Alois Hába was a Czech composer and music theory scholar known for his experimentation with microtonality. His most popular composition was the microtonal opera Matka, and his extensive work list also includes both diatonic and microtonal pieces for many other instrumental and vocal configurations. He was born into a musical family in 1893. His father played folk music and was the leader of a popular dance band, which also included Hába and his brother Karel when they were both very young. Hába's mother was a respected singer of ancient Moravian peasant tunes, and she also sang in the band. There he learned songs that did not conform to the standard 12-note system, and he also played the violin and double bass. From 1908 to 1913 he studied music at the Teachers' Training Institute of Komeriz, and in 1914 he enrolled at the Prague Conservatory. After taking the initial entrance exams, he was placed into the most advanced courses, and he studied composition with Vítezslav Novák. Upon the outbreak of World War I, he was called into the military and stationed in Vienna, where he was conveniently able to continue his musical studies with counterpoint lessons from Richard Stöhr. In 1917 he read a Viennese newspaper article about Willy von Möllendorf's ideas regarding quarter-tone music and was fascinated; just months later he completed his microtonal Suite for string orchestra. The following year he began studying composition with Franz Schreker, and he also worked for Universal Edition where he edited the scores of Schoenberg, Szymanowski, and others. Working with this music was very influential to Hába and he began to incorporate rhythmic and melodic elements of Moravian folk into his own compositional vocabulary. After two years of studying with Schreker, Hába discontinued lessons, but in 1920 they traveled together to the Berlin Hochschule fur Musik. In Berlin, he was highly respected as a composer, but he was driven out by the Nazis and returned to Prague in 1923. He was encouraged by both Josef Suk and Ferruccio Busoni to continue pursuing microtonal music. With Suk's assistance, Hába established a department of microtonal music within the Prague Conservatory beginning in 1924. He also had some quarter-tone instruments built for him including pianos, a harmonium, and later, trumpets and clarinets, which were used in his opera Matka in 1931. He was prosperous in the 1930s: he became a full professor at the conservatory and earned a reputation as one of the leading avant-garde composers of the time. After the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia in 1939, Hába's works were banned from performance and the conservatory was closed in 1941. He continued composing throughout the war and eventually resumed teaching when the conservatory reopened in 1945. He retired in 1953 and remained active as a composer until his death in 1973. ~ RJ Lambert, Rovi