(Ger.).
Music intended for performance in the home by family and friends for their own entertainment and edification. Associated particularly with the music of the middle class as opposed to that of the aristocracy, the term is peculiar to Germany and retains a sociological significance not found in similar terms such as the English ‘music at home’ or ‘household music’. Any suitable chamber music can be considered ‘Hausmusik’.
Early uses of the term include Johann Staden's Hauss-Musik (Nuremberg, 1623–8), containing simple three-part settings of sacred songs with instrumental accompaniment, and Johann Rist's Frommer und Gottseliger Christen alltäglichen Haussmusik (Lüneburg, 1654). Although the 18th century brought a profusion of music composed for the dilettante and amateur musician, the term was not in common use again until the middle of the 19th century. W.H. Riehl included ‘only simple, easy German Hausmusik’ in his song collection Hausmusik (Stuttgart, 1855, 2/1860). This and later anthologies (e.g. Hugo Leichtentritt's Deutsche Hausmusik aus vier Jahrhunderten, Berlin, 1905–7; Hugo Riemann's Hausmusik aus alter Zeit, Leipzig, 1906) emphasized the gulf that had developed between art music, with its increasing harmonic and technical complexities, and music suitable for amateurs. The youth and singing movements in Germany in the early 20th century brought new political and social importance to Hausmusik. Music publishers, educators and musical instrument dealers collaborated in making music available for amateur performers, and composers such as Hindemith wrote music expressly for this purpose. Many publications devoted to Hausmusik enjoyed wide circulation, and since 1932 St Cecilia's Day has been celebrated as a ‘day for Hausmusik’ in most German cities.
See also Chamber music.
MGG2 (G. Busch-Salmen)
C.F. Becker: Die Hausmusik in Deutschland in dem 16., 17. und 18. Jahrhunderte (Leipzig, 1840)
J. Hullah: Music in the House (London, 1877)
A. Reissmann: Die Hausmusik (Berlin, 1884)
K. Storck: Musik-Politik (Stuttgart, 1907, 2/1911)
E. Spranger: Rede über die Hausmusik (Kassel, 1958)
L. Finscher: ‘Hausmusik und Kammermusik’, Musik und Verlag: Karl Vötterle zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. R. Baum and W. Rehm (Kassel, 1968), 68–76
R. Stephan: Überlegurgen zur Funktion der Hausmusik heute (Berlin, 1968)
W. Salmen: Haus- und Kammermusik: Privates Musizieren in gesellschaftlichem Wandel zwischen 1600 und 1900 (Leipzig, 1969, 2/1982)
N. Petrat: Hausmusik des Biedermeier (Hamburg, 1986)
M. Fink, R. Gstrein and G. Mössmer, eds.: Musica privata … Festschrift zum 65. Geburtstag von Walter Salmen (Innsbruck, 1991)