Witten days for new chamber music

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The Witten Days for New Chamber Music are a music festival that has been organized jointly by the City of Witten and Westdeutscher Rundfunk since 1969 , is currently also funded by the Ministry for Urban Development and Housing, Culture and Sport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and supported by the Ruhr Area Municipal Association ( until 2004) or Regional Association Ruhr 2005 as well as the Regional Association Westphalia-Lippe . As a premiere festival, the Witten Days, which take place every year on the last weekend in April, enjoy international attention. The concerts learn about the broadcast on WDR 3 , the program exchange of the ARD and the EBU worldwide distribution.

history

As early as 1936, the composer Robert Ruthenfranz (1905–1970) initiated the “Witten Music Days”. It seems remarkable that a festival for contemporary music could still be brought to life in the Third Reich, since it was music that tended to be viewed as " degenerate ". However, this may be due to the skillful political action of Robert Ruthenfranz, who had been a member of the NSDAP since 1937 . After the war, he described his commitment to the Witten Days as an act of "silent opposition". An assessment of this section of history, the connection between the festival and cultural policy of the Third Reich, seems difficult at the present time.

As early as 1947, Robert Ruthenfranz continued the festival at irregular intervals (1947, 1948, 1950, 1953 and 1957); the Witten Music Days did not take place annually until 1960. The city of Witten participated in the music days from 1957 onwards with increasing sums every year. In 1964, the cultural office took over the event and financing (until the WDR started).

1969-1989

Pointing the way for the Witten Days, the commitment of the WDR , which from 1969 not only recorded the festival concerts, but also released Wilfried Brennecke , the editor for new chamber music at the time , was in future also responsible for the content of the Witten Days in addition to his work for radio wear. At this point in time, the “Witten Music Days” were renamed the “Witten Days for New Chamber Music”. In 1973, the WDR officially organized the final concert for the first time, advertised as the “Special Concert of West German Broadcasting”. From 1978 onwards, portrait concerts were a defining part of Brennecke's dramaturgy. From the beginning, one focus of his program work was on composers from the Soviet Union and other countries “ behind the iron curtain ”, making Witten the most important festival at which the international development of new music was presented in its full range. Many composers were heard in Witten for the first time in the western part of Europe. György Kurtág , for example, was known to the Witten public long before Pierre Boulez helped him achieve his international breakthrough years later. The most frequently listed composers of the Brennicke era include Kurtág, Paul-Heinz Dittrich , Helmut Lachenmann and Friedrich Goldmann . After 21 issues, Brennecke retired in 1989. To mark his departure, numerous composers wrote a total of 30 “farewell pieces” at Brennecke's suggestion, which supplemented the program in three “intermezzi”.

After 1990

Since 1990 the artistic director of the festival has been with the editor for new music of the WDR , Harry Vogt . Under his aegis, the festival expanded the varieties of chamber music included: in addition to sound installations and improvised music, aspects of musical theater were also increasingly taken into account. The number of premieres was also increased, but on the other hand numerous composers were permanently removed from the programs, which resulted in a clear shift in the coordinates. The interpreters play a major role in Vogt's conception, including trio and ensemble recherche , the Arditti String Quartet , Klangforum Wien , Ensemble Modern and others. a. New formations also premiered here in recent years, such as u. a. Ensemble Ascolta or Ensemble 2x2 . Under Vogt's leadership, the reputation of the Witten Days as one of the Donaueschingen of the Ruhr area” was consolidated .

The Witten In Nomine Broken Consort Book

On the occasion of Harry Vogt's tenth anniversary, ensemble recherche asked numerous composers for a surprise piece for the 1999 Witten Days. The composition should refer to a popular hymn of the 16th century by John Taverner . Since then, over 50 composers have accepted the ensemble's invitation, and their works have been featured in the Witten “in nomine” book for the occasion .

Crisis in 2012

After the over-indebted city of Witten was no longer allowed to make its € 40,000 contribution to the festival according to the state budget, the € 30,000 funding promised by the state also lapsed. The festival could only be saved by assuming the costs by WDR. According to a report by the NMZ , the financing is to be renegotiated for the future .

literature

  • Witten Days for New Chamber Music 1989. Documentation 1969–1989. Published by the city of Witten - Cultural Office, Witten 1989.
  • Markus Bruderreck: Music without a halo. The musician Robert Ruthenfranz and the history of the Witten days for new chamber music. In: Heinrich Schoppmeyer (Hrsg.): Yearbook of the association for local and local history in the county of Mark Witten. Volume 100. Dortmund 2000, pp. 185-207.
  • Frank Hentschel: The “Witten Days for New Chamber Music”. About the history and historiography of current music. Stuttgart 2007 ( Archive for Musicology . Supplement 62), ISBN 978-3-515-09109-1 .
  • Harry Vogt, Frank Hilberg (Ed.): Concert pitch of the present: Witten days for new chamber music. Hoffenheim 2009, ISBN 978-3-936000-56-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Harry Vogt / Frank Hilberg (eds.): Concert pitch of the present: Witten days for new chamber music, Hoffenheim 2009, p. 32 ff
  2. Frank Hentschel: The "Witten Days for New Chamber Music". On the history and historiography of current music, Stuttgart 2007, p. 179
  3. Georg Beck: String Concert: How the Witten Days for New Chamber Music get past the GAU again. Neue Musikzeitung , May 1, 2012, accessed December 27, 2014 .