Michael Hirsch (composer)

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Michael Hirsch (born March 2, 1958 in Munich ; † February 6, 2017 in Berlin ) was a German composer and actor .

Life

Michael Hirsch worked as a composer since 1976. Initially as an autodidact , he trained his compositional work with Josef Anton Riedl and Dieter Schnebel and as an actor and speaker in the Freyer Ensemble and with the “ Maulwerkern ”.

In addition to instrumental music , musical theater and opera, his compositional oeuvre includes various cross-border hybrid forms with elements of language composition and radio play . His compositions were presented at the Donaueschinger Musiktage , the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik , the Musica Viva (Munich) of the Bavarian Radio , the XIII Cigle de música del segle XX , Barcelona, ​​the Dresden Days of Contemporary Music , the Ultrasound Festival Berlin , the MaerzMusik Berlin and others listed. Michael Hirsch was awarded the Composition Scholarship of the City of Munich in 1986, the Elisabeth Schneider Prize for Composition in 2001, the Busoni Composition Prize in 2005 and the 2nd Prize in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Composition Competition in 2007. In 2008 Michael Hirsch was nominated for the German music author's award in the “Music Theater” category and received a residency grant for the Villa Serpentara in Olevano Romano .

Compositional creation

In Michael Hirsch's musical work, the “dramaturgic” or “performative” moment is a constant that can be found in different forms in almost all of his compositions. “I would define the term 'performative', which is still quite young in musical terminology,” wrote Hirsch, “that it denotes the presence of ostensibly extra-musical-actionist elements that bring scenic-staging moments into a musical work. My penchant for opera, which has existed since my childhood, is certainly the reason for a strong preoccupation with music theater. But while the element of the 'performative' goes without saying in music theater, there is also a tendency towards mixed musical and scenic forms in some of my pieces that are not ostensibly part of music theater. Some pieces have a pronounced performance character, but most are chamber music with occasional performative irritations or a quasi-scenic basic constellation. "

The main focus of Michael Hirsch's work in the last years of his life were compositions for opera and music theater . In May 2000 his full-length opera “Das stille Zimmer” was premiered as a commissioned work by the Bielefeld Theater. In 2003/4 the short opera “La Didone abbandonata” was created for the “Dresden Days of Contemporary Music”. In 2005 the music theater "Schatten" was premiered on behalf of the "Musica Viva" Munich and the chamber opera "Eine Schöne Tages" on behalf of the State Opera Hanover . In 2007 he composed the underground opera “Stationendrama” for the Stuttgart State Opera . Above all, however, since 2005 Michael Hirsch has been working on a full-length opera project on "Celestina" from Fernando de Rojas ' reading drama "La tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea" from 1499. As preliminary studies he had the chamber operas "Die Klage des Pleberio" (premiere Berlin 2005), “Celestina in conversation with herself” (UA Dresden 2006) and “Tragicomedia” (UA Stuttgart 2009).

List of works (selection)

Solo works

  • Songs based on texts from everyday life for speakers (1992-5)
  • Bastard for piano (1997)
  • Monologue for piccolo flute (2000)
  • Monologue for piano (2001)
  • Improvisation for big drum (from: Das Konvolut, Vol. 1 ) for big drum, playbacks (2001)
  • Opera (from: Das Konvolut, Vol. 1 ) for voice, playbacks (2001)
  • Bastard II (La Didone) for piano (2004)
  • Portrait splitter for speaker, feeds (2009/11)

Chamber music

  • The Konvolut, Vol. 4 for a variable line-up: drummer, noisemaker, feeds (1990/97/99, rev. 2009)
  • 14 hands for 7 pianists at one piano (1995)
  • Fantasies for accordion and speaker (1996)
  • Kopfecke / Wunderhöhle for 3 speakers, 1 noisemaker, piano, 1 percussionist, 3 cassette recorders, feeds (1996)
  • Passages / scenes for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, viola, cello (1997)
  • Trio 1 for clarinet, violin and violoncello (1999)
  • Trio 2 for flute, piano and percussion (2001)
  • Das Konvolut, Vol. 1 for singer, piccolo flute, clarinet, tuba, bass drum, string trio and 3 playback CDs (2001)
  • Symposium for bass clarinet, accordion, violin, violoncello, piano, trombone, tuba, drums, playbacks (2005)
  • Prose for piano and accordion (2006)
  • with a certain pathos for accordion, piano and 2 theremines (2007)
  • accumulated, tense, boiled for flute, marimbaphone and piano (2008)
  • String quartet (2008)
  • Treble for flute piccolo, E-flat clarinet, piano and glockenspiel (2009)
  • Bunuel for string trio, playback (2009)
  • Masks for percussion, violin, viola, cello (2010)
  • 1. Study (from: Das Konvolut, Vol. 2 ) for musique concrète, accompanied by flute, violin, piano (2011)
  • 2nd string quartet (from: Triptychon ) (2012)
  • Some experiments with reality for 2 accordions, 2 actors, feeds and tram (2013)
  • Trio 3 for flute, voice, clarinet (2014)
  • parlando for violin, clarinet, violoncello, piano (2015)

Ensemble and orchestral music

  • Chronicle in moments for ensemble (2001)
  • Das Konvolut, Vol. 2 for 1 singer, 1 singer, 1 speaker, 2 speakers, flute, violin, piano, 2 percussionists, feeds (2002/2011)
  • Das Konvolut, Vol. 3 for mezzo-soprano, baritone, speaker, 2 speakers, piccolo, clarinet, trombone, accordion, 2 violins, viola, cello, 2 percussionists (xylophones), playbacks (2003/2011)
  • Words Stones for baritone, choir and orchestra (2007-9)
  • Recitative and aria for claves and 12 strings (2010)
  • ... kind of a narrative ... for orchestra (2011)
  • Triptych for singer, string quartet, variable (rock) ensemble and feeds (2012)

Musical theater

  • The quiet room. Opera based on texts by Ernst Herbeck (1998/9)
  • La Didone abbandonata. Short opera based on Pietro Metastasios Didone abbandonata for 2 singers and ensemble (2004)
  • One fine day. Hotel opera in 13 scenes (2005)
  • The Lament of the Pleberio. Short opera based on Fernando de Rojas for baritone and ensemble (2005)
  • Celestina talking to herself . Short opera based on Fernando de Rojas for tenor and ensemble (2006)
  • Station drama. Underground opera for 3 soloists, 1 actor, extras and small ensemble (2007)
  • Tragicomedia. Short opera based on Fernando de Rojas for six voices (2008)
  • Dido. Music theater in two parts with music by Michael Hirsch and Henry Purcell (2016)

CDs

  • Portrait CD "Michael Hirsch: La Didone abbandonata / 5th study (from: Das Konvolut, Vol. 2) / String quartet / Umbau 2 (from: Das Konvolut, Vol. 3) / Tragicomedia" WERGO 2012 (WER 67522)
  • Pipe dreams. On " Edition Musik in Deutschland 1950–2000 : Jenseits des Gesangs" (RCA Red Seal)
  • Recitative and aria. On “touch! Don't touch! - music for theremin "(WERGO, WER 6679 2)
  • Passages / scenes. On: 11th and 12th Dresden Days of Contemporary Music 1997/98 - Documentation CD (Sächsische Tonträger, LC 09930)

literature

  • Nina Ermlich-Lehmann: Article “Michael Hirsch”, in: Composers of the Present (KDG) , Loseblattlexikon, 49th subsequent delivery, July 2013, Munich 2013

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nina Ermlich-Lehmann: Article "Michael Hirsch", in: Composers of the Present (KDG) , Loseblattlexikon, 49th subsequent delivery, July 2013, Munich 2013, p. 1.
  2. ^ Eleonore Büning: On the death of Michael Hirsch: Crazy virtuoso. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . February 8, 2017, accessed March 13, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Hirsch, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer and actor
DATE OF BIRTH March 2, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich , Bavaria , Germany
DATE OF DEATH February 6, 2017
Place of death Berlin , Germany