Hans-Joachim Hessler

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Hans-Joachim Heßler (born January 7, 1968 in Recklinghausen ) is a German composer , musician and musicologist . Today he lives in Duisburg and Diemelsee . As a contemporary composer, he aggressively subordinates his writing and works to the musical postmodern era .

Hans-Joachim Hessler

Life

After graduating from high school at the municipal high school Petrinum in Recklinghausen , he first studied musicology at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster and then from 1990 to 1997 school music and German studies at what is now the Technical University of Dortmund . He received his artistic training on the piano a. a. with Werner Seiss and Bob Degen , on the organ a. a. with Karl Weyers and Thomas Gabriel , in composition a. a. with Heribert Buchholz and Tomasz Stańko . The University of Music and Performing Arts Graz awarded him the academic degree of Doctor philosophiae in 2008.

The work

Heßler's diverse artistic socialization as a jazz musician, composer and classical pianist or organist is also reflected in his work. Polystylism and the crossing of boundaries of all kinds are essential features of his work.

References to Jean-François Lyotard

Due to his preoccupation with the philosophical writings of Jean-François Lyotard , many of Hessler's works appear to have been influenced by this postmodern thinker, for example his chamber music works “Updating Force” and “Tonregelsystem 189”, which deal specifically with Lyotard's philosophy of events, and the orchestral series "Le Différend XVII-XXIII", which are dedicated to his main philosophical work of the same name.

Conceptual discontinuity

Since the beginning of his career, Heßler has paid special attention to musical breaks and the creation of transitions between the different genres and styles. In the mid-1980s, for example, the FLAX-TRIO program, to which Hessler belonged as a formative member, pianist and keyboardist, said: “With pleasure, boundaries between different musical styles are torn down, these - broken down into individual parts - absorbed and given completely new forms suggested to the listener. ”This compositional process, which Hessler freely calls“ conceptual discontinuity ” after Frank Zappa , determines his work to this day.

Fonts (selection)

How close theory and practice are to one another is shown in Hessler's transfer of the theory of intensities, according to which intense feelings arise in the event of a conflict between two discourses or during the transition from one to the other discourse, to the practice of music in his book about Jean -François Lyotard with the title "Philosophy of Postmodern Music" [NonEM Verlag, Dortmund 2001, ISBN 3-935744-00-5 ].

That not only Pierre Boulez but also Madonna belongs to contemporary music becomes clear in Heßler's posthistorical considerations on the “disappearance of music” [NonEM-Verlag, Dortmund 2007. ISBN 3-935744-06-4 ].

Heßler's extensive treatise “Der zornige Baron” [United Dictions of Music, Duisburg 2010. ISBN 978-3-942677-00-4 ] shows u. a. that in his opinion the musician and composer, Charles Mingus , can also be subsumed under the ideal type of “conceptual discontinuity”.

Political commitment

Heßler interprets one of the most important key texts for the discussion about postmodernism "Cross the border, close the gap!" By Leslie Fiedler in the sense of an educational mandate for artists and as a commitment of a staunch democrat to overcome elite and mass culture in the field of contemporary music to contribute.

Catalog of works (selection)

Piano works

  • Adagio e molto espressivo (1992)
  • Allegro Vivace (1992)
  • Claude and the Odd Time (1994)
  • Quasi Fuga (1992)
  • SLY (1994)
  • Disappearances Over-IT (1999)
  • 10 Latin American compositions (2003)
  • 10 Well-Tempered Appearances Of The Blues (2003)

Organ works

  • ACDEB (2006)
  • Dance Macabre (2003)
  • DSCA (2009)
  • Evocations No. 1 & No. 2 (1995)
  • GFHAE (2006)
  • Impressions No. 1 & No. 2 (1995)
  • Irritations 1 (2003)
  • Etchings (2000)

Chamber music

  • Update for piano, double bass and violin (1997)
  • Please leave it for double bass and bass clarinet (1987)
  • CHANFLAX for double bass, bass clarinet and piano (1988)
  • Continuum contra Punctum for piano, double bass, violin and marimbaphone (1997)
  • The picture book moon for voice and piano (1994)
  • An Empty Dream of Happiness for voice, soprano saxophone and piano (1994)
  • Awakening for voice, soprano saxophone and piano (1992)
  • Always smile for double bass, bass clarinet and piano (1987)
  • Methexis I-VII for 3 violins, double bass, 2 trombones, trumpet, flute, clarinet, vibraphone, timpani, accordion, piano and voice (1994)
  • Six discourses for violin solo (1997)
  • Tanz im Vogelkäfig # 2 (Satirical Dance) for string quartet with secondary instruments (2004)
  • Tone control system 189 for piano, double bass, violin and marimbaphone (1997)

Orchestral works

  • HALF! (Homage to Leonard Bernstein, 2000)
  • Le Différend XVII (1997)
  • Le Différend XXI (1997)
  • Le Différend XXIII (1997)
  • Nabuli Tintin (1999)
  • Picturesque Sceneries: The Musical Journey Of Anna And Her Magical Flute (2005)
  • Sarabanda (2010)
  • WTC - Meditatio Pacis - Invocatio Pacis (on the occasion of September 11, 2001)

Theatrical music

  • Marat / Sade (1996)
  • Requiem for a Spy (1994)
  • ruhr.mensch! (2003)

Improvisational works

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Program of the FLAX-TRIO . Personal website of Hans-Joachim Heßler. Retrieved November 20, 2012.
  2. ↑ Cf. Heßler, Hans-Joachim: Philosophy of postmodern music. Dortmund 2001, p. 24 and 46ff.
  3. ↑ Hessler, Hans-Joachim. The disappearance of music - or: Pope Gregory I and Madonna, the goddess of love, are looking for Jean Baudrillard, their seducer. Dortmund 2007. p. 74ff.
  4. ↑ See Heßler, Hans-Joachim. The angry baron: The principle of discontinuity in life and conceptual compositional work of Charles Mingus Jr. Duisburg 2010. P. 51ff.
  5. ↑ Fiedler, Leslie. Cross the border, close the ditch !. Ways out of modernity: key texts for the postmodern discussion. Wolfgang Welsch. Ed. Weinheim: Acta humaniora, 1988. pp. 57-74.
personal data
SURNAME Hessler, Hans-Joachim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer, musician, musicologist
DATE OF BIRTH 7th January 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH Recklinghausen