Vinko Globokar
Encyclopedia
Vinko Globokar is a French
avant-garde
composer
and trombonist
of Slovene descent.
His work is noted for its use of unconventional and extended techniques, closely allying him to contemporaries Salvatore Sciarrino
and Helmut Lachenmann
. Unlike the work of Sciarrino and Lachenmann, however, Globokar's music also places great emphasis on spontaneity and creativity
, and often requires improvisation
. Although a prolific composer, he is largely unknown outside of experimental music
circles.
As a trombonist, he has premiered works by Luciano Berio
, Mauricio Kagel
, René Leibowitz
, Karlheinz Stockhausen
, and Toru Takemitsu
, as well as his own compositions.
, France
. In 1947 he moved to Yugoslavia
, where he played jazz
trombone until 1955, at which point he relocated to Paris
in order to study at the Conservatoire de Paris
. At the Conservatoire, he studied composition with René Leibowitz
(a noted student of Arnold Schoenberg
) and trombone with Andre Lafosse
. In 1965, he moved to Berlin
and began composition lessons with Luciano Berio
, whose Sequenza V
he later performed.
In the later 1960s he worked with Karlheinz Stockhausen
on some of his compositions from the cycle Aus den sieben Tagen
, and co-founded the free improvisation
group New Phonic Art. From 1967 to 1976 he taught composition at the Musikhochschule
in Cologne
. In 1974, he joined IRCAM
as the director of instrumental and vocal research, a post which he occupied until 1980.
After leaving IRCAM, he conducted a number of high profile orchestral groups, including the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra
, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
, the Westdeutscher Symphonie, and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra
, among others. From 1980 until 2000, he directed 20th century music performance at Scuola di Musica di Fiesole near Florence
.
In 2002, Globokar was bestowed with the Prešeren Award
for his life-time work.
, and innovative use of unorthodox
instrumental and compositional techniques. His works often feature indeterminacy
and improvisation
, reflecting his own background in Jazz
and free improvisation. His timbral palette is extremely diverse, and his pieces employ an often astounding array of extended techniques. For example, in his solo percussion piece Toucher, the performer narrates a story while simultaneously playing the syllabic patterns on a percussion array.
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
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 trombonist
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
of Slovene descent.
His work is noted for its use of unconventional and extended techniques, closely allying him to contemporaries Salvatore Sciarrino
Salvatore Sciarrino
Salvatore Sciarrino is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music.-Biography:In his youth, Sciarrino was attracted to the visual arts, but began experimenting with music when he was twelve. Though he had some lessons from Antonino Titone and Turi Belfiore, he is primarily self-taught as a...
and Helmut Lachenmann
Helmut Lachenmann
Helmut Lachenmann is a German composer associated with musique concrète instrumentale.-Life and works:...
. Unlike the work of Sciarrino and Lachenmann, however, Globokar's music also places great emphasis on spontaneity and creativity
Creativity
Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new that has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs...
, and often requires improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
. Although a prolific composer, he is largely unknown outside of experimental music
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
circles.
As a trombonist, he has premiered works by Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...
, Mauricio Kagel
Mauricio Kagel
Mauricio Kagel was a German-Argentine composer. He was notable for his interest in developing the theatrical side of musical performance .-Biography:...
, René Leibowitz
René Leibowitz
René Leibowitz was a French composer, conductor, music theorist and teacher born in Warsaw, Poland.-Career:...
, 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"...
, and Toru Takemitsu
Toru Takemitsu
was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu possessed consummate skill in the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre...
, as well as his own compositions.
Biography
Globokar was born in AndernyAnderny
Anderny is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France....
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. In 1947 he moved to Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, where he played jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
trombone until 1955, at which point he relocated to 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 order to study at the Conservatoire de Paris
Conservatoire de Paris
The Conservatoire de Paris is a college of music and dance founded in 1795, now situated in the avenue Jean Jaurès in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, France...
. At the Conservatoire, he studied composition with René Leibowitz
René Leibowitz
René Leibowitz was a French composer, conductor, music theorist and teacher born in Warsaw, Poland.-Career:...
(a noted student of Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
) and trombone with Andre Lafosse
Andre Lafosse
André Lafosse was a professional trombonist and professor at the Paris Conservatoire in the early 20th century.Lafosse was Professor of Trombone at the Paris Conservatoire from 1948 to 1960, where he took over from Henri Couillaud....
. In 1965, he moved to 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 began composition lessons with Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...
, whose Sequenza V
Sequenza V
Sequenza V is a composition for solo trombone by Luciano Berio, part of his series of pieces with this title. Written in 1966 for Stuart Dempster, it has since been performed and recorded by Vinko Globokar, Benny Sluchin, Christian Lindberg, and others...
he later performed.
In the later 1960s he worked with 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"...
on some of his compositions from the cycle Aus den sieben Tagen
Aus den Sieben Tagen
Aus den sieben Tagen is a collection of 15 text compositions by Karlheinz Stockhausen, composed in May 1968, in reaction to a personal crisis, and characterized as "Intuitive music"—music produced primarily from the intuition rather than the intellect of the performer...
, and co-founded the free improvisation
Free improvisation
Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....
group New Phonic Art. From 1967 to 1976 he taught composition at the Musikhochschule
Hochschule für Musik Köln
The Cologne University of Music is a music college in Cologne, and Germany's largest academy of music.-History:The academy was founded by Ferdinand Hiller in 1850 as Conservatorium der Musik in Coeln...
in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
. In 1974, he joined IRCAM
IRCAM
IRCAM is a European institute for science about music and sound and avant garde electro-acoustical art music. It is situated next to, and is organizationally linked with, the Centre Pompidou in Paris...
as the director of instrumental and vocal research, a post which he occupied until 1980.
After leaving IRCAM, he conducted a number of high profile orchestral groups, including the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra
Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra
The claims to be the oldest classical orchestra in Japan, having been founded in Nagoya in 1911. It moved to Tokyo in 1938 and has some 166 members as of 2005....
, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra is a Finnish orchestra based in Helsinki, and is the chief radio orchestra of the Finnish Broadcasting Company . The orchestra primarily gives concerts at the Helsinki Music Centre...
, the Westdeutscher Symphonie, and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra
Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra
The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra of the Israel Broadcasting Authority is a major orchestra of Israel...
, among others. From 1980 until 2000, he directed 20th century music performance at Scuola di Musica di Fiesole near Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
.
In 2002, Globokar was bestowed with the Prešeren Award
Prešeren Award
Prešeren Award is the highest decoration in the field of artistic and in the past also scientific creation in Slovenia awarded each year to one or two eminent Slovene artists...
for his life-time work.
Musical style
Globokar's music is notable for its spontaneity, energyEnergy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
, and innovative use of unorthodox
Extended technique
Extended techniques are performance techniques used in music to describe unconventional, unorthodox, or non-traditional techniques of singing, or of playing musical instruments to obtain unusual sounds or instrumental timbres....
instrumental and compositional techniques. His works often feature indeterminacy
Indeterminacy
Indeterminacy or underdeterminacy may refer to:* Indeterminacy in computation * aleatoric music and indeterminacy in music.* Statically indeterminate*Indeterminacy a literary term...
and improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
, reflecting his own background in Jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and free improvisation. His timbral palette is extremely diverse, and his pieces employ an often astounding array of extended techniques. For example, in his solo percussion piece Toucher, the performer narrates a story while simultaneously playing the syllabic patterns on a percussion array.
External links
- Vinko Globokar page from IRCAM site (French)