Manfred Niehaus

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Manfred Niehaus (born September 18, 1933 in Cologne ; † February 19, 2013 ibid) was a German composer , violist , choir director and radio editor .

Life

Manfred Niehaus received his first violin lessons at the age of ten, and early attempts at composition were made during this time. From 1957 to 1962 he studied with Bernd Alois Zimmermann and was at times his assistant. At the same time, he wrote several stage music and worked with Manfred Berben , Gerd Heinz , Jürgen Flimm and Eberhard Feik , among others . On July 6, 1962, he took part in the Bonn stage for sensual perception - KONZIL with “Haikus for speaker-soprano-violin-piccolo-guitar-glasses”. From 1963 to 1965 he worked as a dramaturge at the Württembergische Landesbühne in Esslingen, after which he worked as a freelance director and composer . In 1966 he received the sponsorship award from the city of Cologne . From 1969 to 1972 Niehaus belonged to Group 8 , an association of eight Rhenish composers. On February 27, 1970, he organized the first open concert in the history of new music, a “convertible concert” that took place synchronously in five rooms of the Funkhaus on Wallrafplatz .

Manfred Niehaus repeatedly worked as an (improvising) instrumentalist with jazz musicians such as B. Manfred Schoof , Michael Sell or Theo Jörgensmann . From 1967 to 1977 he worked first as a lecturer, then as an editor for new music ; from 1978 to 1989 he was the head of the jazz editorial team in the music department of the Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne. With the support of Niehaus, an active jazz scene developed in Cologne. Niehaus also sponsored the Moers NewJazz Festival .

Manfred Niehaus - grave site Melaten cemetery

Since his retirement he has been working again as a freelance composer, arranger and director, partly in close cooperation with Dietmar Bonnen , Iwan Sokolow and Alexei Aigi ("Russian-German composers quartet"). Piano works by Manfred Niehaus were performed by the pianist Susanne Kessel . He also wrote symphonic concerts in which he featured improvising soloists such as Marilyn Crispell , Claudio Puntin or the Arcado String Trio . Niehaus also composed musical theater pieces such as the surrealistic-absurd operas Maldoror (1970) and Die Pataphysiker (1969), the children's opera Tartarin (1977) and the television opera Bartleby , which he himself staged for WDR in 1966. He also wrote numerous choral works. His legendary song cycle “An der Theke” consciously takes up local color, dialect-tinged sayings that have been processed in musical shorthands.

From 1971 to 1998 he also worked as a part-time choir director in Bergisch Gladbach. His work is published by the Dohr publishing house .

Niehaus died in 2013 at the age of 79 and was buried in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne (Hall 11 (F) No. 55).

Works (selection)

Piano works

  • Douze regards sur le cadavre de Satie (1994) pour le piano

Organ works

  • Drei Choralfantasien (1997) for organ
  • Reich of the Lord (1997) Choral Fantasy for Organ

Chamber music

Vocal works

  • Stabat mater (1994) for three according to or the same voices a cappella, solo or choral

literature

  • In: Alfred Baumgartner: Propylaea world of music - The composers - A lexicon in five volumes . Propylaen Verlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-549-07830-7 , pp. 170, volume 4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Laurentius: Obituary (WDR) ( Memento from October 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Gerd Hergen Lübben , Stage for Sensual Perception - KONZIL (Bonn, 1961–1963) / INFORMATION · MATERIALS: Programs · Plakate · Register , Bonn 1961/2012; P. 14 f., 20. (Accessed January 9, 2016.)
personal data
SURNAME Niehaus, Manfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer, violist, choir director and radio editor
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH 19th February 2013
Place of death Cologne