Lutz Glandien
Encyclopedia
Lutz Glandien is a Berlin
-based German
avant garde composer
and musician
. He has composed a number of classical
and electroacoustic
pieces, released four solo albums, and collaborated with English
percussionist Chris Cutler
to record two acclaimed avant-rock albums, Domestic Stories (1992) and P53
(1996).
Glandien has received several scholarship
s and award
s, including the Voya Toncitch Prize at the International Piano Composition Contest in Paris
in 1987 for his work entitled 365. He was described as "a major talent" by Facelift Magazine in 1994.
in the former German Democratic Republic. At the age of nine years old he started taking piano lessons, but abandoned them after a few years when he became more interested in rock music
. While at school he founded a rock band, and his interest in music grew. After school he moved to Dresden
to study economics
at the Dresden University of Technology
, where he also became a song writer and pianist with a local music group. His interest in composition later led to him to study classical contemporary composition at the "Hanns Eisler" Music Academy
in East Berlin
. After graduating in 1987 he wrote a number of classical pieces for solo instruments, chamber ensemble and symphony orchestra.
Glandien's interest in experimentation, however, soon resulted in him deviating from conventional musical formats. "I was particularly annoyed by the artificial arrogance of [contemporary classical music], which had a paralysing effect on my creativity." He began building his own musical instruments for his compositions and produced numerous electroacoustic music
ial works, including Scenes From No Marriage, later released on CD in 1994. He also set up his own studio and created soundtracks for over 60 radiophonic pieces, documentary films, video performances, exhibitions and sound installations.
Glandien's exposure to avant-rock began in the early 1980s when he met English
percussionist Chris Cutler
from Henry Cow
when Cutler performed at the Festival des Politischen Liedes (Festival of Political Song) in East Berlin. In 1989 and 1990 Cutler included several of Glandien's compositions in Recommended Records
's RēR Quarterly
sound-magazine. In 1991 Glandien wrote a piece for tape and percussion called Strange Drums, and asked Cutler to perform it at the International Festival of Electroacoustic Music in Berlin. This was followed by Trompose for tape, percussion and trombone which Cutler performed with trombonist Connie Bauer, and Turbo Mortale for triple tuba, percussion and electronics performed by Cutler and Berlin Philharmonic tuba player Michael Vogt at the Berlin Inventionen in 1992.
In 1991 Glandien and Cutler began working on a song cycle
called Domestic Stories with music by Glandien and texts by Cutler that dealt with power relationships in marriage. Domestic Stories was recorded with Dagmar Krause
(voice), Fred Frith
(guitar and bass guitar) and Alfred Harth
(saxophone and clarinet) and was Glandien and Cutler's first collaborative CD. In 1994 Glandien to joined Cutler, pianists, Marie Goyette and Zygmunt Krauze
, and turntablist Yoshihide Otomo
in a project called P53
that was performed twice at the 25th Frankfurt Jazz Festival in Frankfurt
, and again three years later at the Angelica Festival in Bologna
, Italy
.
Glandien continued with classical composition in the mid- to late-1990s with a number of his works being premiered across Germany. Some of these performance were collected on his solo CD, Lutz Glandien (1995). In the early 2000s Glandien recorded two CDs of "Virtualectric Stories", The 5th Elephant (2002) and Lost in Rooms (2003). They were both composed on computer, the former using fragments of drum and tuba tracks recorded in 1997 by Cutler and Vogt, and the latter incorporating speech fragments.
Glandien developed the concept of "Composing by Ear" and has been studying the tonal center
in primate
voices. He has also experimented with "virtual" and "recycled" music.
P53
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...
-based 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...
avant garde 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...
and musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
. He has composed a number of classical
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
and electroacoustic
Electroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music originated in Western art music during its modern era following the incorporation of electric sound production into compositional practice. The initial developments in electroacoustic music composition during the mid-20th century are associated with the activities of composers...
pieces, released four solo albums, and collaborated with English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
percussionist Chris Cutler
Chris Cutler
Chris Cutler is an English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist. Best known for his work with English avant-rock group Henry Cow, Cutler was also a member and drummer of a number of other bands, including Art Bears, News from Babel, Pere Ubu and Gong/Mothergong...
to record two acclaimed avant-rock albums, Domestic Stories (1992) and P53
P53 (album)
P53, sometimes written p53, is a 1996 live album by experimental music group P53. It was recorded at the 25th Frankfurt Jazz Festival in Germany on 16 September 1994, and was released in 1996 in the United Kingdom by Recommended Records....
(1996).
Glandien has received several scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
s and award
Award
An award is something given to a person or a group of people to recognize excellence in a certain field; a certificate of excellence. Awards are often signifiedby trophies, titles, certificates, commemorative plaques, medals, badges, pins, or ribbons...
s, including the Voya Toncitch Prize at the International Piano Composition Contest 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...
in 1987 for his work entitled 365. He was described as "a major talent" by Facelift Magazine in 1994.
Biography
Lutz Glandien was born in the small town of OebisfeldeOebisfelde
Oebisfelde is a village and a former municipality in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the town Oebisfelde-Weferlingen. It is accessed by Bundesstraße 188.- Geography :...
in the former German Democratic Republic. At the age of nine years old he started taking piano lessons, but abandoned them after a few years when he became more interested in rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
. While at school he founded a rock band, and his interest in music grew. After school he moved to Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
to study economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
at the Dresden University of Technology
Dresden University of Technology
The Technische Universität Dresden is the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, the largest university in Saxony and one of the 10 largest universities in Germany with 36,066 students...
, where he also became a song writer and pianist with a local music group. His interest in composition later led to him to study classical contemporary composition at the "Hanns Eisler" Music Academy
Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler
The " in Berlin, Germany is one of the leading music conservatories in Europe. It was established in East Berlin in 1950 as the ' because the older was in West Berlin...
in East Berlin
East Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
. After graduating in 1987 he wrote a number of classical pieces for solo instruments, chamber ensemble and symphony orchestra.
Glandien's interest in experimentation, however, soon resulted in him deviating from conventional musical formats. "I was particularly annoyed by the artificial arrogance of [contemporary classical music], which had a paralysing effect on my creativity." He began building his own musical instruments for his compositions and produced numerous electroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music originated in Western art music during its modern era following the incorporation of electric sound production into compositional practice. The initial developments in electroacoustic music composition during the mid-20th century are associated with the activities of composers...
ial works, including Scenes From No Marriage, later released on CD in 1994. He also set up his own studio and created soundtracks for over 60 radiophonic pieces, documentary films, video performances, exhibitions and sound installations.
Glandien's exposure to avant-rock began in the early 1980s when he met English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
percussionist Chris Cutler
Chris Cutler
Chris Cutler is an English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist. Best known for his work with English avant-rock group Henry Cow, Cutler was also a member and drummer of a number of other bands, including Art Bears, News from Babel, Pere Ubu and Gong/Mothergong...
from Henry Cow
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English avant-rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members...
when Cutler performed at the Festival des Politischen Liedes (Festival of Political Song) in East Berlin. In 1989 and 1990 Cutler included several of Glandien's compositions in Recommended Records
Recommended Records
Recommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
's RēR Quarterly
ReR Quarterly
The RēR Quarterly was an English "quarterly" sound-magazine comprising an LP record and a magazine. It was published at irregular intervals between 1985 and 1997 by Recommended Records and November Books, and edited by English percussionist, lyricist and music theorist, Chris Cutler...
sound-magazine. In 1991 Glandien wrote a piece for tape and percussion called Strange Drums, and asked Cutler to perform it at the International Festival of Electroacoustic Music in Berlin. This was followed by Trompose for tape, percussion and trombone which Cutler performed with trombonist Connie Bauer, and Turbo Mortale for triple tuba, percussion and electronics performed by Cutler and Berlin Philharmonic tuba player Michael Vogt at the Berlin Inventionen in 1992.
In 1991 Glandien and Cutler began working on a song cycle
Song cycle
A song cycle is a group of songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a single entity. As a rule, all of the songs are by the same composer and often use words from the same poet or lyricist. Unification can be achieved by a narrative or a persona common to the songs, or even, as in Schumann's...
called Domestic Stories with music by Glandien and texts by Cutler that dealt with power relationships in marriage. Domestic Stories was recorded with Dagmar Krause
Dagmar Krause
Dagmar Krause is a German singer, best known for her work with avant-rock groups like Slapp Happy, Henry Cow and Art Bears. She is also noted for her coverage of songs by Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler...
(voice), Fred Frith
Fred Frith
Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...
(guitar and bass guitar) and Alfred Harth
Alfred Harth
Alfred 23 Harth is a German multimedia artist, band leader, multi-instrumentalist musician, and composer who mixes genres in a polystylistic manner...
(saxophone and clarinet) and was Glandien and Cutler's first collaborative CD. In 1994 Glandien to joined Cutler, pianists, Marie Goyette and Zygmunt Krauze
Zygmunt Krauze
- Biography :Polish composer and pianist , who studied composition and piano at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. He is known as a composer of unistic music, based on the theory of unistic art adopted from the painting of Wladyslaw Strzeminski...
, and turntablist Yoshihide Otomo
Yoshihide Otomo
is a Japanese composer and multi-instrumentalist.He first came to international prominence in the 1990s as the leader of the noise rock group Ground Zero, and has since worked in a variety of contexts, ranging from free improvisation to noise, jazz, avant-garde and contemporary classical...
in a project called P53
P53 (band)
P53, sometimes written p53, was an experimental music group commissioned by English percussionist Chris Cutler to play at the 25th Frankfurt Jazz Festival in Germany in September 1994. Their performance was recorded and released by Recommended Records in 1996 on a live album entitled P53...
that was performed twice at the 25th Frankfurt Jazz Festival in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, and again three years later at the Angelica Festival in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
Glandien continued with classical composition in the mid- to late-1990s with a number of his works being premiered across Germany. Some of these performance were collected on his solo CD, Lutz Glandien (1995). In the early 2000s Glandien recorded two CDs of "Virtualectric Stories", The 5th Elephant (2002) and Lost in Rooms (2003). They were both composed on computer, the former using fragments of drum and tuba tracks recorded in 1997 by Cutler and Vogt, and the latter incorporating speech fragments.
Glandien developed the concept of "Composing by Ear" and has been studying the tonal center
Tonality
Tonality is a system of music in which specific hierarchical pitch relationships are based on a key "center", or tonic. The term tonalité originated with Alexandre-Étienne Choron and was borrowed by François-Joseph Fétis in 1840...
in primate
Primate
A primate is a mammal of the order Primates , which contains prosimians and simians. Primates arose from ancestors that lived in the trees of tropical forests; many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging three-dimensional environment...
voices. He has also experimented with "virtual" and "recycled" music.
Selected discography
For a more complete list, see the Lutz Glandien discography.Solo
- Scenes From No Marriage (1994, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
) - Lutz Glandien (1995, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
) - The 5th Elephant (2002, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
) - Lost in Rooms (2003, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
) - Kyomei (2008, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
)
Collaborations and projects
Lutz Glandien and Chris CutlerChris Cutler
Chris Cutler is an English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist. Best known for his work with English avant-rock group Henry Cow, Cutler was also a member and drummer of a number of other bands, including Art Bears, News from Babel, Pere Ubu and Gong/Mothergong...
- Domestic Stories (1992, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
)
P53
P53 (band)
P53, sometimes written p53, was an experimental music group commissioned by English percussionist Chris Cutler to play at the 25th Frankfurt Jazz Festival in Germany in September 1994. Their performance was recorded and released by Recommended Records in 1996 on a live album entitled P53...
- P53P53 (album)P53, sometimes written p53, is a 1996 live album by experimental music group P53. It was recorded at the 25th Frankfurt Jazz Festival in Germany on 16 September 1994, and was released in 1996 in the United Kingdom by Recommended Records....
(1996, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
)
External links
- Lutz Glandien homepage.
- Lutz Glandien biography at Piero ScaruffiPiero ScaruffiPiero Scaruffi received a degree in Mathematics in 1982 from University of Turin, where he did work on the General Theory of Relativity. For a number of years he was the head of the Artificial Intelligence Center at Olivetti, based in Cupertino, California. He has been a visiting scholar at...
. - Lutz Glandien at Chris Cutler homepage...
- Lutz Glandien interview at Lutz Glandien homepage.