Babette Koblenz

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Babette Koblenz (* 22. August 1956 in Hamburg ) is a German composer , specializing in the chamber and ensemble music , the music theater and so-called "documentary works." She has received numerous awards and is a member of the Free Academy of the Arts in Hamburg . In 1999 the renowned festival for modern music theater Munich Biennale opened with her stage work “Recherche” , staged by Gottfried Pilz . In addition to composition, Koblenz also devotes himself to singing and painting.

Life

Koblenz grew up in Hamburg's Grindelviertel . Raised in a musical family, she wanted to learn to play the violin at the age of six and fought for lessons with the support of her music teacher. She was twelve years old when she was offered theory lessons in trial lessons for prospective music teachers at the Hamburg University of Music and Theater and learned to read scores. She learned the violin and piano, was a member of the Albert Schweitzer Youth Orchestra , in string quartets and choirs, before studying music theory with Werner Krützfeldt and composition with György Ligeti at the University of Music and Theater in Hamburg . She took part in the international summer courses for new music in Darmstadt several times . She also received impulses from exchanges with visual artists.

As a commission for the 25th anniversary of the “Days for New Music ” in Hanover, her work “Walking on the Sun” was premiered on January 30, 1983 . In 1984 she began to set up her own music group to perform and produce her own songs. During this time she also began to develop her own singing style. She accompanied her singing herself on the piano, for example in her song cycles "Can't Explain" (1983/85) and "The Children of Bjelaja Zerkow" (1994/95).

At the age of 23 she wrote her first stage work "Hexenskat" , which was premiered in 1984 by the Saarland State Theater Saarbrücken . Since that time the composer has been working on new possibilities for musical theater; Stations of this development are the musical theater "Alla Testa" (1983/88), but also the ballet " Ikarus " (premiered at the Munich Biennale 1990), "Buch" (Stuttgart 1996) and the full-length opera "Recherche" , which opened at the opening at the Munich Biennale in 1999 and then produced for television. He also wrote works for orchestra ( “Radar” 1988, “Al Fondo Negro” 1993) and ensembles (such as “Salpetriere” , premiered by Les Percussions de Strasbourg in 1990 at the Donaueschinger Musiktage ), some with a varied polyrhythmic structure.

On behalf of the Hamburg Institute for Social Research and its director Jan Philipp Reemtsma , she composed the multilingual non-scenic documentary piece “The Children of Bjelaja Zerkow ” , which was part of the opening of the Wehrmacht exhibition on the subject of the war of extermination . Crimes of the Wehrmacht 1941-1945 1995 in Hamburg and Berlin was listed.

She has received a number of awards for her compositions, such as the Jürgen Ponto Foundation Prize in 1981 , the Schreyahn Scholarship from the State of Lower Saxony in 1988, the Villa Massimo Rome Prize in 1991/1992 , the Hindemith Prize in 1994 , the Gerda Prize in 1998 and Günter Bialas Prize of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts and in 2001 the Schneider Schott Music Prize of the City of Mainz. In 2001 she was appointed a member of the Free Academy of the Arts in Hamburg.

Babette Koblenz has been portrayed several times on radio and television. In 1990 Wergo produced a portrait CD for the German Music Council with instrumental and vocal music. Today she lives as a freelance composer and artist with her husband, the composer Hans-Christian von Dadelsen , in Clenze . Together with him, she has been self-publishing her works since October 1991, Kodasi .

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Babette Koblenz has developed a style from diverse elements of the avant-garde, rock-pop and jazz as well as from various ethnic influences, in which the heterogeneous forces should gain a new and unique quality through dynamization and transformation. Many of her compositions are carried by an asymmetrical, polyrhythmic pulse.

Her work focuses on chamber and ensemble music as well as music theater and “documentation”. For her musical "documentation" she uses a wide variety of written material, such as court files, newspaper articles, dictionaries or the like as a text basis.

The composer works on a special singing style and also performs as an interpreter of her own works. She publishes her works in self-publishing.

At the age of 23 she composed her first stage work "Hexenskat" , premiered by the State Theater in Saarbrücken, in which many of her compositional peculiarities already shine through - the creation of her own text concepts, the interweaving of different time levels - the special singing style based on synagogue singing and the artistic processing of Various types of contemporary documents. "Hexenskat" is a kind of theater within a theater. The story of an actresses unionized strike is gradually turning into the subject of Shakespeare's Macbeth.

In her opera “Recherche”, which was commissioned for the Munich Biennale 20 years later, a multi-dimensional journey through time is the center of the plot. Mythical and historical material is interwoven with the present. “It would be my wish that the listener would be able to follow the present all the more vigilantly by questioning his memory at some point.” (Babette Koblenz: “Ein Orphischer Blick”, in: Die Deutsche Bühne, April 1999, p. 41) Es When it comes to musical theatrical productions, you are not concerned with a staged spectacle, but with “contact with the experience of reality”.

From the beginning, Babette Koblenz was also active as a painter. In addition to her collaboration with stage designers and video artists as part of her music theater projects, she also created her own visual work in various formats, which was shown in several solo and group exhibitions.

Singing style and rhythm

Koblenz would like to "generate force fields" with the help of music. She uses her own voice on the one hand, and the rhythmic design of many of her works on the other. Through a repeatedly reversing polarity and polyrhythmically often running on several floors, musical gestures are pushed forward and yet stop at the same time. This has given some of her works the categorization of " minimal music ". The interactions of polar, additive and phase-specific rhythmic structures are complex, but arise from an organically understandable pulse. Babette Koblenz is concerned with rhythmic-energetic balance:

“The manifestation of a 'crooked pulse', a flexible beat (and thus flexible off-beats) emerged step by step within a series of compositions that were at first on the verge of unperformability, although the musical diction itself was very clear. " (Babette Koblenz: in: Program for the Musiktage in Donaueschingen, Donaueschingen 1990, p. 34.)

The division of two-digit, odd sixteenth notes into multiple flexible beats does not conform to western musical conventions. A detailed analysis, which Babette Koblenz presented for the piano trio “Le Monde” , enables an exemplary mental approach to this complex material. Ultimately, however, it's about experiencing their music, which only reveals itself in the sound. It doesn't lose its complexity when listening; rather, it is transformed into a variety of pulsating fields of force and sound.

For Babette Koblenz, an important source of inspiration for her musical development and for the conception of compositions is the practical cooperation with musicians and visual artists from various fields, which have always included musicians from the jazz, rock and pop scenes. The joint work with her husband Hans-Christian von Dadelsen - the permanent dialogue, as well as the mutual compositional criticism - is the driving force behind her stylistic development.

The musical gesture as an element of compositional working principles, but also the preoccupation with the subjective expression of different languages ​​have significantly shaped Babette Koblenz's work. In a lecture she mentions some musical facets that are of personal importance to her: Bob Marley's “Survival”, the Red Chinese Peking Opera, Iannis Xenakis ' “Kraanerg”, Harry Partch's “Barstow”, Bob Dylan's “Dirge” and Jossele Rosenblatt's “1918” .

Works

Babette Koblenz's compositional work so far comprises 5 works for the stage, 7 works for orchestra, 1 "documentary work", 9 works for larger ensemble, 16 works for chamber music ensemble or for solo instruments, 5 works for voice and piano, 1 work for vocal ensemble and 5 works for Percussion. With a few exceptions, all of the works are self-published.

Stage works

  • Hexenskat (1979/80), text / concept: Babette Koblenz including texts from William Shakespeare's “Macbeth”. Cast: 3 actresses as Macbeth witches (soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone), trade unionist (bass baritone), orchestra, tape. World premiere: Saarländisches Staatstheater Saarbrücken, January 15, 1984. Duration: approx. 80 min.
  • Alla Testa (1983/87), music theater, text / concept: Babette Koblenz. Cast: 3 singers (mezzo-soprano, alto, baritone), 5 actors (Rosella, Aijin, suitcase thief, man from the horse racing office, journalist), flexible ensemble, tape. Duration: approx. 120 min.
  • Ikarus (1989/90, with Hans-Christian von Dadelsen), ballet / performance based on a story by Gabriel García Márquez . Book: Amalia and Hadass Ophrat. Instrumentation: 7 instruments. World premiere: Munich Biennale, May 12, 1990, Train Theater Jerusalem, Roger Epple. Duration: approx. 50 min.
  • Book (1995/96), chamber music theater. Book and concept: Babette Koblenz. Instrumentation: viola, accordion and percussion. World premiere: Stuttgart, Solitude Palace, February 24, 1995. Duration: approx. 37 min.
  • Research (1997/99). Text / concept: Hans-Christian von Dadelsen and Babette Koblenz including documentary materials and texts by Homer (Odyssey), Yannai and Ezekiel Hakohen. Instrumentation: Teresa (mezzo-soprano), Aziz-Ulysses (countertenor), Teiresias (tenor), Odysseus (baritone), Raoul (bass); 5 voices (soprano, mezzo-soprano, 2 baritones, bass), orchestra, tape. World premiere (production and equipment by Gottfried Pilz): Munich Biennale, April 16, 1999; Nuremberg Opera, Premiere April 24, 1999. TV production by Bayerischer Rundfunk and ARTE. Duration: approx. 100 min.
  • Cinema (reality = y / cinema) , music theater / video opera (1999/2001). Text and Scenery: Hans-Christian von Dadelsen u. Babette Koblenz; for ensemble, 4 singers a. Speaker. World premiere: April 27, 2002. ZKM Karlsruhe with Ensemble 13 under the direction of Manfred Reichert. Duration: approx. 100 min.

"Documentary Works"

  • The children of Byelaya Tserkov (1994/95). Documentary work for 5 voices and 4 instruments. Four-language concept including the texts of Jeremiah . Instrumentation: alto (or countertenor), 2 baritones, 2 basses, clarinet (also bass clarinet and saxophone), accordion, percussion, piano; Commissioned by Jan Philipp Reemtsma and Hans Barlach . World premiere: opening of the exhibition War of Extermination. Crimes of the Wehrmacht, Hamburg, March 5, 1995. Duration: 53 min.
  • Unrecognizable (2003). Music and picture documentation of 24 former Franconian country synagogues. A snapshot in September 2003. Instrumentation: accordion and violoncello. World premiere: Konzert Pur oder Plus, Hamburg November 25th, 2003. (accordion: Margit Kern, violoncello: Clemens Malich). Duration: approx. 37 min.

Orchestral works

  • Radar (1987/88) for piano and orchestra. Duration: approx. 35 min.
  • Verhör (1989), based on a text by Thomas Höft, for soprano, baritone and orchestra. World premiere: September 14, 1990, Alte Oper Frankfurt. Duration: 8 min.
  • Mass Française “La Partisane” (1991) for alto, tenor, mixed choir and orchestra. World premiere: European Music Festival Stuttgart, Südfunkchor, R. Huber, September 1, 1991.
  • Al Fondo Negro (1993) for large orchestra, duration: approx. 17 min.
  • You (1995/96) for string orchestra. World premiere: November 5, 1996, Hamburger Camerata. Duration: approx. 21 min. (see also: Version for string quintet)
  • Inlines or Outlaws (2000) for guitar orchestra (5 guitars, chorus, and electric bass). Duration: 6 min.
  • Blau (2002) for guitar orchestra (4 guitars and bass guitar). Duration: 9 min.

Vocal works

  • Madrigals for Hermes Trismegistos (1983/85) for 6-part mixed choir a cappella. World premiere: Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, HP Rauscher, Musica Viva Munich, May 15, 1987. Duration: 30 min.
  • Can't Explain (1983/86). 7 songs for voice and piano or ensemble. Text: Babette Koblenz. World premiere: Babette Koblenz (voice and piano), International Summer Courses Darmstadt, July 21, 1986. Duration: approx. 60 min.
  • Enough Davon (1986) for low voice and piano, text: Elisabeth Borchers . World premiere: Hamburg 1986.
  • Verhör (1989), version for soprano, baritone and piano, text by Thomas Höft. (For the original version, see orchestral works). Duration: approx. 8 min.
  • Petite Messe Française (1992) for alto and piano. World premiere: Babette Koblenz, Francis Berrar exhibition, Rome, May 8, 1992. Duration: 20 min.
  • Amarti la awanim (2000). Three Hebrew chants for voice and piano, (I said to the stones). World premiere: Babette Koblenz, Saarland Museum Saarbrücken, exhibition F. Berrar, August 13, 2000. Duration: 22 min.

Works for instrumental ensembles and solo works

  • Mysterium Buffo I (1979) for viola, double bass and piano. Duration: 20 min.
  • Mysterium Buffo II (1980) for piano trio. World premiere: International Summer Courses for New Music, Darmstadt 1980. Duration: 3 min.
  • Days (1981) for large brass ensemble. Duration: approx. 3 min.
  • Gray Fire (1981) for 7 instruments. World premiere: Munich 1982, Prize of the Jürgen Ponto Foundation. Duration: approx. 3 min.
  • Walking on the Sun (1982) for 7 instruments. World premiere: January 30, 1983, Days of New Music Hanover. Duration: 19 min.
  • No Entry to the Lions Club (1983) for 2 pianos and percussion (1-2 players). World premiere: Alder, Hagel, Kappert, May 31, 1987, Festival 750 Years Berlin. Duration: 21 min.
  • Piano piece I (1985). Duration: 7 min.
  • Saint George (1985) only short particell, flexible instrumentation. World premiere: Hamburg, June 5, 1986. Duration: 18 min.
  • Radar (1987/88) for violin and piano 1995/96 (arrangement by Hans-Christian von Dadelsen, for the original see orchestral works). Duration: 15 min.
  • 4 Duos (1988) for violin and trumpet or violin and wind instrument. World premiere: H. Hörlein (violin), L. Elam (trumpet), April 9, 1989, Schreyahn. Duration: 22 min.
  • Cup (1988) for three wind instruments. Duration: approx. 4 min. (awarded the Bärenreiter House Music Prize in 1988, published by Bärenreiter)
  • String Trio (1988). World premiere: H. Hörlein, R. Castillon, JP Maintz, April 9, 1989, Schreyahn. Duration: 10 min.
  • Piano piece II (1989). Duration: 4 min.
  • Biccherne (1989) for violin solo. Duration: 5 min.
  • Schofar (1989) for 8 instruments. World premiere: September 3, 1989, Gustav Mahler Festival Hamburg, Ensemble Philharmonie, conducted by Manfred Trojahn. Duration: 15 min.
  • Wind quintet (1990). World premiere: Jugend musiziert , Weikersheim 1990. Duration: 20 min.
  • Salpetriere (1990) for 6 percussionists. World premiere: Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Donaueschinger Musiktage, October 20, 1990. Duration: 24 min.
  • Salpetriere B (1990), version for 4 percussionists. World premiere: Ensemble of the Baden Conservatory, Heidelberg “Gegenwelten”, September 18, 1993. Duration: 18 min.
  • Le Monde (1991/92) for piano trio. World premiere: H. Hörlein, JP Maintz, J. Lamke, NDR, Neues Werk, February 27, 1992. Duration: 30 min.
  • Trois Fours (1992) for percussion solo. World premiere: Evelyn Glennie , Presteigne International Festival, August 26, 1992. Duration: 15 min.
  • Catalan (1994) for 4 percussionists. World premiere: Ensemble Bash London, Hamburg, February 7, 1995. Duration: 13 min.
  • Sans Soleil (1994) for accordion solo. World premiere: Stefan Hussong , Akiyoshidai Festival, August 24, 1995. Duration: 15 min.
  • Cru (1995) for 5 instruments. World premiere: May 3, 1995, Ravensburg, ensemble mutare. Duration: 17 min.
  • Can't Open A Document (1996/97) for 5 instruments. World premiere: April 5, 1997, Gegenwelten Festival, Heidelberg; Heidelberg Festival Ensemble. Duration: 20 min.
  • You (1995/96), version for string quintet (1997/98). World premiere: Clark Street Band, Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, November 11, 1998. Duration: 21 min.
  • Walnut (1999) for string quartet. World premiere: Leopolder Quartet, Munich Biennale, April 26, 1999. Duration: 15 min.
  • Walnut (1999). Arrangement for 5 instruments. World premiere: Timaion-Ensemble Hamburg, June 25, 1999. Duration: 15 min.
  • Piano piece III (2000). Duration: 13 min.
  • Grand Duo (2002) for clarinet and violoncello. World premiere: December 3, 2002, Brussels Hanse Office. Duration: 11 min.
  • Duck and Cover (2002) for violin a. Piano. Edited by Hans-Christian von Dadelsen. World premiere: January 15, 2003, Munich, Bavarian Academy of the Arts. Duration: 10 min.
  • Unrecognizable (2003). Duo for violoncello and accordion. Duration: 14 min.
  • Gente - Gente (2004) for clarinet and string trio. World premiere: March 8, 2004 in the large broadcasting hall in Bremen . Recording of the Bremer Rundfunk with members of the Bremen Chamber Philharmonic. Duration: 14 min.

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ EJZ : Wie Welten Weg , January 9, 2016, page 5.
personal data
SURNAME Koblenz, Babette
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer
DATE OF BIRTH August 22, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg