Johann Adolph Hass

{{Short description|German maker of clavichords, harpsichords and possibly organs}}

{{About|the maker of keyboard instruments|the composer|Johann Adolph Hasse}}

{{Infobox person

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Johann Adolph Hass

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| image = Bundfreies Clavichord-Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg-1904.708.tif

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| caption = Clavichord, 1760, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

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| baptised = 12 March 1713

| death_date = buried 29 May 1771

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| other_names = {{ubl|Johan|Haas|Hasse|Hase|Hasch}}

| citizenship = Hamburg

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| occupation = maker of keyboard instruments

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Johann Adolph Rudolph Hass (baptised 12 March 1713, buried 29 May 1771), usually known as Johann Adolph Hass, was a German maker of clavichords, harpsichords and possibly organs. He was the son of Hieronymus Albrecht Hass, also a maker of keyboard instruments.

Life

Hass was born in the Imperial Free City of Hamburg, and was baptised on 12 March 1713. He became a citizen of the city on 28 October 1746, and was admitted to the chamber of commerce in the following year.{{r|grove}}

There is no mention of either Hass before 1758, when Jakob Adlung mentioned a cembal d'amour made by "Hasse in Hamburg".{{r|grove}} Both father and son are mentioned in the German translation of Charles Burney's The Present State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands, and United Provinces (1773): "Hasse, father and son, of Hamburg, both dead; their harpsichords and clavichords are much sought after".{{r|hen|page=238}} Ernst Ludwig Gerber said much the same in his Historischbiographisches Lexicon of 1790.{{r|hen|page=238}}

Hass died in Hamburg and was buried on 29 May 1771. His business may have been continued by Johann Christoffer Krogmann, a builder of fortepianos who was married to Hass's daughter Margaretha Catharina.{{r|grove}}

Instruments

Hass's instruments are cleverly designed, strongly built, richly decorated and finely finished.{{r|hen|page=238}}

He built large clavichords of the kind that post-Baroque composers such as Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach wrote for, with good tone and volume, and capable of expressive bebung.{{r|grove}}

Eight Hass harpsichords are known to survive. A massive instrument by Johann Adolph with two manuals and five sets of strings (16', 2 × 8', 4', 2'), with tortoiseshell natural keys and ivory-topped sharps, dates from 1760–1761, and is now in the Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments in New Haven, Connecticut.{{r|ed|page=312–313}} A single-manual instrument from 1764, with two 8' and one 4' sets of strings, is in the Russell Collection in Edinburgh.{{r|ed|page=313–314}}

References

{{Reflist|refs=

Edward L. Kottick (2003). [https://books.google.com/books?id=uexrDtt7JKEC&pg=313 A History of the Harpsichord]. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. {{ISBN|9780253341662}}.

Donald Howard Boalch, Peter Williams, Alexander Pilipczuk ([n.d.]). [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/12512 Hass]. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Accessed March 2017. {{subscription required}}.

Hendrik Broekman (2007). [https://books.google.com/books?id=LG3DUo0pBckC&pg=PA238 Hass]. In: Igor Kipnis (editor) (2007). The Harpsichord and Clavichord: An Encyclopedia, volume 2 of Encyclopedia of Keyboard Instruments. Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|9780415937658}}.

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Further reading

  • Raymond Russell, The Harpsichord and Clavichord (London, 1959, 2/1973)
  • Frank Hubbard, Three Centuries of Harpsichord Making (Cambridge, MA, 1965, 2/1967)

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hass, Johann}}

Category:German musical instrument makers

Category:Harpsichord makers

Category:1713 births

Category:1771 deaths