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Born in Berne in 1924, he
studied music at the conservatory in Zürich (1947–55), violin with
Stefi Geyer and theory and composition with Willy Burkhard, and
subsequently (1955–56) at Berlin’s Hochschule für Musik with Boris
Blacher.
He lectured in music history at the Conservatory in Lucerne (1960–63)
and taught composition and instrumentation at the Academy of Music in
Basel (1961–72). In 1969 he founded the international composers’
seminar in the Künstlerhaus Boswil (Switzerland) on which he had a
decisive influence till 1980. In 1973 he succeded Wolfgang Fortner at the
Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg im Breisgau as director of
the composition class and of the Institute for Contemporary Music. He has
also lectured in Brazil, Nicaragua, Cuba, Canada, at the Accademia
Chigiana in Siena, the universities in Tokyo, Nagoya and Hiroshima, the
Conservatories in Paris and Lyon, as well as in Malmö, Stockholm,
Helsinki, London, Geneva, Berlin, Milan, Lucerne, Graz, Bremen, Bergen,
Sarajevo, Caracas and Radziejowice (Poland). He was a guest lecturer at
ircam (1986–93). He served as President of the Swiss Composers’
Association (1979–82). He sat on the jury of the international jury of
the iscm World Music Days (1965, 1969, 1987) and directed music analysis
courses and seminars at the international composers’ competitions of the
Gaudeamus Foundation in Bilthoven, the Netherlands (1966, 1968, 1972). In
1990 Huber gave up teaching in Freiburg and focused on composition and
masterclasses. He worked as composer-in-residence at the Academy of Music
in Basel, at the ‘Musica’ Festival in Strasbourg, the Huddersfield
Festival; the festivals in Centre Acanthes in Villeneuve, Winterthur,
Viitasari, Lucerne and Bergen. His honours include the Beethovenpreis of
the City of Bonn (1970), the Composers’ Prize of the Swiss Composers’
Association (1975), the Arts Prize of the City of Basel (1978), the
Reinhold-Schneider-Prize of the City of Freiburg (1985), the Premio Italia
for Cantiones de Circulo Gyrante (1986), and an honorary doctor’s degree
from the University of Strasbourg.
He is a member of the Arts Academies in Munich, Berlin and Mannheim, and
an honorary member of the iscm. He lives in Bremen and Panicale (Italy).
Since 1975 his works have been published by Ricordi Editions, Munich. His
complete writings entitled Umgepflügte Zeit were published by MusikTexte
Verlag, Cologne, in 1999.
Selected works (since 1985) ...von Zeit zu Zeit... String Quartet No. 2
(1985), Cantiones de Circulo gyrante, spatial music for three groups and
five soloists to texts by Hildegard von Bingen and Heinrich Böll (1985),
Protuberanzen for orchestra (1986), Fragmente aus Frühling. In memoriam
Karol Szymanowski und Bruno Schulz for mezzo-soprano, viola and piano to
texts by Bruno Schulz (1987), Spes contra spem, oratorio for solo voices,
actors, large orchestra, tape and live electronics (1989), Des Dichters
Pflug, string trio (1989), La terre des hommes. In memoriam Simone Weil
for mezzo-soprano, countertenor and 18 instruments to texts by Simone Weil
and Osip Mandelstam (1989), Plainte – Die umgepflügte Zeit I for
microtonally tuned viola d’amore (1990), Plainte – Lieber spaltet mein
Herz I for viola d’amore (or viola) and guitar (both microtonally tuned)
and percussion (1992, version with alto flute – 1993), Winter seeds for
accordion (1993), Die Erde bewegt sich auf den Hörnern eines Ochsen,
assemblage for four Arab and two European musicians and tape, set to texts
by Mahmud Doulatabadi (1993), Intarsi, Chamber Concerto ‘In memoriam
Witold Lutos³awski’ for piano and 17 instrumentalists (1994),
Lamentationes de fine vicesimi saeculi for orchestra (1994), Lamentationes
Sacrae et Profanae ad Responsoria Iesualdi for six singers and two
instrumentalists, to texts by various authors (1997), Ecce homines for
string quintet (1998), L’Ège de notre ombre for microtonally tuned alto
flute, viola d’amore and harp (1998), Auf der Welt sein – Im Licht
sein / Svjet – Man kann nicht atmen for choir and six solo voices,
timpani and percussion to texts by Max Frisch and Osip Mandelstam (2000),
Schwarzerde, stage composition after Osip Mandelstam (2001), Die Seele
muss vom Reittier steigen... for cello, baryton, countertenor and
orchestra (2002), ...¹ l’Ème de descendre de sa monture et marcher sur
ses pieds de soie... chamber concerto for cello, baryton, countertenor and
nine instrumentalists (also version for alto, cello, baryton, accordion
and percussion – 2004).
Intarsi. Chamber Concerto ‘In memoriam Witold Lutos³awski’
The point of departure for me was Mozart’s last piano concerto, which
kept ‘haunting’ me. Mainly because of this inspiration I tried to
question the ‘inflationary’ development tendency of avant-garde piano
music, consciously limiting myself in sizeable sections to the ambitus of
Mozart’s piano music, and placing the main emphasis on the polyrhythmic,
sound and linear aspects of polyphony rather than on virtuoso performance.
In the first movement of the work, which evolves into the second movement
through an extensive silence composed into it, the piano part is woven
into an exquisitely delicate, transparent ensemble structure, to a large
extent determining its sound quality. Here and there, subtly, as in the
art of intarsia, there appear brief ‘quotes’ from the first movement
of Mozart’s concerto; however, I immediately distance myself from them:
a descending trill, something in the nature of consecutive and
increasingly heavier ‘adieu’. The chamber concerto, and particularly
the Intarsi movement, is dedicated to the memory of Witold Lutos³awski,
whose goodwill and friendship I will always miss. The work is also
dedicated to András Schiff.
The second movement, Pianto – Specchio di memorie, is in a sense an
eight-part spectral study, in which the pitch is led directly out of the
constellation of Mozartian intervals (similarly as in the first movement).
The constant pulsating of notes in the growing layers of subdivisions
constructed along a row of primes is twice interrupted by cadenze
contrappuntistiche fleeting like shadows, whose sophisticated counterpoint
is wholly led out of Mozartian intervalic and rhythmic motifs. The third,
pulsating ‘cadenza’ brings to mind the theme from the second movement
of Mozart’s concerto.
A totally different situation is found in the third movement, entitled
Unit¹! It develops monothematically from the motif of the last movement
of Mozart’s concerto, which I have allowed myself to sequence, reverse,
regress ad absurdum – it becomes a ‘witchhunt’, in which there is a
constant striving for unity, never to be reached...
In the epilogue Giardino Arabo I return to the ‘spectral study’ of the
second movement, in order to lead it to the end as gently as possible. The
triple quartertone intervalics, already employed in the 2nd movement,
develops towards Arabic maqams, gradually ousting the sounds which were
earlier dominated by the piano. The pianoforte, the historical source of
our chromatic-well-tempered musical thinking, gives way to a world of
sound with different horizons...
Klaus Huber
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