Georg Friedrich Haas composed in vain in reaction to political events in his native Austria. The piece is well known for making use of clashing tuning systems and darkness in the concert hall. These two facets of Haas’s writing have been much discussed and written about. The political dimension of in vain, however, while it is frequently mentioned by commentators, is rarely explored in depth. In this paper, I discuss the facets that make up in vain, including the piece’s political backbone, from what I consider to be Haas’s defining aesthetic: plurality and inner contradiction. I aim to provide as much background as possible to the reader on each of the secondary topics, including coexisting contradictory interpretations, in order to paint a fuller picture of the piece. Chapter 1 introduces Haas’s biography, his aesthetics, and in vain in the context of his compositional career. In Chapter 2, I discuss tuning systems and Haas’s theories of microtonality. I then explore the two materials that make up in vain in Chapter 3 from the perspective of opposition, before exploring darkness and the importance it plays in the work as a transitional driving force in Chapter 4. Lastly, in Chapter 5, I introduce the concept of dialectics as it is used in the piece and show how in vain’s political content is embedded within its formal design.

Last modified

• 12/11/2017

Creator

• Michal Raymond Massoud

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/N2K664

Subject

• Georg Friedrich Haas
• Just intonation
• Dialectics
• Political Music
• Music Analysis
• Microtonality
• In vain
• Darkness

Keyword

• Georg Friedrich Haas
• DMA Project
• Dialectics
• Political Music
• Music Analysis
• Microtonality
• In vain
• Contemporary Music Analysis
• Darkness

Date created

• 2017-12-05

Rights statement

• In Copyright