The Life and Legacy of Franz Xaver Hauser

Franz Xaver Hauser (1794?1870), born near Prague in Czechoslovakia, combined his career of singing and teaching with a consuming interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

In this remarkable biography, Dale A. Jorgenson discloses the existence of the great legacy left by Hauser. Although his achievements were many, Hauser’s greatest contribution was his determined effort to catalogue all the known works of J. S. Bach, collect and share all the original manuscripts and authentic copies of Bach’s work, and make his unpublished catalogue, the manuscripts, and his professional guidance available to the Bach Society, which was founded in Leipzig in 1850.