Peter Michael Hamel

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Peter Michael Hamel (2011)

Peter Michael Hamel (born July 15, 1947 in Munich ) is a German composer who, with his works and as an improviser on the piano in close contact with well-known musicians from non-European cultures, has developed independent approaches to integrative music.

Life and work

Peter Michael Hamel had piano lessons with his great-aunt Amalie Jensen-Pletsch from the age of five, learned violin, cello and horn and, after taking private composition lessons with Fritz Büchtger, studied composition with Günter Bialas at the Munich University of Music , as well as musicology with Thrasybulos Georgiades in Munich and Carl Dahlhaus in West Berlin. At the same time he was engaged in free jazz , political cabaret , musique concrète and wrote music for drama and television plays for productions by his father Kurt Peter Hamel (1911–1979).

Between 1969 and 1974 he mainly worked with American composers, such as John Cage , Morton Feldman and Terry Riley , took part in Karlheinz Stockhausen's seminars and as a collaborator with Josef Anton Riedl in his multimedia projects, improvising with jazz musicians, but also with Luc Ferrari or Carl Orff . He also worked in the group Between , which he co-founded , whose debut album was called Access in 1971 and which attracted attention in 1973 with Dharana and in 1974 with the jazz and lyric production Hesse Between Music . Hamel also made numerous records under his own name, mostly using electronic means, but also on the prepared piano and organ (including Organum , Colors of Time , Bardo and Transition ). From 1973 to 1978 he stayed in India five times to study traditional music. His teachers included Pandit Patekar (North Indian Khyal singing), Ustad Imrat Khan ( Sitar ), Pandit Sankha Chatterjee ( Tabla ), Pandit Ram Narayan ( Sarangi ), Srimati Subbhulaksmi (Carnatic music ) and the "Dagar Brothers" (North Indian Dhrupad - Singing). He also devoted himself intensively to studying ethnomusicology and absorbed the musical impressions of foreign cultures on numerous tours around the world.

As a scholarship holder at the Villa Massimo in Rome , Hamel wrote his first full-length stage work Ein Menschentraum in 1979/80 , premiered in 1981 at the Kassel State Theater by Dieter Dorn . In 1987 the lyric opera Kassandra followed for the FRANKFURT FESTE. His first symphony Die Lichtung was premiered in 1988 by the Munich Philharmonic under Sergiu Celibidache , followed in 1990 by a violin concerto for Christiane Edinger in the musica viva series in Munich. For the 100th birthday of the Munich Philharmonic in 1995, Missa was written , followed by oratorical works such as Passion and Human Rights . Perhaps his most radical music theater project, Shoah , also as a radio composition (BR / WDR), deals with the Holocaust (1996).

From 1994 to 1996 Hamel taught as a visiting professor at the Graz University of Music. From 1997 to 2012, he succeeded György Ligeti as a professor for composition and music theory at the Hamburg University of Music and Theater . In 1998 he was appointed a member of the Free Academy of the Arts in Hamburg , where he was chairman of the music section from 2001 to 2012. With his Intercultural Music Institute, founded in Aschau im Chiemgau in 1998 , he created a forum for the dialogue of cultures , for harmonic basic research, acoustic art, group improvisation and ethnomusicology that goes beyond the boundaries of academic operations .

Hamel became known as an author with the book Through Music to Self (1976; revised version 1980), in which the connections between human consciousness and music are described. As a result, Hamel was considered one of the forerunners of the New Age movement , from which he always distanced himself, especially since he appeared with more complex symphonic works. He wrote about his composition "Maitreya" and his encounter with Anagarika Govinda in his 2016 contribution to the Festschrift for Volker Zotz .

stylistics

Hamel plays and composes what he himself describes as "integrative" music, which has its roots in interculturalism and which in the political sense sees itself as an alternative to the attitude of colonialism . On the basis of extensive knowledge of various European and non-European forms of performance from old and new times and in a deliberately created demarcation from the stylistic norms of the Central European-oriented avant-garde in music, "in the late 1960s from his experience with the then avant-garde techniques" "Independent position" developed. Hamel's music is to be understood as integrative insofar as it allows all external influences to come to an indissoluble connection on the path of adaptation with one's own. The own and the foreign are not seen as opposites, but rather as different manifestations of one and the same original musicality, which is to be exposed and traced in the new piece of music to be created. The composer comments: "This spiritually new music is about learning from all musical traditions, tracking down forgotten backgrounds and bringing the original function of music, its connection to deepest human experiences, back into light." Stefan Fricke defines the ideal of integrative music as the unity of intellectually comprehensible and mythically or magically experienceable basic layers. In this respect, we also agree with Michael Töpel, who describes Hamels improvising and composing as a "process of self-discovery". In this way, the composer found valuable food for thought in the writings of the Swiss cultural philosopher Jean Gebser .

Hamel's music cannot be assigned to one of the main musical directions of the 20th century due to its stylistic independence: "The fact that Peter Michael Hamel does not fit into any of the common drawers into which one would like to classify art and its artists is has always been its unchangeable mark. " The starting point of his development can be found in the contemporary music of the late 1960s, which he got to know in the course of his music studies. The fact that he carefully studied the works of the Viennese School (Modernism) and other important composers of the 20th century (especially Béla Bartók ) , as was customary in the course of the reorientation after 1945 , is one of the things that goes without saying that his personality, which is geared towards openness, goes without saying . But his heart seemed "at that time not to beat for the post-Webernian traditions that developed so dominantly in Germany," remembers Terry Riley, who first made music with Hamel in 1972. Hamel countered the syntactic links in classical-romantic form thinking early on with his own attempts with so-called "open forms" and replaced the motivic-thematic events with repetitive patterns. This inevitably resulted in overlaps with the music of so-called minimalism , to which he had an inner relationship based on personal encounters with musicians like Terry Riley .

Hamel's compositions, fixed in musical notation, are often based on improvising on the instrument. Hamel sees close connections between improvisation and a work that has emerged from it: "Improvisation means tonal realization of what has just been conceived, so it means spontaneous formulation of the momentary idea repeatable." As a result, the performance of such pieces often has a special effect, in that the listener gets from experiencing the regularly passing time into a state that is felt as "timelessness". Since it is less about "thinking along" motivic-thematic processes than about immersing yourself in the sound events, traditional form models take a back seat and "only serve as a framework for sounds that no longer have any direction." Hamel's pieces go far beyond the stage of improvisations put on paper and are subject to a compositional calculation based on a keen musical instinct. This, however, is more shaped by general ideas than by observance of any rules and norms, and this is how Hamel's music experiences a high degree of authenticity. The tonal appearance of the music also plays a central role. Having grown up with the traditional western musical instruments organ, piano, violin, violoncello and horn and still working on the piano as an interpreter of his own pieces to this day, he made use of the sound enhancements of the prepared piano at an early age and was thus sonically close of Southeast Asian gamelan music, the practice and structures of which he got to know better in ethnomusical studies. The suggestions he received from non-European musicians who performed during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich and presented a cross-section of international folklore on the " Olympic Games Street " organized by Josef Anton Riedl can hardly be overestimated . The performances of the "African and South American rhythm groups" complemented what the young composer had heard and experienced during the "World Cultures and Modern Art" series of events also held in the summer of 1972. He got to know the creative handling of unusual sounds and resounding materials primarily through his collaboration with the all-rounder Josef Anton Riedl, whose improvised performances have attracted attention all over the world since the late 1960s. Riedl also gave Hamel access to electronic means of sound processing , which he also knew how to use in the context of his band appearances for sound effects with a psychedelic effect. Hamel's curiosity about instruments that are less well known in Western music and that sound "fresh", as it were, remains unbroken to this day. Inspired by their tonality, his ingenuity always comes up with original structures and shapes.

Awards

Numerous prizes honored Hamel's work, including sponsorship prizes from the cities of Bonn (1974), Stuttgart (1975) and Munich (1977), the GEMA Foundation (1981), and two “Rostrum of Composers”, Paris. He was also " Composer in Residence " at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in 1988. In 1988 he received the Schwabing Art Prize . On the occasion of his 60th birthday, Hamel was awarded the Gerhard Maasz Prize for his choral music, elected to the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts (Hamel has been its music director since autumn 2016) and honored with the publication of his selected writings ( Ein neue Ton ). In 2008 he was awarded the Gerda and Günter Bialas Prize . On the occasion of his academic farewell, he received an honorary doctorate from the Hamburg University of Music in June 2012 . In May 2018, Hamel was elected as a new member of the music section of the Berlin Academy of the Arts .

Works (selection)

A detailed catalog of works is contained in: Peter Michael Hamel. (= Composers in Bavaria. Volume 61).

  • Triophony for percussion and string trio (1966)
  • Sophrosyne for ensemble (1970)
  • Mandala for prepared piano (1972)
  • Samma Samadhi for acc. Choir, orchestra, etc. soloist. Improvisation (1972)
  • Dharana f. Orchestra, soloist. Improvisation and tape (1972)
  • Dhyana f. according to Choir and improvisation group (1972)
  • Diaphainon in memoriam Jean Gebser f. Orchestra (1973/74)
  • Maitreya attempt at integral music f. Orchestra (1974)
  • Sound spiral f. 13 players or three orchestral groups (1976/77)
  • 1st string quartet (1980)
  • Shape f. Orchestra (1980)
  • Semiramis music in three parts f. Orchestra (1982/83)
  • Kassandra (opera) f. Mezzo-soprano, 6-st. Women's choir u. Orchestra; Texts: Erich Arendt (1984/86)
  • 2nd string quartet (1985/86)
  • The clearing - Symphony in 6 parts f. large orchestra (1985/87)
  • Violin Concerto (1986/89)
  • Shoah - The Final Solution Musical theater; Texts: Gerhard Durlacher, Ruth Klüger. Nelly Sachs (1987/96)
  • From the sound of life - diary f. Piano (1990/93)
  • 3rd string quartet (1991/93)
  • Morton Feldman in my life f. Violin, flute, marimbaph. u. Piano (1994/95)
  • Five goals f. Orchestra (1995/96)
  • Passion (oratorio) f. Solos, speakers, choirs, etc. Orchestra (1996)
  • 4th String Quartet (Nachklänge) (2000)
  • 2nd symphony "The Resolution" f. Choir and orchestra (2000-07)
  • Dream time five small pieces f. Alto flute (2005)
  • Piano quintet in 7 parts; for the 80th birthday of Hans Otte (2006)
  • YÜ - Die Enteisterung , Septet for Asian Art Ensemble (2010)
  • 4th symphony "last minute" f. Orchestra (2013)
  • 5th String Quartet (Hong - The Duration) (2015)
  • 5th symphony "Anamnesis" f. Orchestra (2015)
  • So I came under the German singing scene from Hölderlin's "Hyperion" f. lyric tenor and prepared piano (2012/2016)
  • On playing success - piano pieces for improvising, 3 volumes (2012-2017)
  • Liberation through hearing for speakers and 8 instruments (2017/18)

Book publications

  • Peter Michael Hamel: Through music to the self - How to experience and experience music in a new way. Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, 1980, ISBN 3-423-01589-6 .
  • Peter Michael Hamel: A New Tone - Selected Writings for a Whole Music. Allitera Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-86520-261-1 .

See also

Literature (selection)

  • Frank Helfrich: Peter Michael Hamel. In: Contemporary composers. Loose-leaf edition. edition text + kritik, Munich, as of 2005.
  • Michael Töpel: Peter Michael Hamel. In: Music in the past and present. Person part Volume 8, Bärenreiter, Kassel et al. 2002, ISBN 3-7618-1110-1 , Sp. 474–477.
  • Stefan Fricke: Peter Michael Hamel. In: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol 10, London / New York 2001, ISBN 0-333-60800-3 , pp. 724-725.
  • Frank Helfrich: Between the Worlds - For composing by Peter Michael Hamel. Pfau-Verlag, Saarbrücken 1999, ISBN 3-89727-032-3 .
  • Theresa Henkel, Franzpeter Messmer (ed.): Peter Michael Hamel. (= Composers in Bavaria. Volume 61). Allitera, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-86906-366-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Hamel. In: Fred Hamel: Musica. Volume 46, Bärenreiter-Verlag, 1992, p. 62.
  2. ↑ Peter Michael Hamel: Through music to the self - How one can experience and experience music anew. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich / Kassel 1980.
  3. ↑ Peter Michael Hamel: Maitreya for Lama Govinda. In: Friedhelm Köhler , Friederike Migneco , Benedikt Maria Trappen (eds.): Freedom. Awareness. Responsibility. Festschrift for Volker Zotz. Munich 2016, pp. 127–136.
  4. ↑ a b Michael Töpel: Peter Michael Hamel. In: Music in the past and present. Kassel et al. 2002, Volume 8, Col. 476.
  5. ↑ Peter Michael Hamel: Through music to the self. Munich / Kassel 1980, p. 9.
  6. ^ Stefan Fricke: Peter Michael Hamel. In: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Volume 10, London / New York 2001, p. 725.
  7. ↑ Peter Hanser-Strecker, In: Peter Michael Hamel: A new tone. Allitera, Munich 2007, p. 7.
  8. ↑ Terry Riley in: Peter Michael Hamel: A new tone. Allitera, Munich 2007, p. 11.
  9. ↑ Konrad Böhmer: On the theory of the open form in new music. Tonos, Darmstadt 1967.
  10. ↑ Peter Michael Hamel: Improvisation as a source of inspiration. In: Composers in Bavaria. Pp. 36-37.
  11. ↑ Klaus Hinrich Stahmer in: Composers in. P. 79.
  12. ↑ Peter Michael Hamel: Through music to the self. Munich 1980, p. 38.
  13. ↑ Academy of Künste14 welcomed new members. , Deutschlandfunk from July 10, 2018, accessed on July 10, 2018.
  14. ^ Theresa Henkel, Franzpeter Messmer (ed.): Peter Michael Hamel. (= Composers in Bavaria. Volume 61). Allitera, Munich 2017, pp. 147–158.
personal data
SURNAME Hamel, Peter Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer
DATE OF BIRTH July 15, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich