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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2010
The first complete biography of Alois Hába, who is now in his early seventies, is being prepared by Dr. J. Vyslouzil, lecturer in musicology at the University of Brno, and I owe thanks to him for valuable co-operation in selecting and analysing examples of Hába's work. Few other composers have followed as clear cut a pattern of a life's work as Hába, who in the years 1921–23 made a significant breakthrough in several directions in his first mature works. This gave him enough material for development as a composer, theoretical thinker and teacher to last a lifetime. Of these works I have selected three, all written in the quartertone system, and hope to show in what way Hába was ahead of his contemporaries at that time.
1
In his notation Haba uses the symbols 
and 
to indicate sharpening by a quartertone, and 
and 
for flattening by a quartertone. In the text of this article these quartertone alterations are indicated by + and − signs. Thus ‘E flat-’ means a quartertone below E flat, and ‘augmented fourth+’ means an augmented fourth expanded by a quartertone.