Erhard Karkoschka

Erhard Karkoschka(March 6, 1923 – June 26, 2009),was a Germancomposer,scholarandconductor.Karkoschka was born in the German linguistic enclave of Moravská Ostrava,Czechoslovakia,and subsequent to World War II became a violinist for the Bayreuth Symphony Orchestra, leading to studies in composition, musicology and conducting at the Musikhochschule inStuttgartand theUniversity of Tübingen,Germany.His doctoral thesis was an analysis of the compositional techniques in the early works ofAnton Webern.

From 1948 until 1968, he directed the choir and orchestra at theUniversity of Hohenheim,the former Agricultural College, and the "Hohenheimer Schloßkonzerte". In 1958, he taught at the State University of Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart (Staatlichen Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart).Then in 1962, he founded hisEnsemble for New Musik,which eventually broke away from the school in 1976 and was renamed theContac-Ensemble.In 1973, he became the director of theStudio forElectronic Musicin the StuttgartHochschuleuntil his retirement in 1987.

Erhard Karkoschka wrote a book onmusical notation,published in German, English and Japanese; "Das Schriftbild der neuen Musik", 1965. {English trans.: "Notation in New Music",London/New York 1972; Japanese: ZEN-ON Music Company Ltd., Tokyo 1978; Chinese translation 1999}. The extent of his compositions includes works for orchestra,chamber musicandscenic musicfor various instruments, organ works, works for electronic instruments,cantatas,motets,psalmsandsongs,as well as "instructions" for group improvisation, and "music for musicians and audience". He died in Stuttgart in 2009.

Works

• Symphonic Evolution of two personal themes(1953)
• God is a King! for mixed voices for words from the 47th, 4 and 74 Psalm(1954)
• Symphonia Choralis on "Veni Sancte Spiritus"(1957)
• Small Concerto for Violin and Chamber Orchestra(1965)
• Four stages(1965)
• Triptychon about B-A-C-H [organ](1966)
• Variations for anything original theme and out of(1974)
• Musical fountain,multimedia project (1975)
• Teleologies(1978)
• Allklang(1978)
• Unfolding(1982/83)
• Chamber Music for Orchestra(1983)
• From death. From the rebirth,based on texts byMartin Luther(1983)
• Wind Poem(1987)
• Sound time spectacle after one of Skriptogramm fromKurt Leonhard(1988)
• Orpheus choirs for the metamorphoses ofPublius Ovidius Naso(1989)
• Orpheus? Or Hadesheight, chamber opera (1990–92)
• Heading-between two Schubert Ländler (1994)
• N quarto: Papafrebe(1995)
• Celan Variations I-V, poems byPaul Celan(1996–98)
• Sound woodcut time in three sceneson poems byGünter Sopper(2004)

Writings

• Das Schriftbild der neuen Musik.Celle: Moeck 1966. English edition (translation by Ruth Koenig):Notation in new music: a critical guide to interpretation and realisation.London [a. o.]: Universal Edition 1972. Japanese edition, (translation byYoshirō Irino):Gendai ongaku no kifu.Tokyo: Zen'ongakufushuppansha 1978. ISBN 4-11800-181-0, ISBN 9784118001814
• Neue Musik: Analyse.Herrenberg: Döring 1976
• (with Hubert Haas)Neue Musik hören. Eine Hörerziehung mit neuer Musik in Theorie und Praxis.Textbook and cassette. Rohrdorf: Rohrdorfer Musikverlag Schmid 1981
• Essay on Webern's use of the guitar in his Opera 10, 18 and 19Nova Giulianiad, Volume 3/Nr. 11-12/88

External links

• The Erhard Karkoschka Home Page
• Erhard Karkoschka in German Wikipedia
• Aspects to Group Improvisation
• Notation in New Music