"Die Sache, für die mein Leben einsteht"

“What music has lost with him can scarcely be measured”.

Thus Gustav Mahler, writing in 1900, described his former fellow-student Hans Rott (1858-1884). Nonetheless, it was nearly 90 years before the musical world took notice of the composer who died at the age of 25 in psychiatric care: the premiere in 1989 of the impressive E major symphony, which Rott completed when he was 22, marked the beginning of the rediscovery of this pupil of Bruckner and admirer of Wagner.

This volume brings together the papers given at a symposium in Vienna held to mark Hans Rott’s 150th birthday. Contributions include studies of the composer’s life and its social context, as well as of his work, his musical influences, and the reception of his works. Although academic research in the years immediately following the rediscovery of Rott’s work initially focused on the inescapable influence of his E major symphony on Mahler’s symphonic work. This collection of essays offers evidence that Rott himself, his personality and his works, are becoming more of a focus of scholarly interest.