Karl Wilhelm Jacob Haas (27 December 19007 July 1970), musician, musicologist and conductor, was born in Karlsruhe

Karlsruhe

The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...

, Germany, where he studied at the Classical College, then at the Universities of Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

 and Heidelberg

Heidelberg

-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...

.

His first work was at the Dumont Theatre in Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

; then as Music advisor for Karlsruhe and Stuttgart

Stuttgart

Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

 radio stations. He escaped Nazi persecution of Jews and settled in Britain in 1939. He worked as Music Director of Old Vic in Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

, where he composed incidental music and stage scores.

Karl was an enthusiast of Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 music and a fine player of the viola d'amore

Viola d'amore

The viola d'amore is a 7- or 6-stringed musical instrument with sympathetic strings used chiefly in the baroque period. It is played under the chin in the same manner as the violin.- Structure and sound :...

. He edited works of Cherubini

Luigi Cherubini

Luigi Cherubini was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries....

, Boccherini

Luigi Boccherini

Luigi Rodolfo Boccherini was an Italian classical era composer and cellist whose music retained a courtly and galante style while he matured somewhat apart from the major European musical centers. Boccherini is most widely known for one particular minuet from his String Quintet in E, Op. 11, No...

, Dittersdorf

Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf

----August Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf was an Austrian composer, violinist and silvologist.-1739-1764:...

, Handel

George Frideric Handel

George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...

, Haydn

Joseph Haydn

Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...

 and others.

In 1941 he founded the London Baroque Ensemble, which had its public debut in 1943, and continued to play until 1966. Members of the Ensemble between 1952 and 1954 included Sidney Sutcliffe, Terence MacDonagh, Natalie James (aka Natalie Caine

Natalie Caine

Natalie Caine, was one of the first female woodwind players to establish themselves in leading British orchestras. She is frequently referred to by her married name Natalie James....

), Roger Lord on oboe; Frederick Thurston

Frederick Thurston

Frederick John Thurston was an English clarinettist.From the age of 7 he was taught by his father and he won an open scholarship to the Royal College of Music, becoming a pupil of Charles Draper...

, Jack Brymer

Jack Brymer

John Alexander Brymer OBE , was a British clarinettist, born in South Shields.-Biography:The son of a builder, Jack Brymer started his working life as a teacher, being at Heath Clark School, Thornton Heath, Surrey in the late 1940s...

, Gervase de Peyer

Gervase de Peyer

Gervase Alan de Peyer is an English clarinetist and conductor.-Professional career:Gervase de Peyer was born in London and attended Bedales School. He was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Music where he studied clarinet with Frederick Thurston and piano with Arthur Alexander...

, Basil Tschaikov on clarinet; Cecil James

Cecil James

Cecil Edwin James was a prominent English bassoonist born in London to a musical family. His father Wilfred was a bassoonist in the Queen's Hall Orchestra and professor at the Royal College of Music. His uncle Edwin , also a fine bassoonist, was a founding member of the London Symphony Orchestra...

, Paul Draper, Edward Wilson on bassoons; James O'Loughlin on contra-bassoon; Dennis Brain

Dennis Brain

Dennis Brain was a British virtuoso horn player and was largely credited for popularizing the horn as a solo classical instrument with the post-war British public...

, Neill Sanders

Neill Sanders

Neill Sanders was a British horn player, principal hornist of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Melos Ensemble for 29 years. He was a professor in Kalamazoo, Michigan and founded a chamber ensemble and a festival there.-Biography:Neill Sanders...

, Ian Beers on horns; Vivian Joseph (cellist) on cello; and James Merritt on double-bass. They have accompanied keyboardists Lionel Salter, Charles Spinks and George Malcolm

George Malcolm (musician)

George Malcolm CBE was an English harpsichordist and conductor.Malcolm's first instrument was the piano, and his first teacher was a nun who recognised his talent and recommended him to the Royal College of Music. Malcolm went on to study at Balliol College, Oxford...

 in works of J. S. Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

 and C. P. E. Bach

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

right|250pxCarl Philipp Emanuel Bach was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and second son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach...

. They made a number of recordings of Handel, Bach and Boyce.

According to Basil Tschaikov, Karl Haas was a fine instrumentalist but a poor conductor. This was evidenced when playing the Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss

Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...

 Sonatina No 2 for the BBC on two occasions, as the second was by far the better performance. The difference was attributed to his taking a fall after the first, which left his arms in a sling.

A recording containing Dvořák

Antonín Dvorák

Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...

's Serenade in D minor Op. 44, Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

's Serenade No. 11 in E flat, K.375 and Serenade No. 12 in C minor, K.388/384a is available on the Testament

Testament Records (UK)

The Testament Records label, based in Great Britain, specialises in historical classical music recordings, including previously unreleased broadcast performances by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra and Solomon...

 label. Other recordings of the London Baroque Ensemble were made on the Westminster

Westminster Records

Westminster Records was an American classical music record label, issuing original recordings from 1949 to 1965.It was founded in 1949 by Mischa Naida, the owner of the Westminster Record shop in New York City, businessman James Grayson, and conductor Henry Swoboda...

 label, now part of Deutsche Grammophon

Deutsche Grammophon

Deutsche Grammophon is a German classical record label which was the foundation of the future corporation to be known as PolyGram. It is now part of Universal Music Group since its acquisition and absorption of PolyGram in 1999, and it is also UMG's oldest active label...

, Parlophone

Parlophone

Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which...

, Decca

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

 and Pye

Pye Records

Pye Records was a British record label. In its first incarnation, perhaps Pye's best known artists were Lonnie Donegan , Petula Clark , The Searchers , The Kinks , Sandie Shaw and Brotherhood of Man...

.

He had been working on a book 300 Years of Military Music at the time of his death.