Gerald Florian Messner

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Gerald Florian Messner (born February 22, 1937 in Bad Eisenkappel, Slov. Železna Kapla-Bela , Carinthia ) is an Austrian musicologist specializing in ethnomusicology and a universal educator of the performing arts in Australia, who also works as a composer, poet, producer, director and radio maker.

Life

Born in the bilingual region of Carinthia, Messner, after primary school in his hometown and secondary school in Klagenfurt , also attended the teacher training institute there , where he passed the school leaving examination with distinction in 1958 and acquired a "certificate of maturity for teaching at primary schools" with which he "Declared qualified for provisional employment as a teacher at Austrian elementary schools". However, this school leaving certificate also contained, in a very small note, entitlement to study at universities, and instead of becoming an elementary school teacher, Messner now studied acting and directing at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna and musicology at the University of Vienna, where he received his doctorate in 1975 (Dr. Phil ., Dissertation: "The beat diaphony in Bistrica").

The acting graduate Messner made his debut as 'Gerald Florian' in Dostojewski's Idiot in 1961 at the Volkstheater Wien, then played at the Stadttheater Luzern , the Stadttheater Klagenfurt , the Theater an der Wien , the Volksoper and Burgtheater Wien, the Theater am Kurfürstendamm Berlin and the Operettenhaus Hamburg . In addition, he worked in a number of radio and television productions of the ORF and played - also in larger roles - in several films such as Incident in Antioch (1967), Alkeste - The importance of having protection (1970), Libussa (1972), The Manifesto (1974), The Harrer Case (1984) and Murder Call (1996 in Sydney).

The later university assistant at the Vienna Institute for Musicology, however, led his research several times to Oceania and Indonesia , and from 1986 he taught as a professor at the School of Humanities on the Geelong Campus of Deakin University Melbourne . Visiting professorships took him to California at the UCLA - Department for World Arts and Cultures at the University of California (1994/95) and to Germany at the Institute for Theater Studies at the University of Bayreuth and at the Institute for Education at the Catholic University of Eichstätt in Bavaria (1991–94). He received numerous research grants and in 1972 the Theodor Körner Prize for his compositional work. He now lives in Sydney .

Messner's scientific specialty is historical and comparative musicology , and here again the autochthonous folk polyphony , where he finds astonishing parallels in completely different cultures, for example in the singing style of Bulgarian "grannies", which was first explored, and singing in the highlands of Papua Niugini (field research on the music of New Guinea 1981 ), on Manus Island and on Flores Island in Indonesia. The choir of the old Bulgarian women from Bistritsa, the "Bistritsa Babi" was added to the UNESCO list of the intangible world heritage of humanity in 2005 on the basis of Messner's research . He is regarded as a beat diaphony specialist in the field of ethnomusic and as such is a sought-after speaker at international symposia. In addition, he has been practicing Taijiquan (Tai Chi Chuan) for years , studied the Chen style with Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang for more than 10 years and was with him in China.

For many years, Messner has also been involved in regular German-language cultural programs on the Australian broadcaster SBS , which broadcasts in 68 languages. He keeps Australia's German-speaking residents informed about European cultural events, which is important to him.

He is also artistically active in various fields: he has published a volume of poetry, he belonged to the circle around Albert Paris Gütersloh in Vienna , and his poems were published in Der Furche in Vienna, in Diagonale in Germany and in translation in anthologies in Australia, Canada, USA and India; he composes, conducts and gives workshops on role interpretation in music theater (e.g. in the Raoul Abdul studio in New York) and works on dramatic concerts of early music with his own ensemble, the Capella Floriani . One result of this is the CD Songs of the Soul . Now he has also been intensively active in painting: Successful exhibitions in Abu Dhabi in 2013 and in Austria in 2014 bear witness to this.

Messner is also an educator in various branches of the performing arts. At the Mannes School of Music in New York, founded by Clara Damrosch-Mannes in 1916, he held workshops for German singing, and in Sydney he founded the SESK - The Studio for Essential Skills and Knowledge - for the performing arts, where he directed and trained the voice and language, all kinds of singing styles from baroque to bel canto and German singing to chanson, jazz, pop and various folk singing styles, but also movement according to Tai Chi and Asian martial arts techniques for actors and singers. How wide-ranging Messner's interests are can also be seen from the fact that he is currently devoting himself intensively to pre-Christian culture in field, river and settlement names as well as the old customs of Carinthia on his more frequent visits to his homeland.

Publications (selection)

Scientific publications
  • The beat diaphony in Bistrica: Investigations of the polyphonic song forms of a middle-west Bulgarian village (= Viennese publications on musicology 12), Hans Schneider, Tutzing 1980, ISBN 3-7952-0245-0 .
  • On the trail of the ancient Southeast European popular polyphony in Lombardy at the end of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In: Musica Antiqua: Acta scientifica. Volume 5, ed. v. Filharmonia Pomorska 'Ignaz Jan Paderewski', Bydgoszcz (PL) 1978, pp. 31-46.
  • Are the signs and symbols used in New Ireland ideograms? In: Viennese ethnological messages. ed. vd Austrian Ethnological Expeditionary and Research Society, Vienna 1976, p. 49ff.
  • The diaphony among the Slavic mountain dwellers on the Balkan Peninsula
  • Spring customs and spring songs in Southern Carinthia. In: Makedonski folklor: Le Folklore macédonien. hg.v. Institut za folklor, Skopje 1972, pp. 171ff.
  • The New Ireland Grater. Mana taga kul kas ... (The "bird" is still singing ...). In: Studien zur Musikwissenschaft (StMw), supplements to the monuments of music art in Austria 31 (1980), Hans Schneider, Tutzing 1980.
  • An Upper Austrian pan flute. In: Studies in Musicology. (StMw), Supplement to the Monuments of Music Art in Austria 32 (1981), Hans Schneider, Tutzing 1981.
  • The Two-Part Vocal Style on Baluan Island Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. In: Ethnomusicology. Volume 25, No. 3, Pacific Issue (Sept. 1981), University of Illinois Press, Chicago 1981, pp. 433-446.
  • Book Review: Songs of the Pintupi; Musical Life in a Central Australian Society, by Richard M. Moyle. In: Yearbook for Traditional Music. Volume 17 (1985) pp. 211-213.
  • You croak like a raven ... sing like a nightingale ... animal comparisons in the sound description (PDF; 153 kB). In: timbre. Comparative systematic and music historical perspectives. Symposium on the 75th birthday of Franz Födermayr, Institute for Musicology at the University of Vienna 14. – 16. November 2008
  • Jaap Art Revisited. Multipart Singing in Three East Florinese Villages Fifty Years Later: A Preliminary Investigation. In: the world of music 31, 1989 (2), Journal der Abt. F. Ethnomusicology of the Otto-Friedrich University Bamberg, pp. 3–51.
  • The Shark-Calling Ceremony in Paruai, New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. In: the world of music. 32, 1990 (1) Journal of the Dept. f. Ethnomusicology of the University of Bamberg, pp. 49–84.
  • Ethnomusicological Research, Another 'Performance' in the International Year of Indigenous Peoples? In: the world of music. 35, 1993 (1), University of Bamberg, pp. 81-95.
  • Multipart Singing in East-Flores , Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology, KITLV Press, Leiden (NL) 1994.
  • The "Dorian Mode". Male Same-Sex Rituals and Music in the Death and Re-birth Cycles of Tribal Warrior Societies: A comparison of Ancient Indo-Europeans and Melanesians Today . Univ. of Maryland 1996 In: Resonance, vol 7, no. 2, London Musicians Collective Ltd., London 1999 p. 28–31, and in: http://sesk.info/forum.html ( Memento from March 31, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  • Richard Moyle, Peter Crowe, Gerald Florian Messner: Oceania . Ed. V. International Institute for Comparative Music Studies and Documentation, Florian Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 1990.
  • Contributions in: Adrienne L. Kaeppler, JW Love (Ed.): Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Volume 9: Australia and the Pacific Islands. Routledge, London 1998, ISBN 0-8240-6038-5 .
  • Notes on the Function of Music (PDF; 249 kB) 2002. In: The Human Journey . Institute for the Study of Knowledge website
  • Do They Sound Like Bells Or Like Howling Wolves? Interferential Diaphony in Bistritsa. An Investigation into a Multi-Part Singing Tradition in a Middle-Western Bulgarian Village, Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2013
Creative
  • Gerald Florian [d. i. Gerald Florian Messner]: Gaps. Poems (Illustr: Herta Hofer). Heyn, Klagenfurt 1984, ISBN 3-85366-434-2 .
  • Queen of the Night's Revenge . A Play in Two Acts, based on The Magic Flute Part Two by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated, completed and adapted for a multi-media performance. INBI-Sirius Pty. Ltd., Broadway, New South Wales, 2007, ISBN 978-0-9578206-4-7 .
  • Songs of the Soul ( Memento from March 31, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). Ensemble Capella Floriani, Dir .: Gerald Florian Messner, Q Multimedia

Secondary literature

  • Gerald Florian. In: Kürschner's German Literature Calendar 2000/2001. KG Saur, Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-598-23582-8 .
  • Wilhelm Kosch, Carl Ludwig Lang, Konrad Feilchenfeldt (Hrsg.): German Literature Lexicon: The 20th Century: Biographisches-Bibliographisches Handbuch. 2nd Edition. KG Saur, Munich / Leipzig 2000, ISBN 3-908255-09-0 .
  • Cornelius Eberhardt among others: Folk and art music in Southeast Europe. G. Bosse, Regensburg 1989, ISBN 3-7649-2381-4 .
  • Ernest Kay (Ed.): Who's who in Australasia and the Far East. International Biographical Center. Melrose Press, Cambridge 1989.
  • International Council for Traditional Music (Ed.): Directory of Traditional Music. Columbia University Dept. of Music, New York 1993.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Decree of October 5, 1951 Zl. 47.027-18, Min.Vdg.-Bl. No. 128/51
  2. ↑ Internet Movie Database IMDb
  3. ^ Bulgarian Music Culture in the World ( Memento of December 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ List of Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, Bulgaria: Bistritsa Babi (Grandmothers of Bistritsa) - ancient polyphonic singing, dances and ritual practices from the Shoplouk region 2005.
  5. ^ Bulgarian Radio October 13, 2007 ( Memento from December 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ^ Mozart at the Met - Exciting Vocal Ensemble , New York Amsterdam News v. Dec 16, 1999
  7. ↑ CD Songs of the Soul ( Memento from March 31, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). Ensemble Capella Floriani, cond. Gerald Florian Messner, Label Q Multimedia
  8. ^ "Symphony of Colors. The Confluence of Inner and Outer Words"
  9. ↑ "Kissed by the Satyr". Color poems by Gerald Florian Messner , with a musical framework of protest songs, the text and music of which also comes from Messner.
  10. ↑ SESK Institute ( Memento from March 31, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ Zdravko Haderlap: For radio and television to Australia ( Memento from September 6, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Small newspaper February 28, 2009.
  12. ↑ MaxPeter Baumann: The world of music bibliography.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Messner, Gerald Florian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gerald Florian; Messner, G. Florian; Messner, Florian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian musicologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Bad Eisenkappel , Austria