Life

Bialas was born in Bielschowitz (today Bielszowice, a subdivision of Ruda Śląska

Ruda Slaska

Ruda Śląska is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. It is a district in the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union, a metropolis with a population of 2 million. It is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica river ....

) in Prussian Silesia. The adolescent Bialas received lessons in piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 and music theory

Music theory

Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...

 from Fritz Lubrich, a former student of Max Reger

Max Reger

Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger was a German composer, conductor, pianist, organist, and academic teacher.-Life:...

, in Kattowitz (Katowice)

Katowice

Katowice is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, on the Kłodnica and Rawa rivers . Katowice is located in the Silesian Highlands, about north of the Silesian Beskids and about southeast of the Sudetes Mountains.It is the central district of the Upper Silesian Metropolis, with a population of 2...

 between 1922 and 1925. After graduating from the German Minderheiten

German minority in Poland

The registered German minority in Poland consists of 152,900 people, according to a 2002 census.The German language is used in certain areas in Opole Voivodeship , where most of the minority resides...

-Gymnasium

Gymnasium (school)

A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...

 in Kattowitz in 1926, he studied musicology

Musicology

Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...

, Germanistics

German studies

German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents, and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German history, and German politics in addition to the...

, and history

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

 at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau from 1927 to 1931. He then proceeded to study music at the Prussian Academy of the Arts

Akademie der Künste

The Akademie der Künste, Berlin is an arts institution in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1696 by Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg as the Prussian Academy of Arts, an academic institution where members could meet and discuss and share ideas...

 in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 and subsequently taught at the Ursuline

Ursuline

The word Ursuline is used to describe the following:* The Ursulines, a Catholic religious order.Several schools named after the Ursuline religious order, including several named Ursuline Academy.Ursuline Academy or similar may refer to:...

 Girls' School in Breslau-Karlowitz from 1934 to 1937. He pursued further studies in composition

Musical composition

Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...

 with Max Trapp

Max Trapp

Hermann Emil Alfred Max Trapp was a German composer and teacher. A prestigious figure in the Berlin cultural scene during the 1930s, Trapp, amongst others in the Nazi influenced scene, was regularly invited to contribute to concert programs and competitions.Trapp was born in Berlin and attended...

 in Berlin. Through some of his Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

n friends, he made the acquaintance of Sergiu Celibidache

Sergiu Celibidache

- Biography :Celibidache was born in Roman, Romania, and began his studies in music with the piano, after which he studied music, philosophy and mathematics in Bucharest, Romania and then in Paris...

 and prepared for the entrance examination to the Berliner Musikhochschule

Berlin University of the Arts

The Universität der Künste Berlin, UdK is a public art school in Berlin, Germany, one of the four universities in the city...

.

In 1939, he became a lecturer in music theory and composition at the Institute for Music Education at Breslau University. After his German military service and Allied captivity from 1941 to 1945, he and his wife, the singer Gerda Specht, had to flee Silesia

Expulsion of Germans after World War II

The later stages of World War II, and the period after the end of that war, saw the forced migration of millions of German nationals and ethnic Germans from various European states and territories, mostly into the areas which would become post-war Germany and post-war Austria...

. They settled in Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

 in 1946 and Bialas found work conducting

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

 the Munich Bach-Verein. From 1947 to 1959, he taught composition at the Nordwestdeutschen Musikakademie, now the Hochschule für Musik Detmold

Hochschule für Musik Detmold

The University of Music Detmold is one of Germany's leading university-level schools of music, situated in Detmold, Germany.- Academics :...

. He transferred to become a professor at the State Academy of Music

Hochschule für Musik und Theater München

The Hochschule für Musik und Theater München is one of the most respected traditional vocational universities in Germany specialising in music and the performing arts. The seat of the Hochschule is the former Führerbau of the NSDAP, located at Arcisstraße 12, on the eastern side of the Königsplatz...

 in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

 in 1959, where he remained until his retirement in 1972.

For his compositions, Bialas was recognized with many prizes and honors, including the Großer Preis für Musik des Landes NRW (1954), the Münchner Musikpreis (1962), the Johann-Wenzel-Stamitz

Johann Stamitz

Jan Václav Antonín Stamic was a Czech composer and violinist. Johann was the father of Carl Stamitz and Anton Stamitz, also composers...

-Preis (1964), the Musikpreis der Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste

Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste

Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste in München is an association of renowned personalities in Munich, Bavaria. It was founded by the Free State of Bavaria in 1948, continuinf a tradition established in 1808 by the Royal Academy of Arts in Munich.The academy organizes panel discussions,...

(1967, elected to the Akademie in 1971), the Plöner Musikpreis (1988), and the Bayerischer Maximiliansorden für Wissenschaft und Kunst (1991).

After his death in 1995, a street in his adopted hometown of Glonn

Glonn

Glonn is a market town in the Ebersberg district in Upper Bavaria, Germany, about southeast of Munich.- Geography :The market town of Glonn is a health spa , and the Glonn Valley is ringed by wooded hills, carved by the former Inn glacier...

 was named Bialas-Straße in his honor and marked with a sign bearing his biographical details.

Bialas is considered to have been one of the most influential composition instructors in postwar Germany. The legacy of his open, liberal, and undoctrinaire attitudes to teaching may be appreciated in the stylistic variety of those who were his students or mentorees, including Nicolaus A. Huber

Nicolaus A. Huber

Nicolaus A. Huber is a German composer.From 1958 to 1962 Huber studied music education at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München and subsequently composition with Franz Xaver Lehner and Günter Bialas. He pursued his education further with Josef Anton Riedl, Karlheinz Stockhausen and, above...

, Peter Michael Hamel

Peter Michael Hamel

Peter Michael Hamel is a German composer. His works have been associated with the Minimalist style of composition, and in the late 1970s with the New Simplicity movement....

, Wilfried Hiller, Heinz Winbeck

Heinz Winbeck

Heinz Winbeck is a German composer and an academic teacher. He is known for five large scale symphonies.-Professional career:...

, Ulrich Stranz, Michael Denhoff

Michael Denhoff

Michael Denhoff is a German composer and cellist.-Life:Denhoff has lived and worked in Bonn since 1982. He studied at the Musikhochschule in Cologne, where his teachers included Günter Bialas and Hans Werner Henze , Siegfried Palm and Erling Blöndal Bengtsson and the Amadeus Quartet...

, Manfred Kluge, and Gerd Zacher

Gerd Zacher

Gerd Zacher is a German composer, organist, and writer on music. He specializes in contemporary compositions, many of which feature extended techniques, and are written in graphic or verbal scores...

.

Selected works

Opera

• Hero und Leander (premiered 1966, Mannheim)
• Die Geschichte von Aucassin und Nicolette (premiered 1969, Munich)
• Der Gestiefelte Kater (premiered 1976, Schlosstheater Schwetzingen
  Schlosstheater Schwetzingen
  Schlosstheater Schwetzingen is a theater in Schwetzingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The historic building, opened in 1753, is part of the Schwetzingen Castle and since 1952 the principal venue of the Schwetzingen Festival. It is also called Hoftheater , Hofoper , and Comoedienhaus...
  
  )
• Aus der Matratzengruft (premiered 1992, Kiel)

Ballet

• Meyerbeer-Paraphrasen (premiered 1974, Hamburg)

Oratorio

• Im Anfang (1961), interpretation of Genesis based on text by Martin Buber
  Martin Buber
  Martin Buber was an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of religious existentialism centered on the distinction between the I-Thou relationship and the I-It relationship....
  
  , for three echoic
  Echo (phenomenon)
  In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound, arriving at the listener some time after the direct sound. Typical examples are the echo produced by the bottom of a well, by a building, or by the walls of an enclosed room and an empty room. A true echo is a single...
  
   voices, choir
  Choir
  A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
  
  , and orchestra
  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...
  
  
• Lamento di Orlando (1983–85) for baritone
  Baritone
  Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
  
  , mixed choir, and orchestra

Cantata

• Indianische Kantate (1949), based on the composer's original poems, for baritone, chamber choir, 8 instruments, and drum
  Drum
  The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
  
  s
• Preisungen (1964), based on text by Martin Buber, for baritone and orchestra

Orchestra

• Romanzero (1955)
• Seranata (1955)
• Sinfonia Piccola (1960)
• Waldmusik (1977)
• Der Weg nach Eisenstadt (1980), fantasies
  Fantasia (music)
  The fantasia is a musical composition with its roots in the art of improvisation. Because of this, it seldom approximates the textbook rules of any strict musical form ....
  
   on Haydn
  Joseph Haydn
  Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
  
  
• Marsch-Fantasie (1987)
• Ländler-Fantasie (1989)

Concertante

• Concerto Lirico (1967) for piano and orchestra
• Introitus - Exodus (1976) for organ
  Organ (music)
  The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
  
   and orchestra
• Music for Piano and Orchestra (1990)
• Cello Concerto
  Violoncello concerto
  A cello concerto is a concerto for solo cello with orchestra or, very occasionally, smaller groups of instruments....
  
   No. 2 (1992)
• Trauermusik (Funeral Music) for viola and orchestra (1994)

Chamber music

• Music for Eleven Strings
  String instrument
  A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
  
   (1970)
• 5 String Quartets
  String quartet
  A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
  
   (1935, 1949, 1968, 1986, 1991)
• 2 Saxophone
  Saxophone
  The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
  
   Quartets (Six Bagatelles
  Bagatelle (music)
  A bagatelle is a short piece of music, typically for the piano, and usually of a light, mellow character. The name bagatelle literally means a "trifle", as a reference to the innocent character of the piece.-Earliest known bagatelle:...
  
  , 1986; Kunst des Kanons, 1991)
• Piano Trio
  Piano trio
  A piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in classical chamber music...
  
   (1981)
• Herbstzeit (1982) for string trio
  String trio
  A string trio is a group of three string instruments or a piece written for such a group. The term is generally used with reference to works of chamber music from the Classical period to the present.-History:...
  
   and piano
• Nine Bagatelles (1984) for wind
  Wind instrument
  A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator , in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of...
  
  trio, string trio, and piano
• Fünf Duette (5 Duets) for viola and cello (1988)

Piano

• Lamento, vier Intermezzi und Marsch (1986)

External links

• Denhoff, Michael. "Günter Bialas zum 80. Geburtstag" ("Günter Bialas on his 80th birthday"; 1987).