Donaueschingen Music Days

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Pierre Boulez at the Donaueschinger Musiktage 2008

The Donaueschinger Musiktage is an annual festival for contemporary music organized by the “Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde”, Südwestrundfunk and the city of Donaueschingen in the Donauhallen and other locations in Donaueschingen . It takes place on the third weekend in October. It usually consists exclusively of world premieres and is internationally recognized as one of the most important festivals for contemporary music. It is currently funded by the State of Baden-Württemberg , the Federal Cultural Foundation and the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation . For several years now, all concerts have been broadcast live on Südwestrundfunk's SWR2 cultural program and on the Internet.

history

1921-1933

The Musiktage was founded in 1921 as "Donaueschingen Chamber Music Performances to Promote Contemporary Music" by the Fürstlich Fürstenberg Music Director Heinrich Burkard under the protection of Max Egon II zu Fürstenberg and is the oldest and most traditional festival for new music worldwide. In the first concert of the Donaueschingen Chamber Music Performances for the promotion of contemporary art of music on 31 July 1921, the Quartet for two violins, viola and cello, Op. 16 by Paul Hindemith listed. In the following years u. a. World premieres of works by Alban Berg , Arnold Schönberg and Anton Webern take place in the ballroom of Donaueschingen Castle.

1934-1945

Under the artistic direction of Hugo Herrmann , a music festival was founded that corresponded to "National Socialist views". The titles of the festivals are: a .: “Donaueschingen Music Celebrations”, “Old and New Chamber Music from the Swabian-Alemannic Region” and “Upper Rhine Music Festival”.

1946-1949

As early as 1946, the “Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde”, approved by the French occupation government, organized its first festival called “Neue Musik Donaueschingen”, still under the direction of Hugo Herrmann.

1950-1969

In 1949 the "Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde" made contact with Heinrich Strobel , the head of the music department of Südwestfunk Baden-Baden . A cooperation was agreed. Since then, Südwestfunk has been responsible for the festival as an artist. (Only) with the introduction of the SWF did the programmatic emphasis shift to orchestral music. In October 1950, the “Donaueschinger Musiktage for contemporary music art” took place under Strobel's direction. The SWF Symphony Orchestra performed for the first time under the direction of its chief conductor Hans Rosbaud .

1970-1974

After the death of Heinrich Strobel , Otto Tomek took over the artistic direction of the festival, which welcomed its audience for the first time in 1971 under the name “Donaueschinger Musiktage”. In 1972, the Karl Sczuka Prize of Südwestfunk was awarded for the first time during the music days.

1975-1992

In 1975 Josef Häusler took over the artistic direction, supported from 1981 by Christof Bitter .

1992-2014

From 1992 to 2014, i.e. for 22 years, Armin Köhler was the artistic director of the festival. He opened the Donaueschinger Musiktage to a wider audience, also made possible by continuous funding from the Federal Cultural Foundation . Sound art and alternative forms of presentation and reception took up more space under Köhler's direction. In 1996, when Peter Voss , the founding director of Südwestrundfunk (SWR), wanted to cut the budget by 300,000 DM (from a total of 1.5 million), the music days were about to end. A broad and international protest prevented this. The conversion to a biennial was also rejected.

Since 2014

In October 2014 Björn Gottstein was named artistic director from 2017, but took over the office in 2015 when Köhler died in November 2014.

Movies

  • 75 years of the Donaueschinger Musiktage - the end of music? Documentary (60 minutes) by Harold Woetzel, SWF 1996 ( YouTube video )

literature

  • Josef Häusler : Mirror of New Music: Donaueschingen. Chronicle - tendencies - work reviews . Kassel etc .: 1996 - ISBN 3-7618-1232-9
  • Reinhard Oehlschlägel : At the disposition? - On the Donaueschinger Musiktage , in: MusikTexte No. 64, April 1996, pp. 3–4 (pdf download)
  • Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Donaueschingen (ed.): Festschrift 75 Years of the Donaueschinger Musiktage 1921–1996 . Pfau, Saarbrücken 1999, ISBN 3-89727-069-2 .
  • Michael Wackerbauer: "The Donaueschingen Myth". On the role of an idea in changing festival concepts, in: Colloquium Collegarum. Festschrift for David Hiley on his 65th birthday, ed. v. Wolfgang Horn / Fabian Weber (Regensburg Studies on Music History, Vol. 10), Tutzing 2013, pp. 303–336, ISBN 978-3-86296-058-3
  • Michael Wackerbauer: The Donaueschingen music festivals 1921 to 1926. Regesta on the letters and documents in the Fürstlich-Fürstenberg archive with a historical introduction [1] (Regensburg Studies on Music History, Vol. 12), Regensburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-940768-73 -5

Web links

Commons : Donaueschinger Musiktage  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files