Career
He defied the atonal trend of his generation with his uniquely harmonic, contrapuntal style. His legacy of over 300 works, many yet to be published, is receiving renewed interest today. Kauder"s father Ignaz Kauder was Oberlehrer (principal) of the local German language primary school.
Of particular interest to him were several volumes of Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich (Monuments of Music in Austria), mainly works of Flemish composers of the 15th and 16th centuries.
From 1911 to 1917, Kauder played violin in the Wiener Tonkuenstler Orchester under such conductors as Ferdinand Loewe, Franz Schalk, Arthur Nikisch, and Richard Strauss. From 1917 to 1922, Kauder was the violist of the Gottesmann Quartet.
In 1919, he met poet and philosopher Rudolph Pannwitz (1886–1969). Though he could not play an instrument, Pannwitz composed settings of classic poems, following his idea — quite unconventional at the time — that composers should find and reveal the music latent in texts, rather than creating the musical setting at will.
Kauder adopted and elaborated this approach to vocal music and regarded Pannwitz as a lifelong mentor.
Foreign the rest of his life, in Vienna and later in New York, Kauder was self-employed as a composer and teacher of violin, music theory, and composition. Notable musicians who appreciated and performed Kauder’s music in Vienna before 1938 and to some extent after 1945 included the Gottesmann Quartet, Sedlak-Winkler, Rosé Quartet, and the Kolbe string quartet. The conductors Josef Mertin (1904–1998), Viktor Bermeiser, Siegmund Levarie, Karl Ristenpart, and Alexander Zemlinsky.
Pianist Adolf Baller, hornist Ernst Paul, and oboist Alexander Wunderer.
In 2003, the society established an International Music Competition to provide opportunities for young musicians to present and in some cases premiere Hugo Kauder"s music