Writings & Ramblings
January 03, 2026
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to sit in on a lecture given by Georg Friedrich Hass at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University on the invitation of my friend and fellow composer Robbie Strauss, who is currently pursuing an MM in Composition there. I walked out of that lecture hall with a newfound appreciation for the music of Helmut Lachenmann, as well as an unexpected affirmation of my creative ethos: music should be of and for our time, and it should say something. This lecture has lingered in my thoughts incessantly since, only growing more poignant with time, and I believe Hass’s message is one which should be shared.
The topic of Hass’s lecture was his assertion that Helmut Lachenmann was the last Romantic composer (he later specified the German Romantic tradition, perhaps the most German distinction he could have made) which I must admit I was rather skeptical of at first. Discussions of the Romantic Period typically summon to my mind the symphonies of Mahler, Tchaikovsky and Dvořák, the song of the Schumanns and Wolf, and the virtuoso pianists Lizst and Chopin. It has not, traditionally, brought to mind musique concrète and the intimate and visceral soundscapes of Helmut Lachenmann. If one compares his music to any of the previously mentioned Romantics they can seem almost of two different worlds, and in many ways they are, but Hass would identify that the core Lachenmann’s music and that of the Romantics is the same: they both seek to express aspects of reality. The works of Gustav Mahler, for instance, are each an intensely personal journey through emotional worlds which reflect his own. The music of Lachenmann is connected by a throughline of calls for political action communicated through non-traditional and experimental playing techniques. I was vaguely familiar with Lachenmann’s political music, understanding him as a student of Nono and a generally active political voice in German music of the 60s and 70s, but I had not made the connection to Romanticism which Hass explained. Perhaps the clearest and contemporary example that Hass presented was Lachenmann’s Marche Fatale, a fairly explicit condemnation of the increasingly reactionary politics in Germany and more specifically the far-right nationalist AfD party. I feel no need to explain why such music is intensely relevent not only in Germany, but throughout the western world today.
Hass concluded his lecture by asserting that the music of Lachenmann says something, and calling on the composers in that room to always say something with their music as well. An easy and compelling call to answer, at least for me.