Helmut Neumann (composer)

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Helmut Neumann (born May 29, 1938 in Vienna ) is an Austrian composer and music theorist .

Life

education

Neumann had started attending primary school in Vienna before the end of the Second World War . After the war ended, he and his mother moved to Linz and later to Urfahr . There he attended the other elementary school classes. He later moved to the Bundesrealgymnasium in Linz, where he completed the first three classes, and then to the Stiftsgymnasium in Schlierbach .

During his time in Linz he received his first piano lessons from his grandmother and his first lessons in music theory from his step-grandfather Georg Wolfgruber . At the Stiftsgymnasium Schlierbach, Helmut Neumann received music lessons from Stefan Walterer as well as piano and cello lessons. After completing the fifth grade, Neumann moved to the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz . His teachers there were Karl Maria Schwamberger ( violoncello ), Mayer (piano) and the Schönberg student Fritz Heinrich Klein (music theory). From 1954 on Neumann studied with Schwamberger at the Mozarteum Salzburg. He was taught composition by Friedrich Neumann , with whom he is not related. In 1958 he moved to the Vienna Music Academy (today's University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna ). There he received u. a. Cello lessons with Frieda Litschauer-Krause . At the music academy Neumann got to know the composer and music theorist Othmar Steinbauer , with whom he studied first privately and later also at the academy sound series composition.

Career

In 1959 he was appointed to the National Icelandic Symphony Orchestra in Reykjavík , where he worked as a cellist until the summer of 1960. In 1961 he was hired as a cellist at the Innsbruck Municipal Orchestra . During this time his left hand became seriously ill, so that several operations were necessary.

In 1961 Neumann passed the teaching qualification examination for violoncello with distinction. In 1962 she passed the cello examination. As part of the summer academy at the Mozarteum Salzburg, he was twice a student of Enrico Mainardi . In that year he was appointed cellist to the Icelandic Radio Orchestra and also worked as a teacher for cello and music theory at the Tónlistarskóli (music school) in Hafnarfjörður . As the disease in his left hand worsened, he changed his profession on the advice of a doctor.

In 1964 Neumann returned to Vienna, where he now worked as a commercial clerk. In 1976 he was appointed to the budget department of the then Federal Ministries for Education and the Arts as well as Science and Research in Vienna.

In 1978 Neumann completed his Matura as an external student and then studied ancient German and musicology at the University of Vienna .

In June 1980 Neumann was elected director of the Franz Schubert Conservatory (formerly: Horak Conservatory) in Vienna. He resigned from this position in the summer of 1983 for health reasons, but continued to work at this school until 2001 as head of the composition and music theory department and as a teacher for cello, music theory and composition.

In 1986 he graduated from the Vienna Academy of Music (today: University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna) for a master's degree .

In Klosterneuburg near Vienna, Neumann played a key role in the chamber music cycle of living Klosterneuburg composers . He planned the performances and worked on them as a composer and cellist. In 1987, the municipality of Klosterneuburg awarded him the culture prize. To this day Neumann is a member of the Klosterneuburg Composers Working Group, which regularly organizes concerts of new music.

In the 1990s, Federal Minister Rudolf Scholten was appointed head of department in the Federal Ministry for Education and the Arts . He held this position until his retirement in the summer of 1998.

In 2001 he published The Sound Series - Composition Theory According to Othmar Steinbauer . It is the unfinished textbook of the sound series composition by his teacher Othmar Steinbauer , which Neumann has supplemented and expanded in many ways. In 2003, together with some of his composition students, he founded the “Society for Sound Series Music”, whose primary goal is the research and documentation of sound series music .

Helmut Neumann has received numerous honors and awards for his artistic and compositional work. His works amount to 155 opus numbers. Helmut Neumann is currently teaching composition to private students and is constantly writing new compositions. Neumann lived in Kritzendorf from 2002 to 2010 and in Klosterneuburg since 2010.

Commitment to Iceland

After Neumann lived and worked in Iceland from 1959/1960 as well as 1962 to 1964, he remained strongly connected to the contrasting country on the Arctic Circle even after his return to Austria and his change of profession.

In 1978, for example, Neumann and the Icelandic Consulate General organized a highly regarded Icelandic exhibition in Vienna's City Hall. As chairman of the Austrian-Icelandic Society, he planned and organized a major Iceland exhibition in the Austrian National Library in 1984 .

In 1986 he published the book Austria's Contribution to Iceland Research . The Icelandic President awarded him the Knight's Cross in 1986 and the Great Knight's Cross of the Icelandic Order of Falcons in 1996.

Awards and honors

Works (selection)

Books
  • Iceland and the Northern Arctic Ocean , catalog for the Iceland exhibition in the Austrian National Library; Verlag Überreuther, Vienna 1984.
  • Austria's contribution to Iceland research , Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1986. Neumann is represented with three articles in this book.
  • Playing the cello and its harmonic foundations , diploma thesis at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna , Vienna 1986
  • The Sound Series - Composition Theory according to Othmar Steinbauer , (Ed.), Peter Lang / European Publishing House of Sciences, Frankfurt am Main 2001, 2 volumes
  • Das Wesen der Tonalität , (Ed.), Together with Günther Friesinger , Ursula Petrik and Dominik Sedivy, edition mono / monochrom, Vienna 2006
  • Festschrift for Helmut Neumann on his 70th birthday , edited by Dominik Sedivy, VDM Verl. Müller, Saarbrücken 2008
  • Die Leiden der Neue Musik , (Ed.), Together with Günther Friesinger, Ursula Petrik and Dominik Sedivy, edition mono / monochrom, Vienna 2009
  • Serial Composition and Tonality. An Introduction to the Music of Hauer and Steinbauer , (Ed.), Together with Günther Friesinger, and Dominik Sedivy, edition mono / monochrom, Vienna 2011
  • Dinosaur joke: Funny poems with drawings and songs , together with Birgit Langer-Ellmauthaler, Friedrich Kreiner, edition L, Vienna 2012
  • Nuances. Positions on Music , (Ed.), Together with Günther Friesinger, edition mono / monochrom, Vienna 2013
  • Gunnar Dal - Small World Designs , Translator: Helmut Neumann, Ed. Günther Friesinger, edition mono / monochrom, Vienna 2017
notes published in print
  • "Seicht und Tief" , choir based on a text by Valdimar Briem, in choir booklet No. NE 61003 of the INÖK (Interest Group of Lower Austrian Composers).
  • Four performance pieces for clarinet, violoncello and piano, op.31, Lower Austria music edition NE 31003.
  • Sonata for violoncello and piano No. 1, op.33 , Lower Austria music edition NE 22007.
  • Sonata for violoncello and piano No. 2, op.74 , Lower Austria music edition NE 22015.
  • Haiku - song cycle based on texts by Winfried Bauernfeind, op. 80 , AR 8680 Verlag A. Robitschek, Vienna
  • Humanity Cantata (Kristnitökukantata) for 4 solos, choir, orchestra and organ, op. 81 , AR 9000 Verlag A. Robitschek, Vienna
  • Klosterneuburger Hornmusik, op. 88 , four sound pieces for horn and piano, dedicated to Roland Horvath. Publisher of the Wiener Waldhornverein WWV, No. P 188, 189, 191 and 192

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Neumann, Helmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian composer and music theorist
DATE OF BIRTH May 29, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna