York Höller
Encyclopedia
York Höller (ˌjɔʁk ˈhœlɐ; born 11 January 1944 in Leverkusen
) is a German
composer
and Professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik Köln
.
, piano with Else Schmitz-Gohr
and Alfons Kontarsky
, and orchestral conducting with Wolfgang von der Nahmer. In parallel to this he studied musicology
and philosophy
at the University of Cologne
. He did further musical studies at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt
with Pierre Boulez
, and in 1967 sat his examination in music education.
Höller was active for a short time as a répétiteur at the Staatstheater Bonn
. At the electronic studio of WDR
in 1971–72, he "continued his studies with Karlheinz Stockhausen
" (Stenzl 1991, 12) or, alternatively, "was given the chance, at Stockhausen’s invitation, to realize works of his own" (Lichtenfeld 2001). In any case, the technique he developed at this time—a form of extended serialism
which he calls "Gestalt composition"—bears a resemblance to the older composer’s formula composition
(Stenzl 1991, 12–15; O'Súilleabháin 1992), and in 1982 Höller dedicated his orchestral work Schwarze Halbinseln to Stockhausen (Blumröder 1983, 15/30). He quickly gained international recognition with his works. From the mid-1970s Höller also composed at the Paris
research institute IRCAM
, where Pierre Boulez had invited him, and in 1989 his opera Der Meister und Margarita
(after the novel of the same name by Mikhail Bulgakov
) was premièred at the Grand Opéra.
From 1986 to 1990 Höller was lecturer in analysis and music theory at the Musikhochschule Köln. Subsequently he succeeded Stockhausen as artistic director of the WDR Studio for Electronic Music from 1990 to 1999. In 1993 he accepted a call to the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler
in Berlin
as professor of composition. As a successor to Hans Werner Henze
he moved in 1995 in this same capacity to the Cologne Musikhochschule. In addition, Höller has presented lectures and held composition courses at many European and American colleges.
Since 1991 York Höller has been a member of the Akademie der Künste
in Berlin.
Leverkusen
Leverkusen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany on the eastern bank of the Rhine. To the South, Leverkusen borders the city of Cologne and to the North is the state capital Düsseldorf....
) is a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
composer
Musical composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...
and Professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik Köln
Hochschule für Musik Köln
The Cologne University of Music is a music college in Cologne, and Germany's largest academy of music.-History:The academy was founded by Ferdinand Hiller in 1850 as Conservatorium der Musik in Coeln...
.
Biography
Between 1963 and 1970 Höller studied at the Cologne Musikhochschule: composition with Joachim Blume and Bernd Alois ZimmermannBernd Alois Zimmermann
Bernd Alois Zimmermann was a post-WWII West German composer. He is perhaps best known for his opera Die Soldaten which is regarded as one of the most important operas of the 20th century...
, piano with Else Schmitz-Gohr
and Alfons Kontarsky
Aloys and Alfons Kontarsky
Aloys and Alfons Kontarsky were German duo-pianist brothers who were associated with a number of important world premieres of contemporary works. They had an international reputation for performing modern music for two pianists, although they also performed the standard repertoire and they...
, and orchestral conducting with Wolfgang von der Nahmer. In parallel to this he studied musicology
Musicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
at the University of Cologne
University of Cologne
The University of Cologne is one of the oldest universities in Europe and, with over 44,000 students, one of the largest universities in Germany. The university is part of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, an association of Germany's leading research universities...
. He did further musical studies at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
with Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
, and in 1967 sat his examination in music education.
Höller was active for a short time as a répétiteur at the Staatstheater Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
. At the electronic studio of WDR
Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Westdeutscher Rundfunk is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the consortium of German public-broadcasting institutions, ARD...
in 1971–72, he "continued his studies with Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
" (Stenzl 1991, 12) or, alternatively, "was given the chance, at Stockhausen’s invitation, to realize works of his own" (Lichtenfeld 2001). In any case, the technique he developed at this time—a form of extended serialism
Serialism
In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...
which he calls "Gestalt composition"—bears a resemblance to the older composer’s formula composition
Formula composition
Formula composition is a serially-derived technique encountered principally in the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen, involving the projection, expansion, and Ausmultiplikation of either a single melody-formula, or a two- or three-voice contrapuntal construction .In contrast to serial music, where the...
(Stenzl 1991, 12–15; O'Súilleabháin 1992), and in 1982 Höller dedicated his orchestral work Schwarze Halbinseln to Stockhausen (Blumröder 1983, 15/30). He quickly gained international recognition with his works. From the mid-1970s Höller also composed at the Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
research institute IRCAM
IRCAM
IRCAM is a European institute for science about music and sound and avant garde electro-acoustical art music. It is situated next to, and is organizationally linked with, the Centre Pompidou in Paris...
, where Pierre Boulez had invited him, and in 1989 his opera Der Meister und Margarita
The Master and Margarita
The Master and Margarita is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, woven around the premise of a visit by the Devil to the fervently atheistic Soviet Union. Many critics consider the book to be one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, and one of the foremost Soviet satires, directed against a...
(after the novel of the same name by Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhaíl Afanásyevich Bulgákov was a Soviet Russian writer and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, which The Times of London has called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.-Biography:Mikhail Bulgakov was born on...
) was premièred at the Grand Opéra.
From 1986 to 1990 Höller was lecturer in analysis and music theory at the Musikhochschule Köln. Subsequently he succeeded Stockhausen as artistic director of the WDR Studio for Electronic Music from 1990 to 1999. In 1993 he accepted a call to the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler
Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler
The " in Berlin, Germany is one of the leading music conservatories in Europe. It was established in East Berlin in 1950 as the ' because the older was in West Berlin...
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
as professor of composition. As a successor to Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
he moved in 1995 in this same capacity to the Cologne Musikhochschule. In addition, Höller has presented lectures and held composition courses at many European and American colleges.
Since 1991 York Höller has been a member of the Akademie der Künste
Akademie der Künste
The Akademie der Künste, Berlin is an arts institution in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1696 by Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg as the Prussian Academy of Arts, an academic institution where members could meet and discuss and share ideas...
in Berlin.
Honors
York Höller has received numerous distinctions:- The Bernd Alois Zimmermann Prize of the City of Cologne
- The Förderpreis of the State of North Rhine–Westphalia
- The Prize of the International Composers’ Forum of UNESCO
- The Rolf Liebermann Prize for Opera Composers
- The Ordre des Arts et des LettresOrdre des Arts et des LettresThe Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...
in 1986 bestowed by the French Minister of Culture - The 2010 Grawemeyer Award for Music CompositionGrawemeyer Award (Music Composition)The Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition is an annual prize instituted by H. Charles Grawemeyer, industrialist and entrepreneur, at the University of Louisville in 1984. The award was first given in 1985...
for the orchestral work Sphären (Anon. 2010)
Compositions
- Fünf Stücke, for piano (1964)
- Diaphonie, for two pianos (1965, rev. 1974)
- Drei Stücke, for string quartet (1966)
- Herr, es ist Zeit (text: Rainer Maria RilkeRainer Maria RilkeRené Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...
), for soprano, flute, harp, harpsichord, celesta, and string quartet (1966) - Topic, for large orchestra (1967)
- Sonate informelle, for piano (1968)
- Sonata, for solo cello (1968)
- Epitaph für Jan Palach, for violin and piano (1969)
- Piano Concerto no. 1, for piano and orchestra (1970)
- Horizont, electronic music (1971–72, rev. 1975)
- Décollage, for two speaking choirs, electric guitar, electrically amplified cello, electronic organ, and tape (1972)
- Tangens, for cello, electric guitar, piano, electric organ, and two analog synthesizers (1973)
- Chroma, for large orchestra and live electronics (1972–74)
- Klanggitter, for cello, piano, synthesizer, and tape (1975–76)
- Antiphon (String Quartet no. 1), for string quartet and electronically transformed string quartet on tape (1976, rev. 1984)
- Arcus, for 15 instruments, percussion, and tape (1978)
- Moments musicaux, for flute and piano (1979)
- Mythos, tone poem for 13 instruments, percussion, and electronic sounds (1979–80)
- Umbra, for large orchestra and tape (1979–80)
- Résonance, for orchestra and computer-generated sounds on tape (1981)
- Schwarze Halbinseln, for large orchestra, with vocal and electronic sounds on tape (1982)
- Pas de trois, for viola, cello, contrabass (1982)
- Traumspiel (text: August StrindbergAugust StrindbergJohan August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg's career spanned four decades, during which time he wrote over 60 plays and more than 30 works of fiction, autobiography,...
), for soprano, large orchestra, and electronics (1983) - Magische Klanggestalt, for large orchestra (1984)
- Improvisation sur le nom de Pierre Boulez, for 16 instrumentalists (1984)
- Piano Sonata no. 2 (Hommage à Franz Liszt) (1986)
- Der Meister und Margarita, opera in two acts after the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov (1984–89)
- Fanal, for trumpet and orchestra (1989)
- Aura, for large orchestra (1992, rev. 1996)
- Pensées (Piano Concerto no. 2), for piano, orchestra, and electronics (1993)
- Pas de deux, for cello and piano (1993)
- Tagträume, for violin, cello, and piano (1994)
- Gegenklänge, for 18 instruments (1996)
- Double, for orchestra (1996)
- Partita, for two pianos (1996)
- String Quartet no. 2 (1997)
- Initium, for piano (1998)
- Widerspiel, for two pianos and large orchestra (1996–99)
- Movement, for large orchestra (1998–99)
- Herbsttag (text: Rainer Maria RilkeRainer Maria RilkeRené Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...
, for mezzo soprano, flute, harp, harpsichord, celesta, and string quartet (1999) - Verzweigung, for piano (1999)
- Aufbruch, for orchestra (1999)
- Ex tempore, for flute, oboe, clarinet (doubling bass clarinet), percussion, violin, viola, cello, harp, and piano (2001)
- Trias, for alto saxophone, percussion, and piano (2001)
- Der ewige Tag, for chorus, orchestra, and electronics (2001)
- Monogramme, for piano (1998–2003)
- Klangzeichen, for wind quintet and piano (2003)
- Scan, for solo flute (2003)
- Feuerwerk, for 17 instrumentalists (2004)
- Fluchtpunkte, for flute, English horn, clarinet, piano, and percussion (2006)
- Sphären, for orchestra (in progress, to be premièred by the WDR Sinfonieorchester Cologne and Semyon Bychkov during their 2007–2008 season)
Writings (selective list)
- 1982. Gestaltkomposition oder Die Konstruktion des Organischen. In Neuland Jahrbuch II, 1981/82, edited by Herbert Henck, 140–43. Bergisch Gladbach: Neuland.
- 1989. "Composition of the Gestalt, or the Making of the Organism." Translated by Nigel Osborne. Contemporary Music Review 1, no. 1 ("1984: Musical Thought at IRCAM"): 35–40.
- 1989. "Resonance: Composition Today." Translated by Nigel Osborne. Contemporary Music Review 1, no. 1 ("1984: Musical Thought at IRCAM"): 67–76.
- 1994. Fortschritt oder Sackgasse? Kritische Betrachtungen zum frühen Serialismus. Saarbrücken: Pfau-Verlag.
- 2004. Klanggestalt—Zeitgestalt. Texte und Kommentare 1964–2003. Musik der Zeit 10, edited by Reinhold Dusella. Berlin: Boosey und Hawkes (Text) ISBN 3-7931-1697-2, and Bote und Bock (Music) ISMN M-2025-2231-8
Sources
- Anon. 2010. "Nature, Love Inspires Grawemeyer Award-Winning Piece". Grawemeyer Awards website. (Accessed 27 January 2010)
- Benoliel, Bernard. 1982. "York Höller’s Mythos." Tempo new series no.141 (June): 39–40.
- Blumröder, Christoph von. 1983. "York Höller: Schwarze Halbinseln." In Begleitheft der Schallplattenedition Zeitgenössische Musik in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, vol. 10: 1970–1980, pp. 14–15 [German], 30–31 [English]. Bonn: Deutscher Musikrat.
- Conen, Hermann. 1985. "An Interview with York Höller", Tempo new series, no.152 (March): 2–6.
- Ehlert, Ralf Gerhard. 1999. "Die Verwendung elektronischer Klänge in der Musik York Höllers." Master’s Thesis. Cologne: University of Cologne. A reworked extract published as "Horizont—York Höllers elektroakustischer Auftakt", in Kompositorische Stationen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Debussy, Webern, Messiaen, Boulez, Cage, Ligeti, Stockhausen, Höller, Bayle Signale aus Köln. Beiträge zur Musik der Zeit 7, edited by Christoph von Blumröder, 172–85. Münster: Lit-Verlag, 2004.
- Haynes, S. 1989. "Report on the Realization of York Höller’s Arcus." Contemporary Music Review 1, no. 1 ("1984: Musical Thought at IRCAM"): 41–66.
- Lichtenfeld, Monika. 2001. “Höller, York (Georg)”. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley SadieStanley SadieStanley Sadie CBE was a leading British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , which was published as the first edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.Sadie was educated at St Paul's School,...
and John TyrrellJohn Tyrrell (professor of music)John Tyrrell was born in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia in 1942. He studied at the universities of Cape Town, Oxford and Brno. In 2000 he was appointed Research Professor at Cardiff University....
. London: Macmillan. - Morawska-Büngeler, Marietta. 1988. Schwingende Elektronen: Eine Dokumentation über das Studio für Elektronische Musik des Westdeutschen Rundfunk in Köln 1951–1986. Cologne-Rodenkirchen: P. J. Tonger Musikverlag.
- O'Súilleabháin, Finbar. 1992. [Letter to the Editor]. Tempo new series, no. 181 (June): 68.
- Rode-Breymann, Susanne. 1992. "Text- und Musikstruktur in York Höllers Oper Der Meister und Margarita: 'Beruhigt euch nicht, Margarita. Alles ist richtig. Darauf ruht die Welt'." In Welttheater, Mysterienspiel, rituelles Theater: "Vom Himmel durch die Welt zur Hölle"--Gesammelte Vorträge des Salzburger Symposions 1991, Wort und Musik: Salzburger Akademische Beiträge 15, edited by Jürgen Kühnel, Ulrich Müller, Oswald Panagl, Peter Csobádi, Gernot Gruber, and Franz Viktor Spechtler, 611–20. Anif, Austria: Müller-Speiser.
- Stenzl, Jürg. 1991. "York Höller's The Master and Margarita: A German Opera." Translated by Sue Rose. Tempo new series, no. 179 (December): 8–15.
- Whittall, Arnold. 1998. "Perspectives on York Höller: All Contradictions Reconciled? " Musical Times 139, no. 1864 (Autumn): 11–19.