Georges Lentz
Encyclopedia
Georges Lentz is a contemporary composer
and sound art
ist, born in Luxembourg
in 1965, and is that country's internationally best known composer. Since 1990, he has been living in Sydney
, Australia
. Despite his relatively small output, he is now also considered one of Australia's leading composers.
on 22 October 1965, Georges Lentz grew up in the Luxembourg town of Echternach
. He later studied at the Paris Conservatoire (1982–1986) and the Musikhochschule Hannover
(1986–1990). In 1989, he began working on a cycle of compositions under the name "Caeli enarrant...
". Georges Lentz's works express his fascination with astronomy
as well as his love for the Australian Outback
and Aboriginal art, and reflect his spiritual and existential
beliefs, questions and doubts. His music is being recognised increasingly around the world, with performances at the Berlin Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Vienna
, Concertgebouw Amsterdam
, Wigmore Hall London
, Carnegie Hall New York
, Kennedy Center Washington, Suntory Hall Tokyo
, Sydney Opera House
. His orchestral
work Guyuhmgan, from part VII of this cycle (Mysterium), was the foremost recommended work at UNESCO
's 2002 International Rostrum of Composers
in Paris
. His latest compositions include a work for viola
, orchestra and electronics
called Monh written for German viola soloist Tabea Zimmermann
, as well as Ingwe for solo electric guitar
, written for the young Australian guitarist Zane Banks
.
Being given to self-doubt and reclusiveness, Georges Lentz rarely publishes new works and rarely accepts commissions. He is said to retire to an abbey
or the Australian desert
to find inspiration and compose, and does not give interviews. Lentz didn't attend the 2009 APRA
Classical Music Awards ceremony at the Sydney Opera House
to accept that year's top prize for Best Composition by an Australian Composer, instead sending guitarist friend Zane Banks to pick up the award and read out his acceptance speech (September 21, 2009). A 40-minute documentary about the birth of Ingwe which appeared on YouTube in May 2010 shows Lentz for a total of about 30 seconds.
In the 2012-2013 season, Georges Lentz will be in residence at the International Artists' Residence Villa Concordia in Bamberg
, Germany and will collaborate with the Bamberger Symphoniker.
Georges Lentz's music is published by Universal Edition
, Vienna.
(UK), where Lentz was a featured composer in 2006, introduced his music as "...an awestruck and almost fearful response to the beauties and mysteries of the universe; a massive, personal creative undertaking from which this intense, almost obsessive composer is painstakingly extracting concert works...a unique voice whose music is genuinely moving despite its brittle austerity and unearthliness, and captures some of the most evocative silences imaginable."
Georges Lentz’s music is highly original, while showing the influence of the French Spectralists
and, to some degree, the New Complexity
movement (unusual instrumental combinations, extended playing techniques etc.). It is often soft, fluctuates between polyphonic intricacy and fragile monody and sometimes contains extended silences. In its searing intensity and its often psychedelic colours, it has an almost 'visionary' slant to it.
Lentz’s scores of recent years (Mysterium) are written in an unusual rhythmic system, where each bar contains four beats, but the beats can be of different lengths. While it is not clear why Lentz has adopted this idiosyncratic system, the sophisticated textures and colours (occasionally with delicate layers of computer-generated sounds) superimposed over the top of these rigid “grids” render the music far from monotonous or square and frequently give it an extraordinary shimmering or 'twinkling' quality.
Another feature particularly of his recent orchestral works is a refined and instantly recognizable sense of harmony incorporating both microtonality and, now and then, an austere sense of 'twisted' tonality, with the occasional harmonic progression fleetingly reminiscent of Schumann
or Bruckner
. However, these chorale-like fragments are always brief and buried in the texture of the music, giving the impression of something “long forgotten”.
Georges Lentz has said that in recent years he has been increasingly interested in, and influenced by, the practices of musical improvisation
and sound art
.
His latest work, Ingwe, is a monumental 60-minute work for solo electric guitar. It contrasts sharply, in many ways, with Lentz's prior music and takes the electric guitar into dimensions previously unexplored in a 'classical' context. Ingwe also contains, for the first time in Lentz's output, a short section that relinquishes strict control over the material and gives improvisational freedom to the performer.
The composer's website states that he is currently working on a 'kind of string quartet', though what exactly he means by this is as yet unclear.
Because of its vast cyclical structure, Lentz's work has been described by British musicologist Chris Dench as "almost proustian
" in nature. For the same reasons it has occasionally been compared to Balzac
's literary cycle La Comédie Humaine. There seems however to be little relation between Lentz's music and these writers apart from the obvious structural parallels and perhaps a certain panoramic view of the world.
In the final analysis, Lentz’s music seems to be torn between intense feelings of awe and an overriding struggle with spiritual doubt and existential loneliness.
Ensemble 24 / Matthew Coorey
NAXOS
•Ingwe
Zane Banks
NAXOS
•Ngangkar & Guyuhmgan
Sydney Symphony Orchestra
/ Edo de Waart
ABC Classics
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and sound art
Sound art
Sound art is a diverse group of art practices that considers wide notions of sound, listening and hearing as its predominant focus. There are often distinct relationships forged between the visual and aural domains of art and perception by sound artists....
ist, born in Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
in 1965, and is that country's internationally best known composer. Since 1990, he has been living in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Despite his relatively small output, he is now also considered one of Australia's leading composers.
Life
Born in Luxembourg CityLuxembourg (city)
The city of Luxembourg , also known as Luxembourg City , is a commune with city status, and the capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg...
on 22 October 1965, Georges Lentz grew up in the Luxembourg town of Echternach
Echternach
Echternach is a commune with city status in the canton of Echternach, which is part of the district of Grevenmacher, in eastern Luxembourg. Echternach lies near the border with Germany, and is the oldest town in Luxembourg....
. He later studied at the Paris Conservatoire (1982–1986) and the Musikhochschule Hannover
Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover
Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover is an artistic-scientific university in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany. It dates back to 1897. From 1962 until 2010 it was named Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover , short: Musikhochschule Hannover...
(1986–1990). In 1989, he began working on a cycle of compositions under the name "Caeli enarrant...
Caeli enarrant...
Caeli enarrant... is the name given to a large-scale cycle of musical works by composer Georges Lentz . Parts II and VI of the cycle are as yet unpublished. Part VII is still in progress....
". Georges Lentz's works express his fascination with astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
as well as his love for the Australian Outback
Outback
The Outback is the vast, remote, arid area of Australia, term colloquially can refer to any lands outside the main urban areas. The term "the outback" is generally used to refer to locations that are comparatively more remote than those areas named "the bush".-Overview:The outback is home to a...
and Aboriginal art, and reflect his spiritual and existential
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
beliefs, questions and doubts. His music is being recognised increasingly around the world, with performances at the Berlin Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Vienna
Konzerthaus, Vienna
The Konzerthaus in Vienna was opened 1913. It is situated in the third district just at the edge of the first district in Vienna. Since it was founded it has always tried to emphasise both tradition and innovative musical styles.In 1890 the first ideas for a Haus für Musikfeste came about...
, Concertgebouw Amsterdam
Concertgebouw
The Concertgebouw is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch term "concertgebouw" literally translates into English as "concert building"...
, Wigmore Hall London
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...
, Carnegie Hall New York
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
, Kennedy Center Washington, Suntory Hall Tokyo
Suntory Hall
The Suntory Hall is a concert hall complex consisting of the "Main Hall" and the "Small Hall" located in the Ark Hills complex, near the U.S. Embassy and TV Asahi in the Akasaka district of northern Minato, a ward in Tokyo, Japan...
, Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
. His orchestral
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
work Guyuhmgan, from part VII of this cycle (Mysterium), was the foremost recommended work at UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
's 2002 International Rostrum of Composers
International Rostrum of Composers
The International Rostrum of Composers is an annual forum organized by the International Music Council that offers broadcasting representatives the opportunity to exchange and publicize pieces of contemporary classical music...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. His latest compositions include a work for viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
, orchestra and electronics
Music technology
Music technology is a term that refers to all forms of technology involved with the musical arts, particularly the use of electronic devices and computer software to facilitate playback, recording, composition, storage and performance. This subject is taught at many different educational levels,...
called Monh written for German viola soloist Tabea Zimmermann
Tabea Zimmermann
Tabea Zimmermann, born on October 8, 1966 in Lahr, , is a German violist.She began learning to play the viola at the age of three, and commenced piano studies at age five...
, as well as Ingwe for solo electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, written for the young Australian guitarist Zane Banks
Zane Banks
Zane Banks is an Australian guitarist, from Sydney who plays both classical and electric guitars in a variety of musical genres. Banks premiered the 1-hour long solo electric guitar work, Ingwe, by composer Georges Lentz.-Biography:...
.
Being given to self-doubt and reclusiveness, Georges Lentz rarely publishes new works and rarely accepts commissions. He is said to retire to an abbey
Abbey
An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...
or the Australian desert
Outback
The Outback is the vast, remote, arid area of Australia, term colloquially can refer to any lands outside the main urban areas. The term "the outback" is generally used to refer to locations that are comparatively more remote than those areas named "the bush".-Overview:The outback is home to a...
to find inspiration and compose, and does not give interviews. Lentz didn't attend the 2009 APRA
Australasian Performing Right Association
The Australasian Performing Right Association is a copyright collective representing New Zealand and Australian composers, lyricists and music publishers. The association's head offices located in Sydney Australia, and it has branch offices in Auckland, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth...
Classical Music Awards ceremony at the Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
to accept that year's top prize for Best Composition by an Australian Composer, instead sending guitarist friend Zane Banks to pick up the award and read out his acceptance speech (September 21, 2009). A 40-minute documentary about the birth of Ingwe which appeared on YouTube in May 2010 shows Lentz for a total of about 30 seconds.
In the 2012-2013 season, Georges Lentz will be in residence at the International Artists' Residence Villa Concordia in Bamberg
Bamberg
Bamberg is a city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg is one of the few cities in Germany that was not destroyed by World War II bombings because of a nearby Artillery Factory that prevented planes from...
, Germany and will collaborate with the Bamberger Symphoniker.
Georges Lentz's music is published by Universal Edition
Universal Edition
Universal Edition is a classical music publishing firm. Founded in 1901 in Vienna, and originally intended to provide the core classical works and educational works to the Austrian market...
, Vienna.
Music
The Vale of Glamorgan FestivalVale of Glamorgan Festival
The Vale of Glamorgan Festival is a contemporary music festival based in and around the county of Vale of Glamorgan, Wales and held annually during September...
(UK), where Lentz was a featured composer in 2006, introduced his music as "...an awestruck and almost fearful response to the beauties and mysteries of the universe; a massive, personal creative undertaking from which this intense, almost obsessive composer is painstakingly extracting concert works...a unique voice whose music is genuinely moving despite its brittle austerity and unearthliness, and captures some of the most evocative silences imaginable."
Georges Lentz’s music is highly original, while showing the influence of the French Spectralists
Spectral music
Spectral music is a musical composition practice where compositional decisions are often informed by the analysis of sound spectra. Computer-based sound spectrum analysis using tools like DFT, FFT, and spectrograms...
and, to some degree, the New Complexity
New Complexity
In music, the New Complexity is a term dating from the 1980s, principally applied to composers seeking a "complex, multi-layered interplay of evolutionary processes occurring simultaneously within every dimension of the musical material" ....
movement (unusual instrumental combinations, extended playing techniques etc.). It is often soft, fluctuates between polyphonic intricacy and fragile monody and sometimes contains extended silences. In its searing intensity and its often psychedelic colours, it has an almost 'visionary' slant to it.
Lentz’s scores of recent years (Mysterium) are written in an unusual rhythmic system, where each bar contains four beats, but the beats can be of different lengths. While it is not clear why Lentz has adopted this idiosyncratic system, the sophisticated textures and colours (occasionally with delicate layers of computer-generated sounds) superimposed over the top of these rigid “grids” render the music far from monotonous or square and frequently give it an extraordinary shimmering or 'twinkling' quality.
Another feature particularly of his recent orchestral works is a refined and instantly recognizable sense of harmony incorporating both microtonality and, now and then, an austere sense of 'twisted' tonality, with the occasional harmonic progression fleetingly reminiscent of Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
or Bruckner
Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length...
. However, these chorale-like fragments are always brief and buried in the texture of the music, giving the impression of something “long forgotten”.
Georges Lentz has said that in recent years he has been increasingly interested in, and influenced by, the practices of musical improvisation
Musical improvisation
Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians...
and sound art
Sound art
Sound art is a diverse group of art practices that considers wide notions of sound, listening and hearing as its predominant focus. There are often distinct relationships forged between the visual and aural domains of art and perception by sound artists....
.
His latest work, Ingwe, is a monumental 60-minute work for solo electric guitar. It contrasts sharply, in many ways, with Lentz's prior music and takes the electric guitar into dimensions previously unexplored in a 'classical' context. Ingwe also contains, for the first time in Lentz's output, a short section that relinquishes strict control over the material and gives improvisational freedom to the performer.
The composer's website states that he is currently working on a 'kind of string quartet', though what exactly he means by this is as yet unclear.
Because of its vast cyclical structure, Lentz's work has been described by British musicologist Chris Dench as "almost proustian
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
" in nature. For the same reasons it has occasionally been compared to Balzac
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
's literary cycle La Comédie Humaine. There seems however to be little relation between Lentz's music and these writers apart from the obvious structural parallels and perhaps a certain panoramic view of the world.
In the final analysis, Lentz’s music seems to be torn between intense feelings of awe and an overriding struggle with spiritual doubt and existential loneliness.
Caeli enarrant... (1989 to date)
| Part | Subtitle | Year | Instrumentation | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | 1989–1998 | orchestra | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| III | 1990–2000 | 12 strings, 3 percussionists, 1 boy soprano | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| IV | 1991–2000 | string quartet, 4 suspended cymbals | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| V | 1989–1992 | prepared piano | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| VII Mysterium |
Birrung | 1997–2004 | >- | Ngangkar | 1998–2000 | >- | Nguurraa | 2000–2001 | >- | Guyuhmgan | 2000–2007 | >- | Alkere | 2002–2004 | >- | Monh | 2001–2005 | >- | Ingwe | 2003–2009 | >- | String Quartet(s) | 2000- | |
Recordings
•"Caeli enarrant..." III, "Caeli enarrant..." IV, Birrung & NguurraaEnsemble 24 / Matthew Coorey
Matthew Coorey
Matthew Coorey is an Australian conductor based in the United Kingdom.He began his conducting career in 2002 when he took up the position of Junior Fellow at the Royal Northern College of Music. In the same year he was a finalist in the Maazel-Vilar Conducting Competition and later a prize-winner...
NAXOS
•Ingwe
Zane Banks
Zane Banks
Zane Banks is an Australian guitarist, from Sydney who plays both classical and electric guitars in a variety of musical genres. Banks premiered the 1-hour long solo electric guitar work, Ingwe, by composer Georges Lentz.-Biography:...
NAXOS
•Ngangkar & Guyuhmgan
Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Sydney Symphony Orchestra
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra , commonly known as the Sydney Symphony, is an Australian symphony orchestra based in Sydney...
/ Edo de Waart
Edo de Waart
Edo de Waart is a Dutch conductor, and the Music Director of both the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra....
ABC Classics
ABC Classics
ABC Classics is the classical music record label within the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It is internationally recognised as Australia's premier classical music label, with a catalogue of more than 500 titles...
Awards and nominations
- Paul Lowin Orchestral Prize 1997 - "Caeli enarrant..." I
- UNESCOUNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
International Rostrum of ComposersInternational Rostrum of ComposersThe International Rostrum of Composers is an annual forum organized by the International Music Council that offers broadcasting representatives the opportunity to exchange and publicize pieces of contemporary classical music...
, Paris, 2002: Top Recommended Composition - Guyuhmgan - APRA Awards of 2009APRA Awards of 2009The Australasian Performing Right Association Awards of 2009 are a series of awards which include the APRA Music Awards, Classical Music Awards, and Screen Music Awards. The APRA Music Awards ceremony occurred on 23 June at the Peninsula in Melbourne, they were presented by APRA and the...
: Best Composition by an Australian Composer - Monh
External links
- Georges Lentz's website
- Georges Lentz biography and works on the UE website (publisher)