The clarinettist Antony Morf (1944-2016) and the composer Walter Furrer (1902-1978) probably met at the annual meeting of the Swiss Musicians' Association in 1974.
Beatrice Wolf-Furrer
(translation: AI)
- 25 Jan 2017
Antony Morf 2015. photo: zVg
On the cover page of the manuscript Nahtegal, guot vogellin - It is a small composition for chamber choir and four instruments (viola, guitar, recorder, tambourine) based on a Middle High German text by the Bernese minstrel Heinrich von Stretelingen, which was broadcast by Studio Radio Bern on May 24, 1975 - Walter Furrer wrote the handwritten dedication "Für Herrn Morf".
The lutenist Irina Döring drew my attention to this. She was a participant in the seminar organized by the Institute of Musicology at the University of Bern in the winter semester of 2016 Saving the Swiss composer Walter Furrer from oblivion (Head: Prof. Dr. Cristina Urchueguía; focus: Music after 1600 / Edition philology) and dealt with the aforementioned work.
Due to the rarity of the name alone, it was not too difficult to find out who was behind it. After contacting the Bernese musicians Adrian and Helene Wepfer, it was clear that it must be Antony Morf, who was first clarinettist of the Bern Symphony Orchestra for several years. As he later also worked in Basel in this capacity, I continued my research at the Basel Symphony Orchestra and, after a few detours, finally reached Mr. Cardinaux, one of Antony Morf's students, and through him to Mrs. Dorothee Morf, the artist's widow.
During a conversation I had with her in Basel on December 1, 2016, I gained an insight into Antony Morf's biography and also learned that he and Walter Furrer had met. However, I must caveat this by saying that this information is rather summary and therefore lacks characteristic details. This is due to the fact that Antony Morf, although a sought-after and widely known orchestral and solo musician, was markedly modest and therefore deliberately kept nothing for "posterity". In addition, apart from the aforementioned dedication, no written notes on Antony Morf have yet been found in Walter Furrer's estate.
Antony Morf was born in Geneva on June 16, 1944, attended grammar school there and had clarinet lessons from an early age: from 1958 to 1963 he was a student of the Dutch clarinettist Léon Hoogstoël at the Geneva Conservatory. There he obtained his teaching diploma and won the First Virtuoso Prize, after which he was a private pupil of Ferenc Hernad (Lugano) for a while. He went on to win several prizes at international music competitions, including third prize in Geneva in 1967 and first prize in Budapest in 1970.
From 1965 to 1970 he was a member of the Quintette à vent romand. He played as first clarinettist in several Swiss symphony orchestras, from 1968 to 1972 in Bern, then in Zurich and Geneva. In 1978 he moved to the Basel Symphony Orchestra, where he worked until his retirement in 2006. In the 1972/73 season, he was celebrated as a soloist at subscription concerts in Bern and Lausanne. In between, many concert tours - as a soloist and orchestral musician - took him to Paris, Monaco, Salzburg (Festival), Prague and Budapest. He worked with the leading conductors of his time - Armin Jordan, Charles Dutoit and others - and also became known through numerous recordings, for example on the Erato label; the recording of Igor Stravinsky's Histoire du soldat was awarded the Grand Prix du disque. Antony Morf died on May 26, 2016 in Basel.
According to Ms. Morf, the meeting with Walter Furrer came about on 18 May 1974 at the annual meeting of the Swiss Association of Musicians, of which Walter Furrer had been a member since 1952. At the time, Antony Morf won the first prize of 5,000 francs. Somehow the two must have taken a spontaneous liking to each other. As Mrs. Morf told me, her husband, like Walter Furrer, had a sound literary education and - and this is a pronounced affinity - an innate sense of whimsical comedy; Honoré Daumier was one of his favourite artists.
So the two musicians must have got on well from the outset, regardless of the age difference. I would like to add from my own knowledge that Walter Furrer was at odds with his own son, who did not accept his new wife, because of his second marriage. He suffered greatly from this estrangement, and it is quite conceivable that he experienced the young clarinettist as a kind of "son by choice". Seen in this light, one could classify the dedication mentioned at the beginning as a spontaneous expression of sympathy.
I would like to thank Ms. Morf for the interview and the valuable information she provided. My thanks also go to the Schweizerischer Tonkünstlerverein in Lausanne, where I was able to take additional notes on Antony Morf on December 22, 2016 with the help of managing director Johannes Knapp
Share music: open compositions by Max E. Keller
Some of Max E. Keller's early pieces are suitable examples of open compositions for co-creating musicians. The Danish musicologist Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen shows their structures, notation and compositions and identifies references to later works.
Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen
(translation: AI)
- 24 Jan 2017
New music after the Second World War was initially composed in detail, at least here in Europe. However, it did not take long for various forms of openness to appear in performance. Stockhausen's development is a vivid example of this and offers a whole catalog of procedures: Time mass from 1956 operates with "degrees of blurriness" in the tempo. Piano piece XI from 1958 consists of many small sections that have to be played in an undefined sequence, and their content is also variable according to the last section played.
In the late sixties, openness became radical: Procession from 1967 and a number of other works used a simple notation consisting of plus and minus signs. It stood for up to four freely chosen, but consistently implemented, simultaneous parameter changes. Finally, the two collections consisted of From the Seven Days and For times to come (published in 1968 and 1976) mainly consist of texts. Verbal means can describe or paraphrase material, define traditional formal sequences or individual, cyclical formulas and much more.
Anyone who wants to argue that there were plenty of such experiments at the time, but that they remained a curiosity of history without much practical significance, is mistaken. Although the sixties and seventies can be seen as a "golden age" for this, further-reaching consequences only gradually emerged, beyond the sensational and fashionable. (1 Notes see below) Some composers made a specialty of it. John Zorn, for example, became a cult figure in the 1980s with his Game Pieces, Cobra in particular. They were created against the backdrop of Christian Wolff's compositions, which relied on interaction between the players, among other things. (2) The overall picture of currents became more complex. (3)
Although improvisational performance practice is not common in New Music everywhere, ensembles such as the Berlin Splitter Orchester (4)Zeitkratzer or the Ensemble Modern. The references to this article already indicate that something has happened since then, both in terms of composition and research. The musical examples from a total of 165 authors in the book Notations 21 were even mostly created in the new millennium. (5) More recent reviews are Nonnenmann (2010) on Mathias Spahlinger's Double affirmative, and Neuner (2013).
Improvisation has spread as an experimental practice alongside composition. On the one hand, this applies to concert life: An even stormy debate took place in Switzerland in 2010. (6) On the other hand, improvisation is now also being implemented in music academies. (7) So the whole intermediate area of exercises, agreements and concepts is also of renewed interest. Or let's put it more simply: open composition. After all, it is about the use of compositional processes in a new context of performance practice. (8) What is new about the historical situation, now, 60 years after Stockhausen's Time massIt could be that the integration of improvisation and composition has become more common. The composer is no longer the lone genius. Teamwork, a certain collective reasoning and action, has become more natural, as it is everywhere in society.
Recently in MusicLyrics an article about the compositions of Max Eugen Keller was published. (9) However, the early compositions for improvisers were not dealt with there. The present article can therefore be read as a supplement or simply as a presentation of examples of open compositions, primarily from the period around 1970. Keller's work contains a wealth of structures, notation and compositions, as I will try to explain below. In the following, I will only reproduce the score and refer to some more - the complete versions with all the explanations can be read on the IIMA website: http://intuitivemusic.dk/iima/mk.htm
During the game, the performer should switch freely between the 22 behaviors described. The 4 capitalized words indicate starting points that can be useful for the beginning, for example. In large formal terms, we are dealing here with an aleatoric, kaleidoscopic progression. (10) There is a finite number of elements that are used by everyone, independently of each other and in an unpredictable order. However, elements are likely to recur frequently.
Many instructions describe musical behavior, but do not specify anything concrete in terms of sound, but rather describe relationships. They are often opposed to other musicians, but many also describe subordination. A few are in a quasi-neutral middle range, such as "mediating between contrasts".
The aesthetic focus is on conflicts and contrasts, the forms of which are systematically permitted and explored in music. The element "oscillate between contrasts without mediating" can be emblematic of this. The conventional practice of melody and accompaniment is not abolished, but it is given the possibility of contrasting. This can be described as a rediscovery of polyphony. Historically, it has been displaced by harmonic thinking in terms of chords, melody and bass. A term like "imitation" points to forms of human communication. Emotionality also inevitably comes into play here, compare the title of the piece. But it is not about the lonely, expressionist individual: Affect is reinterpreted as social.
The 22 elements can be categorized in a continuum or, rather, in several, depending on the interpretation. This could be a continuum between self-assertion and subordination, between opposition and alignment or something else. Thinking in continua was historically a discovery of the serialists. Just as melodies rearranged scale tones, this principle could also be used in other dimensions. This applies, for example, in Song of the youths by Stockhausen for the sound that moves along an imaginary line, a continuum, between electronic sounds and boys' voices, seemingly quite casually and "freely". The method thus serves to differentiate and integrate the material.
A further instruction in the explanations for Psychogramwhich also contributes to differentiation, stipulates that the players may make continuous transitions or jumps between the elements.
The large-scale form here is not aleatoric, but sequential and arch-like. After the free play, further sections with different material are defined first, 13 in total. The process reaches a maximum of detailed binding in K and then ends in N in "free" play again.
The process is based on heterophony: this means that everyone plays the same sequence, but each in their own form and at their own tempo, so that the transitions are fluid. It is strategic that the sections are clearly different. Coordination is only possible through audible feedback between the musicians.
The large form develops from a mixture that is initially recognizable as relatively uniform, called "thematic structure" (the innermost zone with a), b) and c)). The development is initially subject to rules that ensure unity in the transition from one zone to the next, which is why new rules are introduced in zones 2 and 3. Only the last stage, zone 4, is completely ad libitum. The process becomes increasingly differentiated or labyrinthine. An arc-like or cyclical-formulaic return to previously played material is also possible, following certain rules and the arrows.
Heterophony is again a structurally supporting principle here (= everyone moves in a similar way with variations). However, it is also overlaid by the labyrinthine, which results from the use of different, aleatoric elements (= all can contrast each other in the later stages). After all, the aleatoric elements within their three categories are clearly similar to each other in the first two zones, so that a variation of what is already there rather than a complete contrast is created in advance.
As in Psychogram the players switch individually between elements, which in this piece are freely notated graphically. However, the numbers above the elements indicate the duration: 1 = as short as possible, 5 = as long as possible. The idea of continuity is also at work here and prevents the elements from being given a standardized length. A similar variation in the length of the pauses is also provided: after each element, the player makes a pause, the length of which is taken from the circle. The numbers in it are interpreted in the same way as before. "A" and "E" are aimed at coinciding with the beginning or end of other players' elements, if "reasonably unconstrained". In addition, the general rule is: "The tonal result should be very thin, transparent music".
Minima is relatively uniform in sound and thus contrasts with the other pieces. But variation in the polyphonic density is strategically very important. By systematically varying the lengths of elements and rests, the composer ensures that not everyone plays at the same time and that rests occur so often and in such a varied way that the number of active players varies constantly. It can also be expected that different constellations of players will occur even with the same density, which also contributes to the variation.
Summarizing and perspective remarks
Compositional analysis and elaboration
This small selection of four pieces encompasses extremes of sonically vehement interactions in Psychogram to the thin, transparent sounds from the reductionism of Minima. On the other hand Piece for improvisers and cum processio ... rather eclectic in its material. Human forms of interaction, changing stages that are traversed by all players in a "caravan-like" manner, labyrinthine processes and sensitive variation in polyphonic density are selected compositional aspects. The pieces are not fully composed in the sense of being detailed on a micro level - but in the sense that they are based on ideas that were evaluated compositionally and then systematically worked out. The 22 interaction elements in Psychogram and the 27 graphic elements in Minima are, after all, examples of a level of detail that is largely sufficient to clearly suggest a wealth of possibilities.
Notation and how it co-defines the form
Text plays a major role in the notation of this selection. Verbal means can be used to describe certain sounds, even those that lie beyond the twelve tones, e.g: "Between two colors continuously alternate." But one can also describe relations between sounds or between musicians, as is so prominently the case in Psychogram was. They could hardly have been defined in any other way than with words. And with notes, it would have been possible to imitate emotions and reactions - but at the cost of liveliness.
Free graphics are also important in two pieces (Minima and cum processio). I understand free graphics here in contrast to formalized sign systems. Think of Stockhausen's plus-minus notation, for example, in terms of formalization. (11) However, it is also relevant to note here that the layout itself is an important means of formalization. The simple, linear sequence in Piece by ... the equal, aleatoric elements in the Psychogram and Minima and at the same time the concentric structure in cum processio compared.
Detailed or concise template
Because these four pieces presuppose further development through improvisational participation on the part of the musicians, they are short and concise, easy to read and survey - regardless of whether they are to be called "concepts" or "open compositions". (12) If a version that has been worked out in every detail is no longer required, then the work can become, as the French composer Jean-Yves Bosseur puts it, "a strong organism, with its full potential". (13) According to this train of thought, a version worked out in every detail would offer "less", less diversity of possible versions. (14) The Austrian composer Christoph Herndler (2011) is completely in line with this: when it comes to the written form, his aim is "not only to record the music, but also to communicate it".
Concept of material and historical performance practice
Performance practice is also changing historically in our time. (15) From the perspective of the broad lines, this cannot be viewed in isolation from the concept of material in New Music. Using a term coined by Levaillant (1996), we fundamentally start from "raw sound material" (Le fait sonore brût), both in early serialism and in free improvisation. Not only the tonal limitations of musical notation, but also the desirability of being able to freely define the entities with which one composes in all respects, call for a search for solutions beyond the compromises of traditional notation. Not to mention certain interesting human experiences. (16)
The authority of old theorists such as Dahlhaus and Adorno, for whom delegation on the part of the composer meant nothing other than a lack of responsibility, is gradually fading. Kopp (2010) touches on the historical dimension by still arguing against the two authors mentioned. Jahn (2006), on the other hand, is in favor of traditional writing. He develops an independent thesis by arguing against too much "free space" in compositions on a psychological basis. He illustrates his view using the metaphor of a guardrail on the highway - the guardrail represents what is notated, the music itself is everything that is not notated. I have never quite understood why the very regulated driving on the highway can become such a high ideal for aesthetic striving, but to each his own!
The importance of interaction and the consequences for the concepts of form Psychogram shows an original use of interaction as compositional material. The piece is an early example of a systematic elaboration of differentiated interactive roles - interestingly before the publication of Vinko Globokar's article on Reacting(17)who describes very similar roles. See also the article by Keller himself (1973) on the importance of social processes and experiences of community, also on the part of the listeners.
In general, as indicated above in the discussion of this piece, polyphony, and a more direct, rediscovered one at that, is relevant to improvisational performance practice. It is obvious that the strictly homophonic is dependent on an external coordination. Heterophonic techniques are obvious - in Piece for improvisers this principle generates both vertical and horizontal diversity in the transitions to new sections and also places characterized by consensus, due to the caravan-like layout. The composer can define linear progressions in a coarser or finer outline, but because the interactive process tends easily towards unforeseen developments, aleatoric can take on a new significance, namely for the form. It provides in Psychogram and Minima for the musician to have a constant freedom of choice. Here we are far removed from the finely chopped, swirling structures of Penderecki and other Polish composers, which take place on a detailed level. There is still a lot of research to be done into how musicians can influence or determine the course of form through their choices in playing.
Conclusion
Keller's four pieces make use of a considerable range of compositional methods and techniques: in-depth analysis of the material, aleatoricism in relation to form, polyphony, heterophony, sequential form, labyrinth form, relations as musical material, non-established forms of notation. They contribute to combining conventional composition with a still relatively new form of performance practice. Interaction influences the form of collaboration. Concise notations are used which communicate the composer's idea directly and thus require a minimum of analytical deciphering - both for musicians and for interested listeners.
Appendix: Later open works by Keller
Music is produced differently within different traditions. By far the most widely performed classical music today is performed without the need for improvisational skills. But it does require advanced technical skill and an effective production method. Sight-reading is important, so that rehearsal time can be reduced to a minimum. Many composers draw the conclusion that they should also use a mainly traditional script for new music so as not to block their access to the audience. For Keller, texts and messages with political content were also important. (18)
Pedagogy is less about effective cultural production and more about immersing yourself in content and getting to know it. We can call this a different method and describe it as "workshop-like". The musicians gradually discover or even develop the field and co-determine the outcome. In 5 Improvisation models for young people (1995) (19) and in the eponymous 5 Improvisation models for young people (2008), there are structures that are similar to the early compositions, but simpler. There are also conventional, linear and simple scores. However, an example now follows, Fuse from the later collection, which exemplifies heterophonic and formulaic structures. This time the notation is exclusively verbal:
The workshop-like method is widespread among ensembles that have the freedom to create their own work. The early pieces analyzed above were created in the environment of the Gruppe für Musik founded by Keller. At that time, he also worked improvisationally with Gerhard Stäbler and Wah Schulz.
Some improvisation concepts date from 2003, written for a group with Stefan Wyler (trp), Alfred Zimmerlin (vcl) and Dani Schaffner (perc). Keller himself played piano and synthesizer. Electronic sound conversion could be used in all of them. The compositions belong in a "gray area". They are formulated only for the musicians concerned and do not have the full explanations that were characteristic of the pieces analyzed above. However, they can be examples of how compositions can be quickly realized among themselves, with keywords and little effort. Apart from playing instructions, these concepts contain a great deal of technical information on setting up the apparatus. Generalizing these would certainly have been a special task; another, perhaps somewhat less difficult one would be to abstract from the specific instruments. For example, could "cello" be replaced by another string instrument or by any other instrument? In their specific context, however, such questions need not be answered at all.
From In metal here is a playing rule based on the interaction of the musicians and integrating experiences from the nineties with "conducted improvisation":
From Without end an excerpt from the score - for outsiders, the keywords would probably seem rather abstract. It is also conceivable that "free" implies a certain degree of agreement among the musicians, especially if the pieces had been rehearsed beforehand. At the very least, it can be assumed that they were somewhat familiar with each other's playing styles.
Improvisation and experimental performance practice appear in a work with politically oriented texts from recent times, namely Mobile for 1-5 instruments ad libitum from 2013.
The elements in the boxes can be freely combined. However, the "phrase box" should be used at the beginning and at least twice in the course of the piece. Texts can be performed in different ways according to the instructions. Together with the instrumental elements, we really have a collage here: sentences can be stacked chaotically on top of each other. They deal with serious problems, which are in no way related to each other, but rather are abruptly juxtaposed. The highly differentiated playing is just as abruptly juxtaposed with the prominent "empty phrases". However, the piece accommodates sight-reading in that the pitches and rhythms are composed in detail. At the same time, [G] means that the sound can be noisy. Again, diplomatically for the classically trained musicians, this can be omitted.
Keller's open compositions since 1970/71 build on discoveries that were explored in depth in early pieces: expanded material, descriptive notation, interaction as an essential dimension, creative collaboration. However, original pedagogical works and an informal compositional approach also become visible. And an example of bridging the gap between the otherwise separate working methods of sight-reading or workshop.
Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen is a Danish composer, improviser and music researcher.
1
As far as consequences outside of concert life are concerned, we can only briefly mention here that music education was redesigned and that the newer music therapy was created as a specialist discipline.
2
See Bergstrøm-Nielsen (2002ff), special categories on Wolff and Zorn G2.5 and G2.3 (both old and new sections), also Gronemeyer et al (1998). Vitkova (2005) attests that Wolff composed in this way not only in the 1960s, but also later, e.g. in For John (2007).
3
Polaschegg (2007) and (2013) contain detailed signal elements of this.
4
Reimann (2013)
5
Sour (2009)
6
The article by Meyer (2010) seemed to be the catalyst for this explosion. The discussion continued in Dissonance (2010) and Kunkel (2010) with more than 35 participants. Subsequently, Nanz (2011) was published. - Meyer (2007) previously reported lively discussions on improvisation issues.
7
In Lucerne, you can obtain a Bachelor of Arts in Music with a focus on improvisation. Mäder et al (2013) contains documentation and didactic and content-related reflections. Jeremy Cox, director of the Association Européenne des Conservatoires, estimated that 90% of the approximately 200 members have introduced improvisation lessons. See Cox (2012). Other important places where free improvisation is taught include Ghent, Belgium; The Hague, Holland; Oslo, Norway.
8
See the discussion in Mäder et al (2013) p.38f.
9
Amzoll (2015)
10 Aleatoric, from the Latin alea = cube, means random, but within a defined framework.
11
See Müller (1997)
12
A discussion of these terms can be found at the end of the article Bergstrøm-Nielsen (2002).
13
Bosseur (1997), translation by the author
14 As a composer, I can also personally confirm that it can be a great pleasure to hear completely different versions of the same work. Interpretations can even change over the decades.
15
Müller (1994) argues that for the analysis of indeterminate music (which in his view also includes Stockhausen's Procession) the sole consideration of method on the part of the composer and of reception is not sufficient. If the composer shares the creative work with a performer, then the performance practice as such must be examined. Kopp (2010) follows a similar line of thought.
16
Ochs (2000) points out the advantages of creative collaboration: "... the decision to use (structured) improvisation ... to create the possibility of even more ... than the composer imagined possible ... Or, at the very least, to allow for the possibility of different or fresh realizations ... with each performance" (p.326).
17
Globokar (1970)
18
See Amzoll (2015) for a more general orientation on Keller's work
19
A selection of these is published in Nimczik/Rüdiger (1997).
References
Amzoll, Stefan (2015):
Color journeys. The Swiss composer and improviser Max E. Keller. MusikTexte 147, November.
Bergstrøm-Nielsen (2002): Open composition and other arts. ring talk about group improvisation, June. Online: www.intuitivemusic.dk/iima/ - see Bergstroem-Nielsen.
Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Carl (2002ff):
Experimental improvisation practise and notation.
An annotated bibliography. With addenda. Online: www.intuitivemusic.dk/iima/ - see Bergstroem-Nielsen.
Bosseur, Jean-Yves (1997): Le Temps de le Prendre. Paris (Editions Kimé).
Cox, Jeremy (2012):
Oral communication during the lecture QUO IMUS?: a "premeditated improvisation" on ideas stimulated by the Symposium and their implications for European music academies. Symposium Quo vadis, devil's violinist?University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, January 28, 2012.
Globokar, Vinko (1970):
"Réagir", musique en jeu 1, 1970 German version in Melos 1971,2 (without music examples). Online: http://intuitivemusic.dk/iima/ - see Globokar.
Gronemeyer, Gisela; Oehlschlägel, Reinhard (1998): Christian Wolff. Cues. Writings and Conversations / Cues. Writings and Conversations, in: Edition MusicLyrics 005.
Herndler, Christoph (2011):
Waymarks when noting unforeseeable events, in: "31" - The magazine of the Institute for Theory, No. 16/17, p. 126 ff. ISSN 1660-2609 (Switzerland).
Jahn, Hans-Peter (2006): On the quality of memory loss. The shackles of notation, MusicLyrics 109, May.
Keller, Max E (1973):
Improvisation and commitment, Melos 4.
Kopp, Jan (2010):
The sense of action in writing. The experience of the musician as an object of composition. MusicLyrics 125, May, pp. 32-43.
Kunkel, Michael (ed.) et al (2010):
Discussion.... Dissonance, Swiss music magazine for research and creation 111, December, pp. 64-77. online: http://www.dissonance.ch/de/hauptartikel/82
Levaillant, Denis (1996): L'Improvisation Musicale. (Biarritz, Editions Jean-Claude Lattès 1981). Part of a series: Musiques et Musiciens. New edition: Arles 1996
Müller, Hermann-Christoph (1994): On the theory and practice of indeterminate music. Performance practice between experiment and improvisation. Regensburg (Gustav Bosse Verlag). Cologne contributions to music research (Niemöller, Klaus Wolfgang ed.) Volume 179.
Müller, Hermann-Christoph (1997):
plus minus equals. Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Procession", MusicLyrics 67/68, January.
Nanz, Dieter A. (ed.) (2011):
Aspects of free improvisation in music. Hofheim (Wolke Verlag).
Nanz, Dieter A. (2007): Improvising and researching. Thoughts on the fringes of the Basel improv matinees. MusicLyrics 114, August, p.83-84.
Neuner, Florian (2013): On the tip of the iceberg. The Berlin composer and publisher Juliane Klein. MusicLyrics 139, p.5-13, November.
Nimczik, Ortwin/Rüdiger, Wolfgang (1997): Monophonic polyphony. Three improvisation models by Max E. Keller (1995), Music and education 1, January/February.
Nonnenmann, Rainer /(2010):
Against the loss of utopia. Mathias Spahlinger's "doubly affirmed" breaks new ground. MusicLyrics 124, February.
Vitková, Lucie (2015): Learning to Change with the Music of Christian Wolff, in: Rothenberg, David (ed.): vs. interpretation. An Anthology on ImprovisationPrague (Agosto Foundation), p.51-62.
Ochs, Larry (2000):
Devices and Strategies for structured improvisation, in: Zorn, John (ed.): Musicians on music. New York (Granary Books/Hips Road). P. 325-335.
Polaschegg, Nina (2007):
Entanglements. Redefining the relationship between composition and improvisation, MusikTexte 114, August.
Polaschegg, Nina (2013):
Mutual fertilization and interpenetration. On the tension between composition and improvisation. MusicLyrics 139, November 2013.
Reimann, Christoph (2013): Collective individual. The Berlin Splitter Orchestra. MusicLyrics, August, 29-35.
If the first German-language "Musicalisches Lexicon" by Johann Gottfried Walther (1728) is to be believed, the Baroque composer Albicastro (1662?-1730) was "a Schweitzer". However, no proof or evidence to the contrary could be found for centuries.
SMZ/Otmar Tönz
(translation: AI)
- 20. Oct 2016
The signature of Johann Heinrich Weissenburg alias Albicastro. Photo: zVg
Documents that only came to light this year now most probably point to Klosterneuburg near Vienna as the place of origin. They were found by the Dutch philosopher and genealogist Marcel Wissenburg, who was interviewed in the Music newspaper of October/November 2016 (p. 10 ff) reported on this. However, it is still unclear where the composer received his musical training - he was apparently a virtuoso violinist - how he came to the Netherlands, the country in which he spent most of his life, why he wrote most of his works during the busiest period of his military career and why he then suddenly stopped composing.
Otmar Tönz, professor emeritus and former head physician at the Lucerne Children's Hospital as well as a passionate music researcher, began searching for Albicastro's place of origin in 2006. In 2010, together with the musicologist Rudolf Rasch, he reported in a Article of the Swiss Music Newspaper about the research (SMZ 4/2010, p. 19 ff.)
Rudolf Rasch and Otmar Tönz have also summarized the detailed research results of the ultimately fruitless search in a 65-page publication: Otmar Tönz, Rudolf Rasch, Henrici Albicastro, 2nd, revised and expanded edition. [University of Applied Sciences for Music], Lucerne 2011.
Albicastro composed 51 sonatas for solo violin (with b.c.), 2 for viola da gamba, 60 trio sonatas and 12 concerti (quartets); also the soprano cantata Coelestes angelici chori. Of the 11 sonata collections, 2 are completely lost and 2 partially lost, Opus II presumably only since the Second World War.
Short biography of Albicastro and small exhibition of his work
Author: Otmar Tönz (1926-2016)
State of knowledge 2015
Shortly after the middle of the 17th century, a boy named Joh. Heinrich Weissenburg was born in the European cultural area, albeit without an official entry in a baptismal register, i.e. posterity knew neither his mother's name, nor his father's profession, nor the date of his baptism, nor the place of his birth. It is not from records, but from the further course of his retrospectively recorded life story that we learn that this boy possessed an extraordinary talent: he mastered the violin at a high level at an early age and also learned music theory and composition with ease.
The first and only document we have is from the young Weyssenburg, already an adult, who was appointed Musicus Academiae at the University of Leyden in the Netherlands. It is not known how he ended up in the Netherlands. The above-mentioned university document contains a very important fact in addition to his employment: He describes himself as Viennensis (from Vienna) in terms of origin. Since then, countless Albicastro fans have probably searched the ecclesiastical and secular records in Vienna, but - like us - without success.
Confusion was then caused by the later appearance of the lemma "Albicastro" in the first German-language music lexicon by J.G. Walther (1728): "Albicastro (Henrici) ein Schweitzer, Weissenburg eigentlich genannt ... " interest now focused on Switzerland, until today. His works were edited in the series "Schweizerische Musikdenkmäler" and financed by the Swiss Confederation. The first scholarly works were also produced in this country. The Swiss violinist and Bavarian chamber musician Walter Probst copied the entire work, which was not yet printed at the time, in very beautiful handwriting and at the same time wrote out the bass. Finally, in the 1970s, Prof. Kurt Fischer discovered the solo cantata Coelestis angelici chori at the Brussels Conservatory.
All we know about Albicastro's childhood and youth is that he was a precocious musical genius with regard to playing the violin and composing monophonic and polyphonic sonatas, predominantly in the Italian style (modeled on Arcangelo Corelli). Unfortunately, we know nothing about his schooling and musical education. He probably only attended Latin school (and Italian lessons) at the lowest level; his orthographic and grammatical errors are too frequent, e.g. the use of the genitive for his first name.
Military and musical career
In the Netherlands, Weissenburg also joined the army, where he rose ten ranks in a long and successful career, from non-commissioned officer to cavalry captain. He served in Dutch regiments that were deployed in the War of the Spanish Succession. From 1706 he signed his musical works exclusively as Henrici Albicastro, his official and private papers from 1686 as (Johan) Hendrick van Weyssenburgh.
At around the age of 40, there was a profound break in his life: he put aside his violin and concentrated exclusively on his military career in the mounted troops. This change of career can probably be seen as an expression of his ambition. A group of Swiss engravers see his personal dream place on the "Feldherrenhügel".
Family circumstances
In 1705 he married Cornelia Maria Coeberg, a merchant's daughter from Grave, a fortified and garrison town on the Meuse. After the birth of his first child, they set up their own household in the same street (Klinkerstraat), diagonally opposite her parents. The first child was Gerhardus Alexander, who also followed in his father's footsteps and embarked on a military career, but unfortunately died at the age of 22. This was followed by daughter Johanna Allegundis, efficient, hard-working and intelligent, who married the estate manager of the Princely House of Hohenzoller-Sigmaringen - Petrus Johannes Hengst - and left behind a large family whose last descendants are still alive today.
He was followed by another boy, Johannes Michaelis, who, like Gerhard, had also completed Latin school with the Carmelites in Boxmeer. He finally succeeded in his military career. But despite his ten children, the von Weissenburg line dried up among his grandchildren, so that this family died out in the Netherlands or emigrated. Finally, his fourth daughter Everdina Alexandrina followed. We only have a baptismal entry for her. She was born in Grave in 1713 and joined the Carmelite Order as a nurse in 1734.
There is no indication that his wife died. In any case, the 61-year-old widower married a second time on February 15, 1722. The chosen one was Petronella Baronessa Rhoe d' Oppsinnigh, a baroness who might have been able to fulfill his dream of a military mound, but whose lifestyle far exceeded the knight's financial means. First of all, two horses plus a carriage and stables had to be purchased. The luxurious social life and other costs not only led to poverty, but also to a large mountain of debt, which the children from his first marriage and the widow from his second marriage had to pay off.
Compositional work
If Albicastro put down his violin when he entered the military schools, this does not apply to his composition notebook. Paradoxically, this was when his most musically productive phase of his life began. It is almost unbelievable that in the years of his military training and first career steps he composed exactly 100 sonatas, mostly in four movements, in all major and minor keys, some of them technically very demanding: full of double stops and extended fugal movements. The writing alone is a huge task. For others, 100 sonatas are a life's work. If we add the earlier, later and lost works, we arrive at around 130 compositions, mainly sonatas.
One special form should be emphasized, the Folia, a theme with "omitted" variations. Corelli also wrote a folia; op. V / No. 6. In deference to his spiritual teacher, Albicastro also includes his as op. V / No. 6. A comparison reveals: The Roman writes according to the rules of the art, keeps to the historically prescribed bar and movement numbers, lively but not exuberant, artistically very clean. Albicastro's writing is rather wild, with movements of different lengths, sometimes very high tempi, emotionally stronger outbursts and a roaring finale in the final bars.
Albicastro's only vocal composition is Coelestes angelici chori, a sacred solo cantata for high voice, strings and basso continuo. Perhaps Albicastro's last piece of music? A beautiful vocal work that opens with a brilliant, richly colored main movement. This is followed by an incredibly beautiful recitative (almost only known from Bach), followed by a delicately flowing adagio in which soft solo violins weave around the singing. The cantata then concludes with a festive Hallelujah.
On June 18, 2016, Pierre-Alain Monot gave his farewell concert as director of the Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain in La Chaux-de-Fonds. In an interview with Gianluigi Bocelli, he talks about this important moment of retirement, his career and his plans.
Interview: Gianluigi Bocelli; Translation: Pia Schwab, 28.06.2016
(translation: AI)
- Jun 28, 2016
Photo: Pablo Fernandez
For over twenty years, Pierre-Alain Monot has shaped the fortunes of the Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain (NEC) with his musical border crossings. During this time, the ensemble has grown to become one of the most important formations in the field of contemporary music in Switzerland and abroad.
Pierre-Alain Monot, can you tell us something about this farewell?
A circle closes. What begins at some point must also end at some point. And in art, it is best when this happens at its peak, in the midst of creative fever. The conditions for handing over the baton are favorable: last year, the NEC celebrated its twentieth anniversary, which I didn't want to miss. In the 2015/2016 season, we were then able to let this transition mature. The color scheme of the programs will change, that's normal. But all the elements are in place for the NEC to evolve naturally and continuously. Antoine Françoise, one of the ensemble's pianists, will be the new artistic director. There will no longer be a chief conductor.
How do you feel about taking this step?
Of course there is melancholy, melancholy, because I have longstanding friends here. I live in the canton of Zurich, so the local distance will make itself felt. But I'm not sad. I would be if I left the ensemble in a bad phase or with problems, but it's all going so well!
And what musical plans do you have now?
People often only see me as a conductor, but I am a musician. I will continue to work as a solo trumpeter at the Musikkollegium Winterthur, where I will also be able to select and conduct contemporary pieces - my specialty - from time to time. Also in Winterthur, I am the artistic director of a concert series with a multimedia, captivating focus. I will continue to appear as a guest conductor, for example with the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne in Montreal. And I will get back to composing, which I haven't had time to do so far.
Could you briefly outline your wide-ranging artistic career?
I wrote my first piece when I was twelve. And I've been composing ever since, completely self-taught. I regret that, because I miss the method a bit, but maybe it was the right thing to become a performer after all. As a trumpet player, I played in a brass quartet for a long time, the Quatuor Novus, with whom I made recordings between alto and modern. We were anachronistic in our search for difficult repertoire, but we found a style and a sound that was historicizing and made the music shine.
I came to conducting by chance. I would have liked it as a child, but I didn't have the opportunity - until I founded the Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain. The ensemble wanted to perform one of my works and suddenly they asked me if I would like to take over as conductor. I just started without asking myself too many questions and it became what I like to do best. What I like most of all is taking an idea and developing it together with others. I think that's great.
And why are you so dedicated to contemporary music?
The niches, the old and the modern, have always particularly interested me. Then I concentrated on the contemporary and this led to my collaboration with the NEC. Unfortunately, you always quickly wear a label and are then only asked to work in this area. I love the adventure of contemporary music. You can still set foot in unknown territory there. That's a rare privilege in today's world.
Are there any moments or works that have particularly touched you on this adventurous journey?
The feeling when you read the score of Boulez' Marteau sans maître on the podium before embarking on three quarters of an hour of incredible music that has to be performed with the utmost precision. And Maître Zacharius ou l'horloger qui avait perdu son âme by Leo Dick, a piece of music theater. We had an extraordinary production by the composer about the relationship between man and machine. It is also a rare stroke of luck when a contemporary piece becomes part of the repertoire, such as Gérard Grisey's Quatre chants pour franchir le seuilwhich has become a monument, or the Tower music by Heinz Holliger.
Generally speaking, one of the best moments is when the composer of a work sits at a concert and thanks the performers at the end for their faithfulness to the text. This means that the exchange that is the basis of our profession has come about, that the musicians, composer and I have all pulled together.
Once again about your farewell concert with the NEC. Did you have something special in mind, a special program?
The preparation was the same as for all concerts: you have to master the program perfectly, that's all. We hadn't chosen anything special, certainly nothing sentimental. It was just a normal concert for our extraordinary audience in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Parts by Hanspeter Kiburz, a great work that must be known, that remains in the audience's memory and that every ensemble should have performed at least once. And with Garden of earthly desire by Liza Lim, we have continued the line of Romitelli, which was on the program in January. They belong to the same generation. I've wanted to play something by Liza Lim for a long time.
I am very satisfied, because both works are extremely orchestral and written in such a way that they show the ensemble's skills in the best light.
Furrer's work in radio and his attitude towards the avant-garde
In her search for personalities who knew her father, the Swiss composer Walter Furrer (1902-1978), Beatrice Wolf-Furrer met with Klaus Cornell and Walter Kläy in the first trimester of 2016.
Beatrice Wolf-Furrer
(translation: AI)
- 25. May 2016
Klaus Cornell in conversation with Beatrice Wolf-Furrer
After the informative conversation I had with organist Heinz-Roland Schneeberger in Thun on December 5, 2015, I continued my search for people who still knew my father, the Swiss composer Walter Furrer (1902-1978). In the course of the last few months, I have come across two such people.
Klaus Cornell
During my research at the Burgerbibliothek Bern, which has been in charge of Walter Furrer's entire musical estate since June 2012, I kept coming across the name Klaus Cornell at intervals and remembered that my father had also mentioned him occasionally in conversation.
I didn't have to search for long: Not only did I find out via the homepage that Klaus Cornell has a stringent career as a conductor and composer and has been awarded a number of prizes, but also that he now lives in Constance. This is not to be taken for granted, as from 1989 to 2000 he was a successful musician in the state of Oregon (USA), where he would have been only too happy to stay. But in the end, the Bernese-born musician was drawn back to Switzerland, if not to neighboring countries. He chose Constance as his retirement home, a city that brought him closer to home but, as he emphasizes, "a little more space". I had the opportunity to talk to him there for about an hour on February 27, 2016.
In the 1960s, Walter Furrer and Klaus Cornell worked side by side in the same company. After twenty-five years as choirmaster and conductor at the Stadttheater Bern, Walter Furrer moved to Studio Radio Bern in 1957, where he worked for a good ten years as conductor, director of the chamber choir he founded on behalf of the station and composer.
In 1961, the young Klaus Cornell, who had already gained relevant professional experience in Switzerland and Germany, joined the station's team, where he held a managerial position until 1983.
He was already on the road as a composer in the 1960s, and his best-known work from this era is the 1965 radio opera Peter Schlemihl, picture book for musicwhose libretto Kurt Weibel adapted from Adelbert von Chamisso's novella Peter Schlemihl's wondrous story wrote.
When recording the Schlemihl the chamber choir conducted by Walter Furrer (see above) also took part. According to Klaus Cornell, he fondly remembers the collaboration with his older composer colleague, which also worked in the opposite direction. In 1965, for example, he was production manager for the entire recording of Furrer's commissioned composition Quatembernacht. A radio ballad based on a Valais legend for chamber orchestra, organ, soloists, choir, children's choir and speaking voices controlled. Kurt Weibel also acted as librettist in this case.
Both composers worked in the "radio play music" sector, which was particularly important for radio at the time.
Apart from the immediate professional collaboration, there were also technical discussions of a fundamental nature, for example about the congenial collaboration between librettist and composer, which is crucial for the success of an opera. The operetta genre - the so-called "light muse" was already experiencing severe hostility at the time, which, as is well known, ended with the banishment of this genre from subsidized theaters - was also the subject of fundamental discussions, whereby Walter Furrer, in view of the unbroken success of operetta, spoke out against its radical dismantling.
There was also a lot of talk about contemporary music production at the time. According to Cornell, Walter Furrer had "a critical relationship" with the contemporary music of the 1960s and 1970s - think of the prominent International Summer Courses for New Music organized by the Darmstadt International Music Institute (IMD). At first glance, this is surprising, because during his student days in Paris, Walter Furrer was in the camp of the avant-gardists, who were fiercely opposed in the 1920s, and was particularly committed to Arnold Schoenberg's music, which was by no means generally recognized at the time. He himself repeatedly resorted to serial techniques; however, as he was at the same time highly concerned with sound, his own modernity was, in my opinion, probably less ostentatious.
Walter Kläy
The resolution of this apparent contradiction came to me in a conversation with the Bernese musician, music theorist and music critic Walter Kläy, whose acquaintance Klaus Cornell had arranged for me and which took place in Bern on April 4, 2016. But first things first.
Walter Kläy. Photo: Beatrice Wolf-Furrer
Walter Kläy first completed a practical music education (violin, bassoon, piano) and then, from 1973 to 1976, a theoretical one, which he completed with a theory teacher's diploma at the Bern Conservatory. Prior to this he worked (until 1973) at the Radio newspaper and as an editor in the foreign desk of the Swiss Dispatch Agency. In 1976, he joined Studio Radio Bern, where he worked as a music editor and also produced the highly acclaimed Late-night concerts at Studio Bernwhich were broadcast on Mondays.
Coincidentally, he worked in the same office as Walter Furrer and the conductor and pianist Luc Balmer, who worked as a versatile employee at Studio Bern at the time. Walter Kläy is co-author of the commemorative publication for Theo Hirsbrunner, which was published in 2011 under the title Dialogs and resonances/music history between cultures published by the Munich-based publisher edition text + kritik.
On September 7, 1970, Walter Kläy conducted an interview with Walter Furrer, which took place in his home in the Halensiedlung, in no. 40/1970 of the magazine radio + television and now became the central topic of our discussion. Walter Furrer had asked for a written answer to the questions, which was granted. The text of the interview contains many very precise formulations that provide important insights into the development of Furrer's oeuvre.
Furrer's three creative periods
Walter Furrer did not like to be analytical about his works, but here he made an exception. As the text reveals, he himself divided his compositional work into three periods. The first began in Paris in the 1920s, when he studied counterpoint with Nadia Boulanger and intensively studied the avant-garde composers of the time, Schönberg, Stravinsky, Roussel and Bartók.
The second was triggered by his work in the theater as a chorus master and conductor, in the sense that he was now deeply interested in "the dramatic side of music", as evidenced by the operas he wrote at the time. The faun and Dwarf nose and the ballet Path into life witnesses.
The third period was initiated by his engagement at Studio Radio Bern (from 1957) and represented a feedback to the first, "in that I made use of the knowledge of serial technique and the expansion of the linear and melodic, which simultaneously led to an expansion of the harmonic". As examples, he cites the fifth song of the cycle Five death dance songs for alto and piano after texts by Christian Morgenstern (1927), which begins with a twelve-tone row - "unconsciously, of course, but nevertheless as a reflection of my Schoenberg studies" - as well as the Psalm 142 for soprano and organwhich is "consciously worked in twelve-tone technique". However, this is "not immediately noticeable because all the other elements of the composition are assimilated into it".
Nevertheless, I think it would be wrong to see Walter Furrer as a sworn intellectual dodecaphonist. The "intellectualism associated with dodecaphony has nothing to do with my music", he emphasizes at the end of the interview. His most important concern was "always to write for the instruments, for the voices, even for the conductor. It is important to me that my performers enjoy the music ... This also allows me to reach the listener."
In this context, it is also mentioned how difficult it is for the compositional
avant-garde had in the 1920s - scandals at performances of avant-garde music were not uncommon, especially in Paris - and how easy it had it back in 1970 (and still has it today). "You can no longer compare today's avant-garde with the past," Walter Furrer says in the interview. "Today you put your hands under their feet, back then there was nothing to laugh about."
According to Walter Kläy, Walter Furrer appeared very serious, concentrated and, he was particularly struck by this, depressed during the interview. This can be explained by the truly depressing situation in which the ageing composer found himself at the time. Although his works had attracted a lot of attention and often warm applause, he had not achieved what one would call a real breakthrough. He also missed his work at the radio station, for which he only worked as a freelance conductor of the chamber choir. What's more, this highly artistic chamber choir - which had won third prize out of 59 participants at the Festival international de chant choral in Lille on October 10/11, 1962 - was already threatened with dissolution in 1970. All attempts to halt this development were in vain, and at the end of 1972 it disappeared from the scene for good.
I would like to thank Klaus Cornell and Walter Kläy very much for making these discussions possible.
Jean Nyder: pianist, composer and poet
The Neuchâtel native left behind a considerable oeuvre of piano and chamber music, as well as poetry.
Iniga and Walter Amadeus Ammann, Yann Richter
(translation: AI)
- 24. Mar 2016
Two poems from this poetry collection are quoted at the end of this article. Photo: zVg
His three printed volumes of poetry are available from the Réseau Romand des bibliothèques de Suisse occidentale (RERO) and the Swiss National Library. His compositions are waiting to be performed again. For information, please contact the library of the Conservatoire de musique neuchâtelois can be contacted. Nyder also wrote for special instrumentations with organ, harpsichord, oboe, clarinet, flute, guitar, voice etc.
Characterization
"De la mort l'amour est prélude" is a characterizing quote by Jean Nyder from Neuchâtel, who passed away in February 1982.
For the restless piano performer, composer, poet and teacher, life was a quest for love and suffering. Born in Neuchâtel in 1923, Jean Nyder (originally Ernest Jean Niederhauser) showed astonishing pianistic abilities at an early age. After secondary school, he obtained the Diplôme de capacité in Geneva and the Prix de virtuosité in Paris.
In an interview on French television in 1968, he said of his training: "I had the good fortune to be taught by two teachers who were clearly opposites. Johnny Aubert was strictly classical, constructive, extremely objective; and Alfred Cortot reviewed this very classical work with his extraordinarily transcendent overview - he was an irreplaceable poet." When asked about his opinion on today's interpretation of romantic music, he said: "The human being is in an extraordinary dilemma. By nature, it has unlimited possibilities, but not immediately and at every moment. Such perfect precision, a large repertoire and enormous availability are demanded of a performer that sometimes, fatally, no inner development, no unfolding of the music and the musician can take place; for there are no beings who possess all gifts in the extreme. I am not talking about musicality, but about the thought that lies behind the music, about the silence that precedes the music."
Jean Nyder was able to conjure up a thousand colors from the piano and delight the listener by making them aware of what was behind the scenes. He has given concerts in Switzerland, France, Portugal and Brazil.
Back from these travels, he turned to a large circle of pupils. He gave home tuition in Bern, Biel, Neuchâtel, Lausanne, Yverdon and Geneva and used the railroad to travel, as he did the metro in Paris. With friendly love and empathy, he knew how to help even the most modest talents find artistic expression. A former pupil wrote: "Every person presented Jean Nyder with a riddle that he wanted to get to the bottom of. The mathematically and psychologically gifted artist tried to solve human equations. He radiated great kindness and had a concentrated power that attracted almost everyone. Jean Nyder refused to categorize people according to external social criteria; for him, they all formed an organism to which he simply belonged. He saw people as part of the cosmos, which he interpreted as an artist. He was a magician who exemplified art and delighted us with it."
He composed on the train and after midnight. In 1968, he explained: "For four years now, I have been in the habit of sleeping only three hours. I love composing. I have written 128 piano pieces so far. To underpin and clarify everything and to remain classical, I had the excellent teacher Charles Chaix, who was very strict. That allowed me to sift out what was too spontaneous."
In 1964, Jean Nyder wrote music for an Expo film, and in 1966 for a film about the Knie Circus, where he was fascinated by both the precision of seconds with which the music had to match the film sequences and the circus atmosphere. He said of the latter: "It is an extraordinary lesson in moral and physical balance."
His chamber music works have unconventional instrumentations, such as the 1977 quintet called Sphère cubique is for flute, oboe, violin, cello and harpsichord. The harmonies with which he exposes the basically tonal melodic fabric are colorful and dense.
After long hours of composing and teaching, the poet also stirred in Nimmermüden. In the sixties, he published three volumes of poetry and prose: Silence et carrousel, Clavier de couleur and Kaleidoscope. The latter states: "I searched in vain for a collection of poems after my heart, so I decided to write them. Silence et carrousel fell on me like a multicolored shower of rain." In the interview, he continues: "I said to myself from a very young age that happiness on earth should consist of being strong enough to create something irreplaceable. This possibility would be within everyone's reach if only they were aware of it. I don't believe that musicians or poets are extraordinary people."
Jean Nyder felt a strong affinity with versatile contemporaries such as Picasso, Cocteau, Stravinsky and suffering predecessors such as van Gogh, Rimbaud and Baudelaire and knew their works very well. His poetry speaks in strong colors of suffering, of circuses and clowns, of the tragic merry-go-round of life; of the dance of put-on masks and of the brave smile that, despite everything, appears here and there behind them.
The Journal de Bord for piano and violin, written in 1977-79, contains autobiographical features. In his dedication to Walter Amadeus Ammann, he writes: "I offer you this 'Stormy Diary'. No need to throw it into the fire! It would come out again and again. It was only two years ago that I decided to dig it out hot, to light my pipe on it, to revive my friendships, black fears and white joys. By the way - you know it well - my work is an indirect confession, a 'masked cry' that can nevertheless be uttered at close range. The five cards or standards that you have under your eyes, I have chiseled, engraved thinking of your subtle ear and your diabolical-magical bow stroke ... may our blindnesses from birth allow us to walk a little bit of eternity along the warm sun of free serenities and all possible secrets.
written on June 6, 1982 by Amadé and Iniga Ammann
Notice biographique
Ernest Jean NIEDERHAUSER, fils de Alfred Ernest Niederhauser et de Marie Suzanne, née Richter, est né le 18 octobre 1923.
Originaire de Neuchâtel, il a vécu toute sa vie dans cette ville, dans le même immeuble, chez ses parents, à la rue de la Côte 107. Originaire de Neuchâtel et Wyssachen BE.
Etudes primaires à Neuchâtel (Collège des Parcs) et secondaires (Collège latin).
A commencé ses études de piano à l'âge de 4 ans. His first teacher was Mr. Pierre Jacot in Neuchâtel. Poursuivit sa formation au Conservatoire de Genève avec le pianist Johny Aubert et Charles Chaix pour la composition.
Il se rendite ensuite à l'Ecole normale de musique à Paris, où il fut inter autres, l'élève du grand pianiste Alfred Cortot.
Revenant en Suisse, Jean NYDER (his name "de guerre") began a career as a professor and later as a composer. He liked chamber music and gave more than 300 concerts in duo with the violonist Paul Druey from Geneva.
Deux poêmes, extrait de
JEAN NYDER, LE CLAVIER DE COULEUR
Un cœur sous la neige
La cathédrale en sucre où l'orgue fraîche joue
Ses gammes de glace, ses violets accords ;
Un cœur très étonné dans la gorge s'enroue,
Se cogne à l'infini dans un chaud corps à corps.
Cosmos bien déguisé; j'aime son nouveau masque,
Son bruit de silence... plus loin que tout lointain;
Un théâtre d'amour se neige dans le risque,
Me dit son verbe rouge au plus glacé matin.
Je savoure mon luxe et mon costume mauve.
Ma guitare est cassée et pourtant chante mieux!
Je recolle mon cœur qui par le toit se sauve...
... Son soleil est en fête et flambe à qui mieux mieux.
Neige ! Sous toi tressaille un lourd " Jadis " en miette...
... Me hurle l'oiseau mort un presque bleu-futur.
Dans le port un navire attend; il fait la sieste;
Et si le banjo there... Il rêve. I'm sure of it.
Il me reste ma peau pour sculpter une danse...
Et mon cœur qui d'amour se conjugue au présent.
Ma maison rit sous neige et j'ai bien de la chance
D'être enterré tout vif et pourtant... si vivant!!!
Tout compte fait...
Clavier de couleur est la nature
Et virtuose l'homme apprenti;
Mais chef-d'œuvre sera la rature
Qui donne vie au décor abruti.
Clavier de sons: Musique du vide
Et virtuose l'homme ignorant
Qui tisse un arpège et le dévide
En jouant sa gamme à contre-courant.
Clavier d'Aujourd'hui: nos ris, nos larmes
Et virtuose l'homme inconnu
Qui sur la scène croise les armes
Pour mieux rertanspercer le décor nu.
Clavier de Toujours: la mort, la vie
Et virtuose l'homme hasardeux
Qui pressent qu'au festin le convie
Son court poème qui danse entre deux.
Clavier aux mille feux: Toi ! folle poésie...
Et lentes à tes yeux nos virtuosités ;
Mais sans fin, sans repos: Ton règne de magie
Qui redonne à l'instant couleur d'Eternité.
"Le chiese di Assisi" by Walter Furrer
Heinz-Roland Schneeberger performed the composition "Le chiese di Assisi, nove visioni musicali per organo" in its entirety for the first time on July 13, 1973. An encounter.
Beatrice Wolf-Furrer
(translation: AI)
- 08 Jan 2016
Heinz-Roland Schneeberger and Beatrice Wolf-Furrer. Photo: Beat Sieber
In 1973, Walter Furrer (1902-1978) captured the deep impression that the nine churches of the Umbrian town of Assisi had made on him in the composition Le chiese di Assisi, nove visioni musicali per organo firmly. Although the organ was not his main medium, he inevitably resorted to this instrument as soon as it came to the musical realization of distinctly spiritualistic experiences.
As I have been working intensively since 2014 to revive Furrer's oeuvre - which is administered by the Burgerbibliothek Bern - it is also important for me to make contact with musicians who still knew my father. I knew that the organist Heinz-Roland Schneeberger was still alive, but at first I was unable to find him, and he was not even on the Internet. Eventually, I learned from experts that he was staying at the Bellevue-Park retirement home in Thun.
And so, on Saturday afternoon, December 5, 2015, we had a personal conversation in the elegant lounge of Bellevue Park. I was supported by Beat Sieber, Managing Director of the Bern Chamber Orchestra and Secretary of the Association for the Promotion of Composer Walter Furrer, which was founded in July 2015, who captured the conversation on film and in photographs and also took part with a few questions.
During the conversation, which lasted just under an hour, I learned some important details. The organist, born in 1928, trained as a primary school teacher at the Muristalden seminary and worked at various schools in Switzerland until his retirement in 1993, the most important stations being St. Moritz and Herisau.
At the age of fifteen, he first came into contact with the instrument to which he would remain faithful for the rest of his life. He received his first lessons at the seminary, where, as was customary at the time, church services with musical accompaniment were also held. He later continued his organ studies at the Zurich Conservatory, where the Fraumünster organist of the time, Heinrich Funk, was his teacher, and with Heinrich Gurtner, the organist of Bern Cathedral for many years, he finally obtained his concert diploma. In addition to his teaching profession, he subsequently developed a busy concert schedule as an organist throughout Switzerland and sometimes abroad.
Heinz-Roland Schneeberger. Photo: Beat Sieber
Back to Walter Furrer: In the 1960s, he met Heinz-Roland Schneeberger through his second wife, the soprano Margreth Furrer-Vogt, who became the main interpreter of his organ compositions. She had already been working with Schneeberger for some time and had made a name for herself with compositions by Hans Studer in particular. Walter Furrer was enthusiastic about Schneeberger's organ playing and made him famous with the work mentioned at the beginning of this article. Le chiese di Assisi, nove visioni musicali per organo known.
On July 13, 1973, Heinz-Roland Schneeberger raised the entire Chiese-cycle from the baptism. On August 2 of the same year, he performed it in the St. Baafskathedraal in Ghent (Belgium) as part of a large organ concert at which, as the organist remembers clearly, the Furrer-Vogt couple was also present. This was followed in 1974 and 1975 by performances in Bern Minster and Chur Cathedral, with only parts of the Chiese-composition were performed. Schneeberger followed the same principle in the USA, where in October 1980, a good two and a half years after Walter Furrer's death, he performed the compositions relating to the churches of Santa Chiara and San Rufino at four different venues. visioni played.
According to the organist, this contact came about in the Engadin through a good acquaintance, the Swiss organist Frank Herand, who had emigrated to America. He organized the four concerts under the following two conditions: "no Bach" was to be played and a contemporary Swiss composer was to be presented. And so it came about that the two aforementioned visioni were also heard overseas.
It should also be mentioned that Heinz-Roland Schneeberger is also the 142nd Psalm for soprano and organwhich Walter Furrer wrote in 1967 under the impression of the Six-Day War, together with Margreth Furrer-Vogt. He still remembers the concert, which took place on August 28, 1970 in the Schlosskirche Interlaken and earned the composer and performers much acclaim.
Finally, I asked the organist what effect Walter Furrer had on him as a person. He was impulsive and impatient, replied Mr. Schneeberger, and when he played the organ he sometimes disturbed him somewhat with audible reactions. But on the whole, he had liked him.
Thank you very much, Mr. Schneeberger, for making this interview possible.
Walter Furrer
Furrer was born on July 28, 1902 in Plauen in the Vogtland region. His parents were the Swiss engineer Adolf Furrer and Martha Furrer-Riedel, the eldest daughter of the teacher and Vogtland dialect poet Louis Riedel.
"Excellent, but he practices too much" (SMZ 11/2014, p. 5 f., PDF)
Beatrice Wolf-Furrer's summary of Walter Furrer's autobiographical notes "My student years in Paris"
An unjustly forgotten composer (SMZ January/February 2016, Print, PDF)
Note on the life and work of Walter Furrer (1902-1978), an unjustly forgotten Swiss composer by Beatrice Wolf-Furrer
