Hans Albert Mattausch
Hans Albert Mattausch was born on 18 September 1882 in Dresden (Germany) to an Austrian father and therefore with an Austrian citizenship. As a boy he was a chorister at the Dresdner Kreuzchor. At the age of 14 Hans Albert Mattausch was accepted at the Dresden conservatory where he studied piano, flute, composition and conducting under Ernst von Schuch, Felix Draeseke and Wilhelm Rischbieter. He completed his studies in 1902.
His first position was the kapellmeister in Lübeck, but only a year later he moved to Magdeburg. Hans Albert Mattausch lived and worked there for the next 20 years from 1904 to 1924 and in 1907 acquired the German citizenship. In Magdeburg he was at first choir master at the Singakademie until 1909, then he became kapellmeister and choir master at the city theatre. In 1924 Hans Albert Mattausch was appointed conductor of the orchestra of the Komische Oper in Königsberg (today: Kaliningrad). This orchestra was dissolved in 1926 and Hans Albert Mattausch found a new position in Kaiserslautern. There he conducted the local Musikverein until 1928. He then moved to Berlin where he worked as a pianist, composition and piano teacher as well as prinicipal conductor of the so-called "Siemens-Konzern-Konzerte" until 1943. In 1943 Hans Albert Mattausch moved to Vienna and became kapellmeister and choir master of the Volksoper, principal composer for the Neues Schauspielhaus and lecturer at the Horak conservatory. After the end of World War II he had to leave Austria in 1948 due to his German citizenship. A second change of his citizenship back to an Austrian passport was declined. Hans Albert Mattausch first found a place in the refugee camp in Dachau and since 1951 he was choir master of the local Volkschor. With the help of the Siemens group Hans Albert Mattausch moved to Munich in 1953 and became conductor the Siemens-Konzerte again. He quit this position in 1957 and then focused on composing until his passing.
Hans Albert Mattausch died on 5 January 1960 in Munich (Germany).
The work catalogue of Hans Albert Mattausch contains at least 5 operas (Brautnacht, Eva, Graziella, Esther, Die Jassabraut), operettas, orchestral music, 2 piano concertos, a violin concerto, chamber and piano music, songs and other vocal music.
In my possession is the autograph manuscript of 5 songs for bass and piano by Hans Albert Mattausch. It doesn't seem that the five songs form a cycle, they are just written together in a manuscript. The songs are:
- Heimweh (words by Hans Albert Mattausch)
- Zwei Bilder (words taken from a war newspaper from 1916)
- Die alte Laute (words by Hans Albert Mattausch)
- Trink-Sprüche (words by Hans Albert Mattausch)
- Der einsame Zecher (words by Hans Albert Mattausch)
The manuscript is not dated and I found no information about a performance nor a publication. But Hans Albert Mattausch wrote his actual postal address in the manuscript, a place in Munich (Cimbernstraße 114/I). Hans Albert Mattausch moved to Munich in 1953 and so it seems likely that these songs were composed between that year and his death in 1960.
