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Wolfgang Rihm
Wolfgang Michael Rihm (German: [ˈvɔlfɡaŋ ˈʁiːm] ⓘ; 13 March 1952 – 27 July 2024) was a German composer of contemporary classical music and an academic teacher based in Karlsruhe. He was an influential post-war European composer, as "one of the most original and independent musical voices" there, composing over 500 works including several operas.
The premiere of Rihm's Morphonie for orchestra at the 1974 Donaueschingen Festival won him international recognition. Rihm pursued a freedom of expression, combining avant-garde techniques with emotional individuality. His chamber opera Jakob Lenz was premiered in 1977, exploring the inner conflict of a poet's soul. The premiere of his opera Oedipus at Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1987 was broadcast live and recorded as DVD. When his opera Dionysos was first performed at the Salzburg Festival in 2010, it was voted World Premiere of the Year by Opernwelt. He was commissioned to compose a work for the opening of the Elbphilharmonie, and created the song cycle Reminiszenz which was premiered in 2017.
Rihm was professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe from 1985, with students including Rebecca Saunders and Jörg Widmann. He was composer in residence for the BBC, at the Lucerne Festival and the Salzburg Festival. He was honoured as an officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2001 and received the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2003.
Rihm was born in Karlsruhe on 13 March 1952. His parents were Julius Rihm, a treasurer for the Red Cross, and Margarete, a homemaker. He grew up with a sister, Monika. The boy began to compose at age eleven, and wrote a plan for a mass the following year. He was an enthusiastic choir singer, and he often improvised on the organ, creating "sound orgies" in the style of French organists. His cello sonata earned him a prize at the Jugend musiziert competition at age 16. He wrote his second string quartet at age 18.
At the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, he studied music theory and composition with Eugen Werner Velte while still attending secondary school. He took his undergraduate final exams in 1972, when he graduated from secondary school. He attended the Darmstädter Ferienkurse from 1970 and studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne from 1972 to 1973. Rihm then enrolled at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg from 1973 to 1976, studying composition with Klaus Huber and musicology with Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht. His other teachers included Wolfgang Fortner and Humphrey Searle.
The premiere of Rihm's Morphonie at the 1974 Donaueschingen Festival launched his career in the European new music scene. It was regarded as "indecently individual" ("unanständig individuell"). Rihm pursued expressive freedom in clear opposition to established norms. He combined the techniques of then-contemporary classical music with the emotional volatility of Gustav Mahler and the musical expressionism of Arnold Schönberg. Rihm later cited Claude Debussy, saying that Debussy and the expressionist Schönberg combined "minimal formalism and system with the maximal expression". Many regarded this as a revolt against the early Darmstadt School generation of Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez.
His Dis-Kontur (1974) has been described as "rusty and brutal", "channeling primal acoustic violence". When Sub-Kontur (1975) was premiered in Donaueschingen (1976), the audience complained about Rihm's "brutal noise". Some critics called it a "fecal piece". But positive reviews of his early work led to many commissions in the following years. His chamber opera Jakob Lenz premiered in 1977; it explores the inner conflict of a poet's soul without following a linear narrative.
In 1978 he became a lecturer at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. From 1985 onward, he was a composition professor at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, succeeding his teacher Velte. Rihm followed Velte's approach of educating in open dialogue with the individual student, cultivating freedom of thought.
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Wolfgang Rihm
Wolfgang Michael Rihm (German: [ˈvɔlfɡaŋ ˈʁiːm] ⓘ; 13 March 1952 – 27 July 2024) was a German composer of contemporary classical music and an academic teacher based in Karlsruhe. He was an influential post-war European composer, as "one of the most original and independent musical voices" there, composing over 500 works including several operas.
The premiere of Rihm's Morphonie for orchestra at the 1974 Donaueschingen Festival won him international recognition. Rihm pursued a freedom of expression, combining avant-garde techniques with emotional individuality. His chamber opera Jakob Lenz was premiered in 1977, exploring the inner conflict of a poet's soul. The premiere of his opera Oedipus at Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1987 was broadcast live and recorded as DVD. When his opera Dionysos was first performed at the Salzburg Festival in 2010, it was voted World Premiere of the Year by Opernwelt. He was commissioned to compose a work for the opening of the Elbphilharmonie, and created the song cycle Reminiszenz which was premiered in 2017.
Rihm was professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe from 1985, with students including Rebecca Saunders and Jörg Widmann. He was composer in residence for the BBC, at the Lucerne Festival and the Salzburg Festival. He was honoured as an officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2001 and received the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2003.
Rihm was born in Karlsruhe on 13 March 1952. His parents were Julius Rihm, a treasurer for the Red Cross, and Margarete, a homemaker. He grew up with a sister, Monika. The boy began to compose at age eleven, and wrote a plan for a mass the following year. He was an enthusiastic choir singer, and he often improvised on the organ, creating "sound orgies" in the style of French organists. His cello sonata earned him a prize at the Jugend musiziert competition at age 16. He wrote his second string quartet at age 18.
At the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, he studied music theory and composition with Eugen Werner Velte while still attending secondary school. He took his undergraduate final exams in 1972, when he graduated from secondary school. He attended the Darmstädter Ferienkurse from 1970 and studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne from 1972 to 1973. Rihm then enrolled at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg from 1973 to 1976, studying composition with Klaus Huber and musicology with Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht. His other teachers included Wolfgang Fortner and Humphrey Searle.
The premiere of Rihm's Morphonie at the 1974 Donaueschingen Festival launched his career in the European new music scene. It was regarded as "indecently individual" ("unanständig individuell"). Rihm pursued expressive freedom in clear opposition to established norms. He combined the techniques of then-contemporary classical music with the emotional volatility of Gustav Mahler and the musical expressionism of Arnold Schönberg. Rihm later cited Claude Debussy, saying that Debussy and the expressionist Schönberg combined "minimal formalism and system with the maximal expression". Many regarded this as a revolt against the early Darmstadt School generation of Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez.
His Dis-Kontur (1974) has been described as "rusty and brutal", "channeling primal acoustic violence". When Sub-Kontur (1975) was premiered in Donaueschingen (1976), the audience complained about Rihm's "brutal noise". Some critics called it a "fecal piece". But positive reviews of his early work led to many commissions in the following years. His chamber opera Jakob Lenz premiered in 1977; it explores the inner conflict of a poet's soul without following a linear narrative.
In 1978 he became a lecturer at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. From 1985 onward, he was a composition professor at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, succeeding his teacher Velte. Rihm followed Velte's approach of educating in open dialogue with the individual student, cultivating freedom of thought.