York Höller
York Höller also in the spelling York Hoeller ( born January 11, 1944 in Leverkusen ) is a German composer and professor of composition at the Academy of Music and Dance Cologne.
- 5.1 Literature
- 5.2 External links
Biography
Between 1963 and 1970, Höller studied at the Musikhochschule in Cologne with Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Herbert Eimert composition and piano (including at Schmitz - Gohr ) and orchestral conducting. In parallel, he studied musicology and philosophy at the University of Cologne. Other musical studies he graduated from the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music by Pierre Boulez. 1967 Höller put his degree in music education from.
From 1969 to 1972 he was a member of the group 8 Cologne. At the State Theater Bonn Höller was briefly active as a coach. In 1971 he accepted an invitation from Karlheinz Stockhausen to realize his own compositions in the Electronic Music Studio of the WDR. With his works, he gained international prominence quickly. From the mid- 1970s composed Höller at the Paris research institute IRCAM, where he had been invited by Pierre Boulez. At the Grand Opéra his opera The Master and Margarita premiered in 1989 based on the novel Mikhail Bulgakov.
Between 1986 and 1990, Höller was a lecturer in analysis and music theory at the Musikhochschule in Cologne. After that, he was from 1990 to 1999, artistic director of the WDR Studio for Electronic Music. In 1993 he accepted an appointment to the Academy of Music " Hanns Eisler" in Berlin as professor of composition. As the successor to Hans Werner Henze in 1995 he joined in this function at the Musikhochschule in Cologne. In addition, Höller holds many European and American universities guest lectures and composition courses.
Since 1991, York Höller member of the Academy of Arts in Berlin and since 2006 a member of the Free Academy of the Arts in Hamburg.
Stylistic features
Höller's compositional style has continually evolved and changed since its called " Opus One" titled " Five Pieces for Piano " from 1964. The first " Five Pieces for Piano " in the tradition of and engagement with Schoenberg and Webern. A single twelve-tone row is based on all five pieces. His first orchestral work "topic" of 1967 has still strong influence of his teacher Bernd Alois Zimmermann, but shows a virtuoso handwriting in the mastery of the great orchestral apparatus.
Only with his " Sonata for Piano" ( Sonata informal ) from 1968 developed Höller own personal style. After reading of Theodor W. Adorno's essay " vers une musique informal " Höller turned with this work of serial music to and from the free atonality. With " tangent " (1973) wrote Höller a pioneering work on the use of " live electronics ". He combined the natural sound of instruments ( piano, cello) with the electronic sounds of two analog synthesizers.
During his studies in Paris, Höller took inspiration for its own composition theory. Fascinated by the Gregorian chant, which he heard in the Notre Dame Cathedral, he developed the idea of " sound shape ". As in a " genetic code " is in Höller's " sound shape " already the entire scheduling of a work contained. " The 12 semitones of the octave are to be considered only as starting points for the formation of complex shapes., Which in turn should be understood not as a rigid, closed and invariable, but as a flexible, open and transformable structures. To such it is in my ' Klanggestalten ' " ( York Höller in a lecture in 1998, published in: York Höller, sound shape - shape time, Boosey & Hawkes, page 119). As a result, numerous works Höller have emerged from the idea of " sound shape ". Typical of this long period of creativity is the work of "myth" for 13 instruments, percussion, and electronic sounds ( 4-channel tape). The title does not refer to any incident in the broad field of traditional mythologies, but is to be understood quite in the original sense as "speech" or " narrative." The works are partly familiar poetic images and expression characters based, such as wind, water, the nymph Syrinx, horn call and echo, threatening gestures, a kind of Marche Funèbre, Dionysian round dance, night black hymn, etc. The music itself, the composer, but should consistently be heard as absolute music. The 4 -channel tape is a mitkomponierter, an integral part of the whole. The sound of the instruments is inflated by the electronic sounds into the fabulously Mythical.
Höller has set five criteria for his work: authenticity, uniqueness, freedom cliché, conciseness and consistency. In recent years, turns to the composer, also due to the almost complete loss of his eyesight, again the purely instrumental composition to.
Awards
York Höller has received numerous awards, including
The French Minister of Culture appointed him Chevalier dans l' Ordre 1986 des Arts et des Lettres.
Plant extract
Compositions
Writings
- Form composition or the structure of the organic. in Neuland II, 1981/82, pp. 140-143.
- Progress or impasse? Critical considerations for early serialism -Saarbrücken 1994.
- Sound shape - shape time. Texts and commentaries from 1964 to 2003. Edited by Reinhold Dusella. Berlin 2004: Boosey and Hawkes (texts ), Bote and Bock (notes). ISBN 3-7931-1697-2 and ISMN M -2025-2231-8