Martin Grütter

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Martin Grütter (born August 24, 1983 in Trostberg ) is a German composer and pianist .

Life

Martin Grütter grew up in Burghausen in Upper Bavaria and received his basic musical training in the subjects of piano , violin and composition in Salzburg and Munich, among others. From 2004 he studied composition and electronic music in Berlin at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler with Hanspeter Kyburz and Wolfgang Heiniger . He also took part in master classes with Brian Ferneyhough and Stefano Gervasoni , among others . He was a fellow of the International Ensemble Modern Academy and the Academy Opera Today theDeutsche Bank Foundation .

His works are regularly performed by formations such as the Ensemble intercontemporain , the Ensemble Modern , the Ensemble Mosaik , the Thürmchen-Ensemble or the Divertimento Ensemble at festivals and concerts in Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Switzerland. He also appears as a piano and keyboard improviser and performer.

He has received several prizes for his work, including at the composition competition Vorhof der Völker (2013), the Mahler composition competition Vienna (2010), the international composition competition of the MusikTriennale Cologne (2010), the competition In memoriam György Ligeti (2007) and the Hanns- Eisler Prize for Composition and Interpretation of Contemporary Music (2007). He lives as a freelance composer in Berlin.

music

Many of Martin Grütter's works deal with performance and virtuosity on stage. Characteristic of his aesthetic approach are exaggerations and extremes, but also their ironic relativization: “The pull into the gigantic, into measurelessness, into exaggeration, which, however, immediately into its opposite, into exaggeration, caricature, grimace, exposure can turn over - superhumanity and not having grown up as two views of a coin ” .

Means of exaggeration in Grütter's music are often fast tempo, rapidly changing, driving rhythms , high volume and exuberant sound cascades, as well as the use of electronics and computers . In his work in progress Indra Medusa Caligula he has been constructing a keyboard setup (called "hyperklavier") since 2007, in which the pianist can control the greatest possible number of tones and playing parameters. In his audio-video document Best Schumann Ever (2009/10) he made an extremely virtuoso (and in reality hardly feasible) interpretation of Robert Schumann's piano work Presto Passionato WoO 5/2 from many small mosaic stones . His instrumental works often integrate a wide range of stylistic and emotional forms of expression and use them to build large-scale, theatrical dramaturgies.

Quote

The virtuoso masters his craft in an exemplary manner, but he seeks to break boundaries. (...) He tries to get closer and closer to the limit of the possible: a limit which, because it is surrounded by a gray area, he can sometimes imperceptibly cross, only to snap back to safety in the next moment, to be around it again to approach, etc., and thus to perform an oscillation on the edge of what is just-still-possible, which constitutes the fascination of the virtuoso.

Catalog of works (selection)

  • STUPOR MUNDI UNCONCEALED for electric guitar, piano, drums and electronics (2006)
  • The language of jugglers for voice, ensemble and electronics, along with an introduction with bar piano accompaniment (2007/08)
  • Mandala Mossad for nine wind instruments, three percussionists and piano (2008)
  • Siebenkreiswerk for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano (2008)
  • sacred river ALPH's meanders mazy mad & measureless for thirteen instruments (2007, rev. 2009)
  • Neanderthal Rocket universal music for a double piano performer (2009/10)
  • Low flight for large ensemble (2011)
  • Messer Engel Atem Kling for string trio (2011)
  • Circle game for flute, clarinet, piano and percussion (2011)
  • Devil's thriller for piano solo (2011/12)
  • Heroes of Feedback , interactive duo shooter for trumpet, percussion and live electronics (2012)
  • ORLANDO , music theater for singers, actors, choir, large ensemble and electronics, libretto: Judith Pielsticker (2011–13)
  • Vitus dance for a can performer and 17 instruments (2013)

Text:

  • The lost saber of honor of the FL - How virtuosity arises and where it can lead. Diploma thesis, University of Music "Hanns Eisler", Berlin 2010. Full text
  • Aesthetics of Interaction - Master's thesis, University of Music “Hanns Eisler”, Berlin 2013. Full text

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Program for sacred river ALPH's meanders mazy mad & measureless
  2. ↑ The lost saber of honor of the FL - How virtuosity arises and where it can lead. Diploma thesis, University of Music "Hanns Eisler", Berlin 2010, p. 24, full text cf. here
personal data
SURNAME Grütter, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer and pianist
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1983
PLACE OF BIRTH Trostberg , Germany