Martin Karl Hasse

Martin Karl Woldemar Hasse (20 March 1883 – 31 July 1960) was a German university lecturer, composer and music writer.

Born in Dohna, Hasse was the son of the pastor Martin Hasse (1852-1915) and his wife Cora († 1922), née Wittich. In 1910 in Heidelberg, he married Aline (1881-1936), a daughter of Adolf Schmitthenner [de] (1854-1907), pastor and writer. Together with his wife he had three daughters. Of these is known by name: Ruth Hasse (1913-2009), violinist, married to Wilhelm Stross (1907-1966), professor at the Munich Academy of Music.

Hasse received his first musical instruction as Thomaner-Alumni in Leipzig. This was followed by practical musical training at the Leipzig Conservatory with Stephan Krehl, Adolf Ruthardt, Karl Straube and Arthur Nikisch. On Karl Straube's recommendation, he continued his studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München with Max Reger and Felix Mottl; at the university there he listened to musicology with Hermann Kretzschmar and Hugo Riemann as well as lectures on history, philosophy and German studies.

After a temporary activity as assistant to Philipp Wolfrum in Heidelberg and in Chemnitz as cantor, he became municipal music director in Bielefeld in 1910; in 1919, on his initiative, the Institut für Musik der Hochschule Osnabrück [de] was opened.

In 1919 he was appointed university music director and professor at the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, where he founded the music institute and the musicological seminar. In 1923 he received his doctorate in musicology and in 1935 he became director of the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, his representative was Hermann Unger; Hasse held this office until his retirement in 1945. After his retirement he devoted himself to compositional work.

Hasse died in Cologne at the age of 77.

Hasse became known as a composer, conductor, educator, organizer and music writer. He has appeared in public with numerous symphonic compositions, suites, concertos, choral works, cantatas, songs, and piano and organ works. Following Max Reger's training, he almost always strived for a strict polyphony structure of the composition, which would result in a self-contained and uniform work of art. He was also instrumental in the German organ movement that began in the 1920s and led to the reconstruction of numerous old instruments.

As a music writer he wrote books about Johann Sebastian Bach and Max Reger and published numerous essays on questions of style and daily problems of music culture.