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Moritz Hauptmann (13 October 1792, Dresden – 3 January 1868, Leipzig), was a German people music theory, teacher and composer. His principal theoretical work is the 1853 Die Natur der Harmonie und der Metrik explores numerous topics, particular the philosophy of music.
Hauptmann was initially employed as an architect before finding success as a musician. Notable in his early musical output is a grand tragic opera, Mathilde. He joined the orchestra of Kassel in 1822 under Spohr's direction. There, he first taught composition and music theory. His pupils included Ferdinand David, Friedrich Burgmüller, Gustav Graben-Hoffmann, Charles Edward Horsley, Friedrich Kiel, Ernst Naumann, Oscar Paul, Isidor Seiss and others.
In 1842, Hauptmann became Thomaskantor in Leipzig (a post once held by Johann Sebastian Bach) as well as professor of music theory at the newly founded conservatoire at the invitation of Felix Mendelssohn. In this capacity, his unique gift as a teacher developed and it was readily acknowledged by his enthusiastic and quite-often distinguished pupils.
His musical philosophy is embodied in his book Die Natur der Harmonie und der Metrik ( The Nature of Harmony and Meter, 1853), in which he attempted a philosophic explanation of musical form. His theory is described as "Hegelian" and he emphasized concepts of unity, opposition, and reunion, which he finds in chords, scales, key relationships, and meter. He conceived of minor and major triads as opposite. This theory influenced "harmonic dualists" including Hugo Riemann. He also advocated just intonation and considered enharmonic progressions unnatural. In this sense, he could be considered a conservative in relation to the compositional trends of his time. He displayed a taste for classical proportion, formal order, metrical clarity, and tonal logic. Unlike the Romantic trends of continuous legato, he considered any "metrical first" (i.e. downbeat – implied or actual) to be automatically accented.
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