Claus Kühnl

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Claus Kühnl (born November 17, 1957 in Arnstein , Lower Franconia ) is a German composer living in Frankfurt am Main .

Life

Claus Kühnl was the first child of the married couple Gudrun Kühnl (née Schmitt) from Lower Franconia and Wilhelm Kühnl, who comes from the Sudetenland . He received his academic musical training from 1973 (initially as an intern during his high school years) to 1980 at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg with Bertold Hummel (composition), Julian von Károlyi (piano), Hanns Reinartz (conducting) and Zsolt Gárdonyi (music theory ). The analysis seminars on new music with Klaus Hinrich Stahmer and - from 1978 to 1980 - the student chamber orchestra Musici Allegri , which elected him as its conductor, were also influential for him . In 1980 he passed the state examination in piano. In the same year Kühnl went to Frankfurt am Main, where he initially continued his composition studies with Hans Ulrich Engelmann at the University of Music and Performing Arts . There he met the composer Gerhard Müller-Hornbach , with whom he founded the Mutare Ensemble in 1981 for the performance of contemporary and rarely played classical music.

During this time the first publications and the beginning of Kühnl's teaching activities to Dr. Hoch's Conservatory in Frankfurt. First he taught music theory; In 1984 he successfully applied for a position and established a composition and chamber music class at this institute. In between he taught music theory at the musicological institute of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main and at the Academy for Tonkunst in Darmstadt .

In 1983 he received a scholarship for the Cité Internationale des Arts Paris . In Paris he met Tristan Murail and Henri Dutilleux , whose works he studied. Increased commissions for composition meant that in 1986 he retired from the direction of the Mutare Ensemble . In 1987 he met Wilhelm Killmayer for the first time during a working week for Young Composers in Hilchenbach , which Killmayer directed. In 1988 the music theater La petite Mort was commissioned by Frankfurt Feste (premiered in 1991), and one year later the ensemble composition Duplum. Music of light and darkness on behalf of the Philharmonia Ensemble of the Hessischer Rundfunk .

Due to a new scholarship, Claus Kühnl lived for a year in the Villa Massimo Rome in 1990 . There the first thoughts on an aesthetic approach germinated, which he described with the term panharmonie . At the time, he was positive about the first noticeable signs of globalization , advocating a merging of various stylistic influences from which “new alloys” should arise. An example of this period is the piece Lausche den Winden, a commission from the Avance Quartet .

After his return from Rome in 1992 he was appointed composition teacher at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory in Mainz , but gave up this position after a year. In the following years, Kühnl devoted himself to various cultural projects in addition to his usual activities, took part in a managerial role in Response (students compose) and acted as an advisor to the head of culture in Hanau for four years . From 1993 to 1997 he worked with longer breaks on the opera The story of the bowl and the spoon (premiered in 1998 in Bielefeld), based on a children's book by Michael Ende , which Kühnl met three times in Munich until 1995 . Claus Kühnl has been an honorary member of the Board of Directors of the Mozart Foundation from 1838 in Frankfurt am Main since 1993 .

Kühnl spent the years 1999 and 2000 on a scholarship from the International Artists' House Villa Concordia in Bamberg . There he made friends with the writer Jochen Missfeldt . Compared to the “panharmonic” approach of the nineties, the works of the following period are again characterized by greater economy of resources and a deliberate simplification. The main work of this time is the concert for mandolin and 13 instrumentalists Voller Sonnen, premiered in 2006 at the World New Music Festival in Stuttgart . While thinking in micro-intervals and spectral music (as a result of French influence) already played a certain role in his work from the mid-eighties onwards , this tendency increased from the turn of the millennium. While the micro-intervals were initially intended to have a purely melodic function within the framework of various quasi-rhetorical figures, they now also play a decisive role in the vertical and cause beats or spectral fields that are expressed in a more subtle tonality.

In July 2016, the University of Music and Performing Arts appointed the composer honorary professor.

Claus Kühnl is married to the musician Yumi Yokoyama. He has two sons from his first marriage.

Awards and scholarships (selection)

Works (selection)

Stage works

  • La petite Mort , A Phantasmagoria (1988/89). ISMN: M-2057-1077-4
  • The story of the bowl and the spoon, comic opera based on the book of the same name by Michael Ende (1997)

Orchestral works

  • Introduction and Singing of the Unicorn for double bass and orchestra (1986)
  • Responsories for accordion, ensemble and orchestra (2002)
  • Secret Word for Orchestra (2011). ISMN: 9790203480273

Chamber orchestra

  • Monody. Musik der Stille for chamber orchestra (1981). ISMN: 979-0-004-20852-6
  • Vision for 20 solo strings (1982)
  • Voller Sonnen, concert for mandolin and 13 instrumentalists (2004). ISMN: M 2026-2916-1
  • Racine, Concertino for piano and 14 instrumentalists (2006)

Ensemble works

  • Duplum. Music of light and darkness for 6 musicians (1989). ISMN: M-2057-1078-1
  • Listen to the winds for clarinet, trombone, cello, piano and secondary instruments (1990). ISMN: M-2057-0223-6

Chamber music

  • 5 episodes for trombone (1976)
  • String Quartet (1977/83). ISMN: 979-0-004-50088-0
  • Valse miniature for double bass and piano (1978). ISMN: M-2034-3138-1
  • un souvenir for cello and piano (1979). ISMN: M-2034-2167-2
  • Die Klage des Job, 5 dramatic scenes for organ and piano (1981). ISMN: 979-0-004-50093-4
  • Lichtklang for 2 pianos for four hands (1992). ISMN: M-2057-0217-5
  • Morceau '95 for trumpet, or English horn, or clarinet, or viola, or alto saxophone and piano (1995). ISMN: M-2034-2434-5, ISMN: M-2034-2432-1, ISMN: M-2034-2433-8, ISMN: M-2034-2431-4
  • Open width for double bass and piano (1996). ISMN: M-2057-0370-7
  • Angels fall for accordion, harp, percussion and playback (2001). ISMN: M 2026-0169-3
  • Nocturne en Sarabande for guitar (2004). ISMN: M 2026-2004-5
  • Nachtschwarzes Meer, all around ... for double bass and piano (2005). ISMN: M-2034-3285-2
  • θriːhʌndrədændeɪtɪfaɪv (Threehundredandeigthyfive) for bass flute, bass oboe and double bass clarinet (2007)
  • Korona for piano four hands (2007). ISMN: 9790014109301
  • Tanabata, Variations on a Song by K. Shimofusa for violin and piano (2008). ISMN: M-2034-3348-4
  • Edges for double bass and harp (2009)
  • Time Abundance Music for violin, viola, violoncello and piano (2012) ISBN 9790203430797
  • Zeitfiguren for violin solo (2013). ISMN: 9790203420774
  • Tilted figure for violin solo (2015)
  • Durchdunkelt String Quartet II (2015) ISMN 9790203430834 (search in DNB portal)

Vocal music with instruments

  • kaze no iro for soprano, flute and piano (2001)
  • From the bottom of the well, 7 songs for baritone and piano (2001). ISMN: M 2026-0913-8
  • VerStrömung for baritone, violin and piano (2002)
  • Two pieces for a tenor (with harmonica) and electr. reinforced wing (2006)
  • Cantus mysticus for tenor and grand piano with electric-bow (2007)
  • Five chants based on lyrical fragments by Sappho plus an old age song for mezzo-soprano and piano (2010)

Organ works

  • Epitaph for Kaspar Hauser for organ with mechanical action and three additional players (1997). ISMN: M-2057-0352-3
  • They stood in the middle of the shaded room and spoke muffled ... (2005)
  • Assisi 2006 (2007)
  • In Praise of the Morning (2012)

Piano works

  • flags would have to stand in the horizon ... , with preparations, (1987). ISMN: M-2057-0167-3
  • Anverwandlung / Doppelblick (1990). ISMN: M-2057-0201-4
  • Roots of Chance (1993). ISMN: M-2057-0298-4
  • Five easy piano pieces (2001). ISMN: M 2026-0186-0
  • Japanese Sketches (2003). ISMN: M-2026-0155-6
  • The Offended Parrot (2004). ISMN: 979-0-004-18269-7
  • ... in my eyes (2005)
  • Sonatas 1-10 (2005-2008). ISMN: 9790203433729
  • How I once ate the white sausage with Killmayer (Capriccio) (2014). ISMN: 9790203430537
  • An outdoor piano. 65 short piano pieces (2014–2016).

selected Writings

  • Music and Eros - Thoughts of a Young Composer. (In: New Magazine for Music. Schott, Mainz July / August 1985)
  • Poet of the Night - Henri Dutilleux. (In: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Schott, Mainz January 1989)
  • Lost Shadow or The Stage Works by Hans Ulrich Engelmann. (in: Commedia humana HU Engelmann and his work. Wiesbaden 1985)
  • Never in the same river - letter to a young composer at the turn of the century. (In: Oper aktuell / Die Bayerische Staatsoper 2000/2001. Stiebner Verlag, ISBN 3-8307-1655-9 , ISBN 978-3-8307-1655-6 .)
  • Classical order expanded: Bertold Hummel - composer in the twentieth century. (In: Neue Musikzeitung , November 2002)
  • Out of the blind spot: Claus Kühnl in conversation with Julia Cloot. (In: Rückspiegel - Contemporary composing in dialogue with older music. Edited by Christian Thorau, Julia Cloot and Marion Saxer. Schott, Music, Mainz 2010, ISBN 978-3-7957-0118-5 .)

literature

  • MO C Döpfner: Delight the listener in a witty way. ( FAZ , August 3, 1984).
  • Hanno Ehrler: Surreal structures beneath the surface of sound. (Sunday FAZ, December 16, 1990).
  • Brigitta Mazanec: Retreat into the silence. Changing composer. (FAZ, September 18, 1991).
  • Gabriele Streit: New Freedom. About the piano works (1987–92) Claus Kühnl. Program of the Alte Oper Frankfurt v. Sept 11, 1992.
  • Brigitta Mazanec: La petite Mort. (Booklet text for the CD of the same name, Wergo, Mainz 1994).
  • Jochen Missfeldt: Claus Kühnl's art. (Booklet text for the CD Offene Weite, Cavalli Records, Bamberg 2000).
  • Volker Milch: I see a lot of open horizons. ( Wiesbadener Kurier , December 20, 2000).
  • Jan Kopp: Music of Light and Darkness. (Booklet text for the CD of the same name, Cavalli Records. Bamberg 2003).
  • Biography on claus-kuehnl.de

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brockhaus Riemann Music Lexicon. Supplementary volume. 1995, ISBN 3-7957-8359-3 , page 147.
  2. ↑ Contemporary Composers , 18th supplement, Nov. 1999, page 1.
  3. ↑ Contemporary Composers, 18th supplement, Nov. 1999, page 2.
  4. ^ Theater Bielefeld, Opera, program booklet for The story of the bowl and the spoon . No. 3, season 1998/99.
  5. ↑ Claus Kühnl: About the beetle and the cheerful deer in the program of the International House of Artists Villa Concordia Bamberg from March 12, 2010 (“We bring back”), page 5/6.
  6. ↑ Original sounds , Volume 14, No. 3, July 2016, page 1/2. Magazine of the University of Music and Performing Arts Frankfurt am Main.
personal data
SURNAME Kühnl, Claus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer
DATE OF BIRTH 17th November 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Arnstein