Hans Haselböck

Johann Haselböck (26 July 1928 – 20 October 2021) was an Austrian organist, composer, author and academic teacher. He was organist at the Dominican Church, Vienna, for 65 years, and was professor of organ and improvisation at the Vienna Music Academy, where he later also served as head of the faculty of church music and as deputy rector. He gave organ concerts in Europe, North America, and the Near and Far East. Haselböck is regarded as a pioneer of Catholic church music in the German language after the Second Vatican Council.

Biography Haselböck was born in , now part of Bergern im Dunkelsteinerwald. He attended the gymnasium in Krems, Lower Austria, achieving the Matura in 1947. He then studied organ and church music at both the Vienna Conservatory and the Vienna Music Academy, graduating in 1952. Haselböck became organist at the Dominican Church, Vienna, and held the office for 65 years. He also taught Latin and German at the later . He achieved first prize at the , an international competition in organ improvisation at the St. Bavo church, three times in a row until 1960.

Haselböck and his wife Lucia had two sons, Martin Haselböck, also an organist, and Lukas Haselböck, a composer and musicologist.

Publications Books by Haselböck are held by the German National Library: Barocker Orgelschatz in Niederösterreich. Manutiuspresse, Vienna and Munich 1972, ISBN 3-85171-055-X Von der Orgel und der Musica sacra. Historisch-kritische Beiträge zu Fragen von Orgelbau, Orgelkomposition und neuer Kirchenmusik. In: publications of the Institut für Kirchenmusikalische Werkpraxis Vienny, vol. 1, Doblinger, Vienna and Munich 1988, ISBN 3-900695-03-2 Vom Glanz und Elend der Orgel. Seltsames und Eigenartiges, Bedeutsames und Unwichtiges, Nachweisliches und Unglaubliches, Prosaisches und Poetisches von einem eigentlich unfaßbaren Musikinstrument. Atlantis-Musikbuch-Verlag, Zürich and Mainz 1999, ISBN 3-254-00244-X Organistenbüchlein. Ein amüsanter und lehrreicher Streifzug durch die Welt der Orgel und ihrer Protagonisten. Atlantis-Musikbuch-Verlag, Zürich and Mainz 2003, ISBN 3-254-00262-8