| born on August 1, 1858
in Vienna as son of the popular actor and vocal comedian Carl
Mathias Roth (later Rott) and the singer and actress Maria Rosalia
Lutz; |
| May 4, 1860 death of
the father's first wife in the Hungarian town Ofen (Buda); |
| Marriage of Carl Mathias Rott
to the mother of Hans and Karl (Lutz); |
| January 1863 legitimation
of the half-brothers Hans and Karl (the latter's father is Archduke
Wilhelm Franz Karl von Nassau-Weilburg) Lutz as Roth (Rott); |
| Hans Rott attends the St. Anna
Elementary School, later the Imperial and Royal Academic Secondary
School in Vienna; |
| August 17, 1872 death
of the mother; |
| In the winter term of 1874/75
Hans Rott takes up his studies at the Conservatoire for Music
and Performing Arts of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society
of the Friends of Music) in Vienna; |
| He studies organ with Anton
Bruckner, harmony with Hermann Grädener, counterpoint and composition
with Franz Krenn; |
| After a stage accident of the
father in April 1875, the family is reduced to poverty; |
| 1875 he becomes member
of the "Wiener akademischer Wagner-Verein" (Viennese Academic
Wagner Society); |
| As from February 1876
he is organist at the Piaristen Church Maria Treu in Vienna; |
| February 10, 1876 death
of the father; |
| March 24, 1876, he composes
"Das Abendglöckchen" ("The Little Evening Bell
"); |
| June 28, 1876, he composes
"Mailied" ("May Song"), followed by "Wanderers
Nachtlied" ("Wanderer's Night Song"), "Vergißmeinnicht"
("Forget-me-not"), "Geistergruß“ ("Ghost's Greeting"); |
| June 21, 1876 he wins
the first prize and medal at the competition of the 1875/76
term in the organ class of Anton Bruckner; |
| August 1876 he attends
the first Bayreuth Richard Wagner Festival as one of 30 chosen
scholarship holders of the "Viennese Academic Wagner Society"
- first performance of "Der Ring der Nibelungen"; |
| February 20, 1877 he
composes "Das Veilchen" ("The Violet"); |
| June 14, 1877 recommendation
by Anton Bruckner for the position as organist of the convent
St. Florian (in vain); |
| June 1877 he begins composing
the "Pastorales Vorspiel" ("Pastoral Prelude"); |
| Spring 1878 he begins
composing the first movement of the Symphony in E major |
| July 2, 1878 composition
competition. Hans Rott presents the first movement of his Symphony
in E major, is ridiculed by the jury and defended only by Anton
Bruckner: "Do not laugh, gentlemen! Of this man you will hear
great things yet!" Of seven candidates of his term (one of them
Gustav Mahler) Hans Rott is the only one to leave the Conservatoire
without having gained a prize for composition; |
| September 23, 1878 he
gives in his notice at the Piaristen because of an unjustified
accusation ("theft from the archives"), afterwards out of work; |
| November 13, 1878 he
composes "Pater noster"; |
| 1879 he leaves the "Viennese
Academic Wagner Society"; |
| April 1879 he moves in
at his last flat in Rotenturmstraße 16 (near St. Stephan Cathedral); |
| From May to October 1879
he works on the adagio, the scherzo and the finale of the Symphony
in E major (first performance on March 4, 1989 by the Philharmonic
Orchestra Cincinnati with Gerhard Samuel conducting); |
| Summer 1879 the begin
of love for the 17-year-old Louise Löwi (later Löhr); |
| 1879/80 the String Quartet
is conceived; |
| As from January 1880
he works on his second symphony; |
| As from April 1880 he
works on an oratorio "Der Tod" ("The Death"); |
| June 1880 he finishes
the "Pastorales Vorspiel" ("Pastoral Prelude") (first
performance on February 18, 1999 in the Musikvereinssaal in
Vienna by the Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna with Dennis Russell
Davies conducting); |
| May 31, 1880 he composes
"Der Sänger" ("The Singer"), afterwards "Winterlied"
( "Winter Song"); |
| Summer 1880 he composes
a "String Sextet"; |
| June 30, 1880 draft of
a will; |
| In the late summer of 1880
he negotiates for the position of a choir director of "Concordia"
in Mulhouse/Alsace; |
| Mid-September 1880 he
presents the Symphony in E major to Johannes Brahms, who is
said to have doubted him to be the author (as "the composition
contained besides such beauty so much triviality and nonsense
that the former could not possibly stem from Rott himself").
Brahms advises him to rather give up composition; |
| October 14, 1880 he presents
the Symphony in E major to Hans Richter in Weidling near Klosterneuburg; |
| October 21, 1880 he travels
by train to Mulhouse. During a stopover in Linz Hans Rott hears
raps at the walls of his room; |
| October 22 or 23 when
continuing his journey, Hans Rott points his revolver at a fellow
traveller to hinder him from lighting a cigar because he imagines
that Brahms had had the train filled with dynamite. At the border
station of Simbach, obviously already under surveillance, Rott
has to leave the train; |
| October 23 committal
to the Psychiatric Clinic of the General Hospital Vienna "in
a completely muddled state"; |
| February 16, 1881 committal
to the Provincial Lunatic Asylum of Lower Austria, diagnosis:
"insanity, hallucinatory persecution mania"; |
| The artistic scholarship amounting
to 33 Gulden is granted; |
| November 15, 1881 death
of his half-brother Karl; |
| March 23, 1882 attempted
suicide by hanging; |
| Grave loss of weight; |
| 1882 Gustav Mahler plays
on the piano the Symphony in E major to Rott's friends; |
| June 25, 1884, 7.30 o'clock
in the morning, Hans Rott dies in the Provincial Lunatic Asylum
of Lower Austria (presumably of cancer of the lungs) |