Hans Zender
Encyclopedia
Johannes Wolfgang Zender (born 22 November 1936 in Wiesbaden
) is a German
conductor
and composer
.
, conducting, and composition (the latter with Wolfgang Fortner
) at the Hochschule für Musik Frankfurt and at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg
.
From 1959 to 1963 he was Kapellmeister of the Municipal Theatres in Freiburg im Breisgau, after which he became Principal Conductor at the Stadttheater in Bonn
. In 1964–65 he attended the Second Cologne Courses for New Music at the Rheinische Musikhochschule, under the artistic direction of Karlheinz Stockhausen
. In 1968 he was called to Kiel
, where he was General Music Director of the Kiel Opera House
until 1972. In this year he began his activity as Principal Conductor of the Radio-Symphony Orchestra in Saarbrücken
. In 1984 he became Head of the Hamburg
State Opera and General Music Director of the orchestra there, changing in 1987 to the position of Conductor in Chief of the Chamber Orchestra of Radio Netherlands
in Hilversum
, where he worked until 1990.
From 1988 until 2000 Zender taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst
in Frankfurt am Main. In 1997 Zender was awarded the Goethe Prize of the City of Frankfurt. Since 1999 he has been Permanent Guest Conductor of the Southwest German Radio
(SWR) Symphony Orchestra in Baden-Baden
and Freiburg.
Invited by Walter Fink
, he was in 2011 the 21st composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival
. Music included denn wiederkommen (Hölderlin lesen III) for string quartet and speaking voice (1991) and Mnemosyne (Hölderlin lesen IV) for female voice, string quartet, and tape (2000), performed by Salome Kammer
and the Athena Quartet.
Translated from the German Wikipedia
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...
) is a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
conductor
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...
and composer
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...
.
Life
From 1956 to 1959 Zender studied pianoPiano
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...
, conducting, and composition (the latter with Wolfgang Fortner
Wolfgang Fortner
Wolfgang Fortner was a German composer, composition teacher and conductor.-Life:Fortner was born in Leipzig. From his parents - both singers - Fortner very early on had intense contact with music...
) at the Hochschule für Musik Frankfurt and at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg
Hochschule für Musik Freiburg
The Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Freiburg is a public music academy subsidized by the State of Baden-Württemberg for academic research and artistic and pedagogical training in music.-History:The Hochschule was initially founded as a municipal institution in 1946 under the direction of Gustav...
.
From 1959 to 1963 he was Kapellmeister of the Municipal Theatres in Freiburg im Breisgau, after which he became Principal Conductor at the Stadttheater in Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
. In 1964–65 he attended the Second Cologne Courses for New Music at the Rheinische Musikhochschule, under the artistic direction of Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
. In 1968 he was called to Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
, where he was General Music Director of the Kiel Opera House
Kiel Opera House
The Peabody Opera House is a civic performing arts building in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded as the Kiel Opera House, it opened it 1934 and operated until 1991, when it and the adjacent Kiel Auditorium were closed so the auditorium could be demolished and replaced by the Scottrade Center...
until 1972. In this year he began his activity as Principal Conductor of the Radio-Symphony Orchestra in Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken is the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany. The city is situated at the heart of a metropolitan area that borders on the west on Dillingen and to the north-east on Neunkirchen, where most of the people of the Saarland live....
. In 1984 he became Head of the Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
State Opera and General Music Director of the orchestra there, changing in 1987 to the position of Conductor in Chief of the Chamber Orchestra of Radio Netherlands
Radio Netherlands
Radio Netherlands Worldwide is a public radio and television network based in Hilversum, producing and transmitting programmes for international audiences outside the Netherlands...
in Hilversum
Hilversum
is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Located in the region called "'t Gooi", it is the largest town in that area. It is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller villages...
, where he worked until 1990.
From 1988 until 2000 Zender taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst
Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts
The Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts is a state Hochschule for Music, Theater and Dance in Frankfurt and is the only one of its kind in the Federal State of Hesse. It was founded in 1938....
in Frankfurt am Main. In 1997 Zender was awarded the Goethe Prize of the City of Frankfurt. Since 1999 he has been Permanent Guest Conductor of the Southwest German Radio
Südwestrundfunk
The Südwestrundfunk is a public broadcasting company for the southwest of Germany, specifically the states of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. The company has main offices in three cities: Stuttgart, Baden-Baden and Mainz, with the director's office being in Stuttgart. It is an...
(SWR) Symphony Orchestra in Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden is a spa town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe...
and Freiburg.
Invited by Walter Fink
Walter Fink
Walter Fink is a German retired executive and a patron of Contemporary music. He is mostly known for being a founding member, Executive Committee member and sponsor of the Rheingau Musik Festival.- Biography :...
, he was in 2011 the 21st composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival
Rheingau Musik Festival
The Rheingau Musik Festival is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres...
. Music included denn wiederkommen (Hölderlin lesen III) for string quartet and speaking voice (1991) and Mnemosyne (Hölderlin lesen IV) for female voice, string quartet, and tape (2000), performed by Salome Kammer
Salome Kammer
Salome Kammer is a German actor, singer and cellist.- Professional career :Kammer was the fourth of six children. Her father was a Protestant pastor...
and the Athena Quartet.
Compositions
- Canto I–VI for various forces
- I: for choir, flute, piano, strings and percussion (1965)
- II: for soprano, choir and orchestra on a text by Ezra PoundEzra PoundEzra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
(1967) - III: for soprano, tenor, baritone, ten instruments and live-electronics on texts by CervantesMiguel de CervantesMiguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
(1968) - IV: for 16 voices and 16 instruments (1969/72)
- V: for voices with optional percussion (1972/74)
- VI: for bass-baritone, a capella mixed choir, and optional tape (1988)
- Modelle for variable forces (1971–73)
- Zeitströme for orchestra (1974)
- Elemente, tape montage for two loudspeaker groups (1976)
- Hölderlin lesen I for string quartet with speaking voice (1979)
- Hölderlin lesen II for speaking voice, viola, and live-electronics (1987)
- "denn wiederkommen" (Hölderlin lesen III) for string quartet and speaking voice (1991)
- Mnemosyne (Hölderlin lesen IV) for female voice, string quartet, and tape (2000)
- Fünf Haiku (LO-SHU IV) for flute and strings (1982)
- Dialog mit Haydn for two pianos and three orchestral groups (1982)
- Stephen Climax, opera (1979–84, premièred in 1986)
- Don Quijote de la Mancha, opera (1989–91, premièred in 1993; new version 1994, premièred in 1999)
- SchubertFranz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's Winterreise —Eine komponierte Interpretation for tenor and small orchestra (1993) - Shir Hashirim—Lied der Lieder (Canto VIII), oratorio for soli, choir, orchestra, and live-electronics (1992/96, complete première in 1998)
- SchumannRobert SchumannRobert 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....
-Fantasie for large orchestra (1997) - Chief JosephChief JosephHin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, popularly known as Chief Joseph, or Young Joseph was the leader of the Wal-lam-wat-kain band of Nez Perce during General Oliver O. Howard's attempt to forcibly remove his band and the other "non-treaty" Nez Perce to a reservation in Idaho...
, musical theater in three acts (premièred in 2005)
Translated from the German Wikipedia
Writings
- Zender, Hans. 2004. Die Sinne denken. Texte zur Musik 1975-2003. Edited by Jörn Peter Hiekel. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel. ISBN 3-7651-0364-0 (a nearly complete edition of Zender’s writings)
- ———.1999. "A Road Map for Orpheus?" In Theory into Practice: Composition, Performance, and the Listening Experience. Collected writings of the Orpheus Institute 2. Edited by Peter Dejans. Leuven:Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. ISBN 9-061-86994-3
- ———. 1991. Happy New Ears. Das Abenteuer, Musik zu hören. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder. ISBN 3-451-04049-2
- ———. 1998. Wir steigen niemals in denselben Fluß. Wie Musikhören sich wandelt. Second edition. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder. ISBN 3-451-04511-7
Sources
- Gruhn, Wilfried. 1994. "Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Wärme? Zu Hans Zenders komponierter Interpretation von Schuberts Winterreise." Musica 48:148–54.
- ———. 1992. "Hans Zender." In Komponisten der Gegenwart, Loseblattlexikon, edited by Hanns-Werner Heister und Walter-Wolfgang Sparrer, 12. Munich: Text+Kritik. Updated edition July 1997.
- ———. 1985. "Musik über Musik. Vermittlungsaspekte des Streichquartetts Hölderlin lesen von Hans Zender." Musik und Bildung 17:598–605
- Wacker, Volker. 1998. "Hans Zenders Oper Stephen Climax. Betrachtungen und Aspekte." In Musiktheater im 20. Jahrhundert = Hamburger Jahrbuch für Musikwissenschaft 10, edited by Constantin Floros, Hans Joachim Marx, and Peter Petersen, 239–58. Laaber: Laaber.
External links
- Hans Zender Boosey & HawkesBoosey & HawkesBoosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and wind musical instruments....
- Zender, Hans (*1936) Breitkopf und Härtel
- Hans Zender: Work List Schirmer
- Composer Portrait: Hans Zender Rheingau Musik FestivalRheingau Musik FestivalThe Rheingau Musik Festival is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres...
- Hans Zender ks-schoerke.de-