donated its papers to the New York Public Library. The NYPL's finding aid does not clearly list any items relating either to the older Kauder Society or to the records listed below.[1] The Hugo Kauder Papers 1927-1946, held by the University of Chicago Library, include only manuscript and published scores, unpublished essays, and the Kauder Society Volume I (see below).[2]

Kauder Society publications

In the late 1940s, two sets of records of Kauder's compositions were produced by the Night Music Recording Co., whose name appears on the labels alongside that of Kauder Society. The albums themselves give no information about the Society. In the absence of this, and of any terms and conditions of membership or publicity material for these issues, it is assumed that the Society underwrote them in part or in full. Two reviews of the first issue give a (slightly different) price but do not state whether it could be bought retail or only from the Society itself. The second issue apparently went almost completely unnoticed in the press.

The Society is not known to have sponsored or published any printed material besides the inserts which accompanied these two issues.

The Kauder Society Volume I

Selection Artists Format Matrix Recorded Location Issued Label cat. no. Country
Kauder Sonata for English Horn and Piano –
(i) Prelude. Andante tranquillo
(ii) Intermezzo[. Vivace non troppo allegro]
Louis Speyer (cor anglais)
Erwin Bodky (piano)
10" / 25 cm
lateral disc
NM-105
1 October 1946
location unknown
mid-1947
Night Music set 105 /
The Kauder Society Volume I
face no. KS 600-1
USA
Kauder Sonata for English Horn and Piano –
(iii) Melody. Sostenuto [part 1]
Louis Speyer (cor anglais)
Erwin Bodky (piano)
10" / 25 cm
lateral disc
label: NM-106
runout: 2 NM 106
1 October 1946
location unknown
mid-1947
Night Music set 105 /
The Kauder Society Volume I
face no. KS 600-2
USA
Kauder Sonata for English Horn and Piano –
(iii) Melody. Sostenuto [part 2]
(iv) Fughetta. Allegretto
Louis Speyer (cor anglais)
Erwin Bodky (piano)
10" / 25 cm
lateral disc
label: NM-107
runout: 3C NM 107
1 October 1946
location unknown
mid-1947
Night Music set 105 /
The Kauder Society Volume I
face no. KS 600-3
USA
Kauder Improvization [sic] for English Horn alone Louis Speyer (cor anglais) 10" / 25 cm
lateral disc
NM-108
1 October 1946
location unknown
mid-1947
Night Music set 105 /
The Kauder Society Volume I
face no. KS 600-4
USA

Notes on issue
The above set was issued in auto-sequence coupling only, in an album with a loose-leaf printed insert containing a note on the composer and recorded works, written by Edward E. Lowinsky, then Professor of Music at Black Mountain College; the text is reproduced here. The insert also contained brief biographies of the artists. The recording date is printed on the disc labels, which also give the location of the Night Music Recording Co. as Boston, Massachusetts (although its next issue placed it in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania[3]). The price was variously given in the press as $4 (The New Records) and $4.20 (Gramophone Shop Record Supplement).

System
It is not known which electrical recording system or medium were used. The owner of a copy of this issue has described it as 'not a good recording, with distortion that smacks of early tape, although the date (1946) seems rather too early - or maybe it's a typical US limiter circuit.'[4] As noted in The New Records (see below), the discs were pressed on 'non-breakable Vinylite'.

Notes on works
Both works are presumed to have been recorded complete. The Sonata was composed in 1946, and dedicated to Speyer,[5] but published only in 1971 by Southern Music;[6] it has not been consulted for this page. The movement titles are given on the disc labels, the indications in the insert note, except that for (ii), which is nevertheless presumed to be original.[7] It is not known if the Improvization has been published; the Hugo Kauder Society Records at the NYPL include a score, also dated 1946, but the finding aid does not specify if it is a manuscript or a print.[8]

Reviews

  • Durgin, Cyrus 'Recent New Records Feature Music by Chamber Ensembles', The Boston Sunday Globe [Boston, Massachusetts], 4 May 1947, Section A [Editorial and News Feature Section], p.21
  • de Schauensee, Max(?) in 'Chamber Music', The New Records, Vol.15 No.4, June 1947, pp.6-7 (on p.7)
  • Hardy, William H.?, The Gramophone Shop, Inc., Record Supplement for August 1947, Vol.X No.8, August 1947, p.3
  • Singer, Samuel L. 'Recorded Music – Classical and Popular', The Philadelphia Inquirer [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania], Sunday 26 October 1947, 'Society' section, p.17

Other reviews undoubtedly remain to be located.

Transfers
A collection of multiple transfers of each side, and of images of all labels, is available at the Internet Archive.

Sources

  • Private collector, UK
  • Entry, including images of all labels and insert but not album cover, at discogs.com

The Kauder Society Volume II

Selection Artists Format Matrix Recorded Location Issued Label cat. no. Country
Kauder Second Piano Sonata –
(i) Allegretto
(ii) Allegro moderato (beginning)
Lilian Kallir (piano) 10" / 25 cm
lateral disc
label: NM 210
runout: KS210A
c.1947/48?
location unknown
after March 1948
Night Music set KS 205 /
The Kauder Society, Volume Two
USA
Kauder Second Piano Sonata –
(ii) Allegro moderato (end)
(iii) Sostenuto tranquillo
Lilian Kallir (piano) 10" / 25 cm
lateral disc
label: NM 211
runout: KS211A
c.1947/48?
location unknown
after March 1948
Night Music set KS 205 /
The Kauder Society, Volume Two
USA
Kauder Second Piano Sonata –
(iv) Allegretto vivace
Lilian Kallir (piano) 10" / 25 cm
lateral disc
label: NM 212
runout: KS212A
c.1947/48?
location unknown
after March 1948
Night Music set KS 205 /
The Kauder Society, Volume Two
USA
Kauder Twenty Four Melodies for the Piano
– 2 Melodies (unspecified)
Lilian Kallir (piano) 10" / 25 cm
lateral disc
label: NM 213
runout: KS213A
c.1947/48?
location unknown
after March 1948
Night Music set KS 205 /
The Kauder Society, Volume Two
USA

Notes on issue
The above set was issued in auto-sequence coupling only, in an album with a pasted-in sheet containing a note on the composer, the Society and its issues, and the works in this set; signed 'The Kauder Society', it gives the Society's address as 48 Jamaica Road, Brookline, Mass. The insert also contains a photograph and brief biography of Kallir, described as the composer's theory pupil. The album cover, insert and disc labels show varying notations of the volume number: on the cover and insert, it is Volume II, but on the labels Volume Two.[9] The recording date is not given on the labels or insert, but the latter refers to Kauder having written his 'recent Fourth piano Sonata' especially for Kallir; the autograph manuscript of the Fourth Sonata is dated 18 March 1948, but the recording itself could have been made before the insert note was written. The price of this issue is not known, nor is the location at this date of the Night Music Recording Co.

System
It is not known which electrical recording system or medium were used. The owner of a copy of this issue has described it as having 'some distortion etc (like Vol I) that suggests to me early tape recording, rather than 'typical' 1940s American problems.'[10]

Notes on works
An autograph manuscript of the Sonata, held among the Hugo Kauder Papers in the University of Chicago Library, bears an inscription, 'Für Eduard Lowinsky. March 12, 1941.' It is recorded complete, except for a tiny omission in 'bar 80'[11] of (iii); this appears to be a misreading by the performer. It has not been possible to ascertain which numbers from the set of Twenty-Four Melodies make up the filler, or if they are recorded complete, though this seems likely.

Sources

  • Private collection, UK
  • Transfer (see below)
  • Manuscript score (copyist not identified, possibly the composer) and digitally typeset perusal score of Kauder's Piano Sonata No.2

Reviews
No review of this issue has been located to date. The only known mention of it in the press is found in a report of the conferral on Kallir of the American Artists Award for 1949 by the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.[12]

Transfers
'Gordonskene' 'Lilian Kallir Plays Music Of Hugo Kauder – (Circa) 1946 – Past Daily Weekend Gramophone', 8 July 2018, pastdaily.com.

Unissued Recordings

It is possible that other recordings were made for the Kauder Society but not issued. To date, none are known.

Acknowledgements

I am extremely grateful to a collector in the UK, who wishes to remain nameless, for his invaluable help in researching the content of this page.

References

  1. Snyder, Matthew 'Hugo Kauder Society records 1911-2006', Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, n.d.
  2. Guide to the Hugo Kauder Papers 1927-1946, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
  3. Night Music set 106 'Haganah Songs of the Jewish Underground', entry at discogs.com
  4. Personal e-mail, 9 January 2019
  5. 'A native of Paris (...)' (biographical note on Speyer), insert, Night Music set 105 / Kauder Society Volume I, scan at discogs.com
  6. Copyright Office, Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third Series, Volume 25, Part 5, Number 1, Section 1, Music, Current and Renewal Registrations, January—June 1971, Washington DC: Library of Congress, 1972, p.721
  7. The indication for (iii) is taken from McMullen, William Wallace Soloistic English Horn Literature from 1736-1984, Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1994, p.120, which erroneously gives the Sonata's date of composition as 1970
  8. Snyder, Matthew 'Hugo Kauder Society records 1911-2006', Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, n.d.
  9. Many thanks to a collector in the UK for scans of the album cover, insert and a disc label
  10. Personal e-mail, 3 May 2019
  11. Like many of Kauder's works, the Sonata is not not barred; the number 80 is not present in the unattributed manuscript score made available by the Hugo Kauder Society but is taken from the digitally typeset perusal score
  12. 'Lilian Kallir, Pianist, Wins 1949 American Artists Award', The Brooklyn Daily Eagle [Brooklyn, New York], Sunday 10 April 1949, p.33