Bernardo Mario Kuczer (born 30 April 1955) is an Argentinian composer, music theoretician and architect.

Biography

Argentina

Bernardo Mario Kuczer was born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, Argentina, on 30 April 1955. Until his early twenties, he was involved in rock music as composer and guitarist, writing also music for the theatre. Simultaneously, he studied architecture and graduated in 1978. Through the study of the

classical guitar The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor o ...

with Hector Rocha and then with Jorge Panitsch he came into classical music. He studied

harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

and musical analysis with Nestor Zadoff and then with Sergio Hualpa and later

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

with Nestor Zadoff. He became a member of an interdisciplinary music investigation group, collaborating with psychologists, biologists, doctors and musicologists. In 1979 he presented a thesis under the supervision of Sergio Hualpa with own ideas about "the Basic Components of Music, their multiple interrelations and a special kind of "energy" generated by their ''uni-'' and ''multidimensional'' dynamic interactions, an energy which determines and enables the ''micro'' and ''macro'' Articulation of the Music-stream". The thesis was first named: "La forma natural de la música" ("The natural ways of music"), then "The New Connections" and later "Música sin el Factor Humano" ("Music without the Human Factor").

Europe

In 1980, Kuczer went to London to study the

viola da gamba The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...

, abandoning it shortly after for starting composition. His first ensemble piece ("Even ... the loudest sky") (1981) for

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

quartet, was selected by the British SPNM (

Society for the Promotion of New Music The Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM), originally named The Committee for the Promotion of New Music, was founded in January 1943 in London by the émigré composer Francis Chagrin, to promote the creation and performance of new music in ...

) for the "composers' week-end", London 1981. Kuczer arrived in

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

in 1983 to study composition with

Brian Ferneyhough Brian John Peter Ferneyhough (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer. Ferneyhough is typically considered the central figure of the New Complexity movement. Ferneyhough has taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and ...

. He felt however very soon the need to continue his way in music alone. In 1984 he was invited to participate of the " International Summer Courses for New Music" at

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

,The invitation was made on behalf of

, who had the chance to hear some of the pieces beforehand. In a letter to the organizers he wrote: "In my opinion these pieces... are partly of very great interest". And later: "... I consider him to be a major composer in this area". (Original German: "... Ich halte ihn für einen bedeutenden Komponisten in diesem Bereich...") Taken from a letter from Ferneyhough to the organizers of the Darmstädter Ferienkurse from 9 May 1984. While the (German) original stays at the IMD archive, a copy of this letter can be found at http://bernardomariokuczer.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=186151395. where several pieces of his tape-cycle '' Civilización o Barbarie'' received a first performance and where he was awarded, as first Latin American composer, the "Kranichsteiner Musikpreis" (Kranichstein Music Prize). In 1986, for the next edition of the Darmstadt Courses, he was invited to perform a second concert with works of his tape-cycle.During these summer courses, his piece ''A-gent's Arguum'' for solo viola, from 1982, was premiered. For this performance, mainly, the soloist, Barbara Maurer, received the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis for interpreters. '' Civilización o Barbarie'' The title is a paraphrase of the title of a book by the Argentine author and statesman

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (; born Domingo Faustino Fidel Valentín Sarmiento y Albarracín; 15 February 1811 – 11 September 1888) was an Argentine activist, intellectual, writer, statesman and the second President of Argentina. His writing s ...

, published in 1845: Facundo – Civilización y Barbarie – Vida de Juan Facundo Quiroga. was later selected, as ''personal choice of the jury'', by

Klaus Huber Klaus Huber (30 November 1924 – 2 October 2017) was a Swiss composer and academic based in Basel and Freiburg. Among his students were Brian Ferneyhough, Michael Jarrell, Younghi Pagh-Paan, Toshio Hosokawa, Wolfgang Rihm, and Kaija Saariaho. ...

(one of the three jurors), for the "World Music Days" of the ISCM (

International Society for Contemporary Music The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music. The organization was established in Salzburg in 1922 as Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM) following th ...

) held in 1987 in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

. During 1990 he was a stipendiary of the "Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung" (Heinrich Strobel Foundation) of the broadcasting service

Südwestrundfunk Südwestrundfunk (SWR; ''Southwest Broadcasting'') is a regional public broadcasting corporation serving the southwest of Germany , specifically the federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. The corporation has main offices ...

. After 1999 he remained apart and distant to the active music and concert scene. Since 2000, he has been working extensively with computers, designing, writing and developing his own computer programs. These programs, which are based on and are used to further research his personal hypotheses, models and theoretical ideas about

, rhythm, sound,

musical form In music, ''form'' refers to the structure of a musical composition or musical improvisation, performance. In his book, ''Worlds of Music'', Jeff Todd Titon suggests that a number of organizational elements may determine the formal structure of a ...

and "Music-Stream", have also been used to generate his latest digital, computer and algorithmic generated works. At times and complementary to his main musical activities, Kuczer has been active in other fields of art. He has produced more than 1000 paintings, drawings, sculptures, as well as designed his own furniture. As a writer he has written some 250 poems and two (still unpublished) books, the title of the first one being: "Salvas de Guerra" (contra La Música)" War Salvos" (against Music) He also produced and musicalised an own documentary film: "Vida?"(por un Espacio Poético o una Poesía del Espacio-Tiempo), una documentación" Life?" for a Poetic Space or a Space-Time Poetry, a documentation

Work and performances

Kuczer's musical oeuvre comprises more than 81 (principal) works (with some 110 individual "named" pieces) covering different areas of music (e.g.

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

music,

tape music Jack Dangers (born John Stephen Corrigan, 11 January 1965) is an English electronic musician, DJ, producer, and remixer best known for his work as the primary member of Meat Beat Manifesto. He lives in San Francisco. Career Prior to founding ...

electroacoustic music Electroacoustic music is a genre of popular and Western art music in which composers use technology to manipulate the timbres of acoustic sounds, sometimes by using audio signal processing, such as reverb or harmonizing, on acoustical instrumen ...

computer music Computer music is the application of computing technology in music composition, to help human composers create new music or to have computers independently create music, such as with algorithmic composition programs. It includes the theory and ap ...

algorithmic composition Algorithmic composition is the technique of using algorithms to create music. Algorithms (or, at the very least, formal sets of rules) have been used to compose music for centuries; the procedures used to plot voice-leading in Western counterpoin ...

s and

digital music Digital audio is a representation of sound recorded in, or converted into, digital form. In digital audio, the sound wave of the audio signal is typically encoded as numerical samples in a continuous sequence. For example, in CD audio, sa ...

). More than 60 of his works have remained unperformed (and mostly unrevealed). Several of his instrumental pieces were and/or are still considered unplayable. His Saxophone Quartet (1981) was first regarded as unplayable until 1994, when it was given its first performance.This live performance by the XASAX Saxophone quartet, which occurred on 23 April 1994 and which is billed as the work's premiere in the CD's leaflet, was included in the "CD-Dokumentation Nº 2", from the Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik 1994, WDR Köln (wd 05/2). The same ensemble made a second studio recording of the work, for the record label hat owrt, which is included in Xasax "Ars subtilior", Label Code: LC 6048.More recently, in January 2014, the Fukio Ensemble played the piece at the

Berlin University of the Arts The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universiti ...

, at the finals of the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdi competition, where they were awarded the 1st prize in the category New Chamber Music. Some of his works have been played and broadcast in various European cities and elsewhere. Examples: *London: „Composers' Weekend“, 1981 *Darmstadt:

Darmstädter Ferienkurse Darmstädter Ferienkurse ("Darmstadt Summer Course") is a regular summer event of contemporary classical music in Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany. It was founded in 1946, under the name "Ferienkurse für Internationale Neue Musik Darmstadt" (Vacation Cou ...

, 1984 and 1986 *Como: „18° festival internazionale, autunno musicale“, 1984 *Milan: „Musica del nostro tempo“, 1987 *Freiburg: „Horizonte Reihe“, 1984 *Paris: „Perspectives du XXe siècle“ (Carte blanche à

Harry Halbreich Harry Halbreich (Berlin, 9 February 1931 – Brussels, 27 June 2016) was a Belgian musicologist.Dust jacket biography of Harry Halbreich from #Halbreich2007, Halbreich (2007).Patrick Szersnovicz. Harry Halbreich (obituary). ''Diapason (magazine), ...

), 1985 *Stockholm: „International Festival of Electronic Music“, 1985 *Freiburg: „Aventure Freiburg“, 1987 *Mönchengladbach: „Ensemblia Festival“, 1987 *Cologne: Weltmusiktage der IGNM, 1987 *Frankfurt:

Hessischer Rundfunk Hessischer Rundfunk (HR; "Hesse Broadcasting") is the German state of Hesse's public broadcasting corporation. Headquartered in Frankfurt, it is a member of the national consortium of German public broadcasting corporations, ARD. Studios Do ...

, 1989 *Los Angeles: Arnold Schoenberg Institute, 1990 *Witten: Wittener Tage für neue Musik, 1994 *Basel: IGNM Basel, 1995 *Piteå: Piteå University, 1995 *Bremen: Festival „Transit“ Orte/NichtOrte, 1999 *Montreal: World Saxophone Congress, 2000

Press reviews

... the real revelation of this disc is Argentinian Bernardo Maria Kuczer, whose "even ... The loudest sky!!" is one of the wildest things I've heard for some time. Brilliantly written (fiendishly difficult) and played with utter conviction, it makes you wonder what Kuczer's been up to since he wrote this back in 1981. Anything new by either Kuczer or he saxophone ensembleXasax is welcome here.

On the 2 May 1996, Fara C. wrote in the music magazine ''World'':

..., and " Even … The loudest sky!!! ", composed by the Argentine Bernardo Kuczer in 1981. This work reaches a summit of complexity such as it had never been played before the world creation of Xasax in 1994 ! Six months of hard work were necessary to the group to triumph over these supernatural seven minutes. A musical intensity which the quartet will make us share with crazy pleasure.

The Belgian musicologist

wrote a review about the Darmstadt International Summer Courses of New Music 1984, published in the monthly magazine ''

Le Monde de la musique ''Le Monde de la musique'' was a French monthly musical magazine published from 1978 to 2009 with a circulation of 20,000 copies in 2008. It was founded in 1978 by ''Le Monde'' and ''Télérama ''Télérama'' is a weekly French cultural and tel ...

'':

However, the end of the evening had to be spent... in the company of the Argentinian Bernardo Kuczer living in Germany and some of his apocalyptic electroacoustic pieces grouped into an immense cycle under the title ''Civilización o Barbarie''. I admit that I fled. But two days later I was able to hear again, at a somewhat more bearable volume level, these extraordinary pieces of music of a visionary madman, skinned alive, bleeding shreds of flesh of a prodigious expressive power, produced, paradoxically, with a simple cassette tape recorder!

Work list

*''Articulaciones II'' (1980), for two alto recorders (or two equal wind instruments), tuned at a quarter tone difference *''Seis estudios sobre la disonancia simple y la mixtura de lenguas'' (1980), for choir *''Huella'' (1981), for flute *''Dualidades'' (1981), for piano *''Drei'h'' (1981), for clarinet *''Even ... the loudest sky'' (1981), for saxophone quartet *''A-gent's Arguum'' (1982), for viola *''La Distancia IV'' (''un fragmento'') 1982–83, for flute, bass clarinet, violoncello and piano *''towards a New Brutality'' (1983), nine studies **''Study Nº 1'': (Historias Naturales), for percussion and (digital) Sound-Space ''(*)'' **''Study Nº 2'': (Soul-Lage), for voice in a Sound-Space ''(*)'' **''Study Nº 3'': (La vuelta al día Ia), for percussion ''(two roto-toms)''(*)'' **''Study Nº 4'': (memorias de un pasado por suceder...) (1983), for two percussionists, voice, tape and electronices **''Study Nº 5'': (La vuelta al día II: de Spatium Natura), for Space-Percussion ''(*)'' **''Study Nº 6 & 7'': (Twin dances) ***Nº 6 dance A, for percussion and (digital) Sound-Space ''(*)'' ***Nº 7 dance B, for percussion and (digital) Sound-Space ''(*)'' **''Study Nº 8'': (El espejo y la lámpara I), for percussion ''(*)'' **''Study Nº 9'': (El espejo y la lámpara II), for voice and percussion ''(*)'' *(*) revised in 2012, now existing only as digital version *''Civilización o Barbarie'' (1984), a cycle comprising the following 18 individual tape pieces: **''Peripéteia II'' (1984), tape music **''Peripéteia III'' (1984), tape music **''Peripéteia IV'' (1984), tape music **''Peripéteia V'' (1984), tape music **''Peripéteia VI'' (1984), tape music **''Peripéteia VII'': Iña'K (1984), tape music **''Peripéteia VIII'': Periplo (1984), tape music **''Une mémoire la vie'' (1984), tape music **''Cri de la mémoire fermée'' (1984), tape music **''Finale, ou la mémoire pulsante'' (1984), tape music **''Contre-rime'' (1984), tape music **''Him'l'' (1984), tape music **''Dream-line'' (1984), tape music **''One other desert'' (1984), tape music **''Escenas-Miró'' (1984), tape music **''Ejercicio de aire'' (1984), tape music **''Hole the black'' (1984), tape music **''... und Stille daneben'' (1984), tape music *''K'tedral'' (1984–85) for viola *''formas y fluidos II–VII'' (1985) for piano *''Form-Memory'' (1986), tape music *''Memory-Form'' (1986), tape music *''Equations of change'' (1987), computer music *''In search of the Engram'' (1986–88, 89–90), for wind quintetThe wind quintet was commissioned by the "Kultusministerium Baden-Württemberg" for the ensemble "Aventure" in 1986. The work (including the making of the score and parts, as well as the preparation of the theoretical material that accompanies it) took the full next five years to be completed. It has also remained unperformed up to this day (August 2013). *''Zeitschlag -Brücken (zer-)schlagen-'' (1991–2001), a cycle comprising the following 8 pieces ''(with possible amplification and/or electronic processing)'': **''FORM I'' (1991–98), for viola, cello and 1 or 2 pianos or for cello and piano **''FORM II'' (1991–98), for viola, cello and (1 or) 2 pianos **''FORM III'' (1991–98), for viola and piano **''FORM IV'' (1991–98), for viola, cello and 1 or 2 pianos **''ZickZackZeit'' (1991–97), for violin **''Zeit-Raum-Zerre II'' (1991–99), for cello **''Zeit-Raum-Zerre III'' (1991–99), for viola and cello **''Ziele umzingelnd'' (2000–01), for violin, viola and cello (String trio) *''Cosmografía'' ''-Panopticum Armonicum-'' (2002–04), for piano *''Sinfines'' (2002–04), for piano, piano four hands or two to five pianos *''La vuelta al día Ic'' (1983, 2000, 2006) ''(computer generated versions and scores)'', for 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 or 8 percussionists *''Resistencia de la materia'' (2011–12), a cycle comprising the following 5 ''independent'' digital works: **''Tungsteno'' (2011–12), digital music **''Casi Ayer'' (2011–12), digital music **''Siglo XX: Un Respiro'' (2011–12), digital music **''A-Sintaxis III'' (2011–12), digital music **''Siglo XX, Pequeño Epitafio Nº2: Esmeril'' (2011–12), digital music *''Trenzados americanos'' (2011–12), digital music *''Drama de amar'' (2011–12), for digital percussion, digital music *''Malambo'' (2011–12), digital music *''Cuicantos'' (2011–12), for digital percussion ensemble, digital music ''(*)'' *''Sureña Ic'' (2012), for piano ''(*)'' *''(*)'' these pieces belong to the so-called ''Apócrifos americanos'', a series of composer aided, computer generated studies *''Sendas negras'' (2012), for percussion ensemble *''Schwarmverhalten I'' (1986–2012), digital music *''Schwarmverhalten II'' (1986–2012), digital music *''Schwarmverhalten III'' (1986–2012), digital music *''Auf Wachstum und Gedeih'' (2012), digital music *''Máximos y Mínimos'' (''en un Nanocosmos'') (2012–13), a collection of 27 digital works *''Música de cámara Nº1'' ''(algo oscura)'' (2013), digital music *''Música de cámara Nº2'' ''(donde hubo fuego)'' (2013), digital music *''Juego de engranajes'' (2013), digital music *''Gris ardiente'' (2013), digital music *''Los Pasos Perdidos'' (2013), digital music *''Lo heterogéneo'' (2013–14), a cycle comprising nine ''independent'' digital works, belonging to four different groups: **''Tres Hibridaciones'' (2013), a group of three ''independent'' digital works ***''Canticum Sacrum Non'' (2013), digital music ***''Formas nobles y melancólicas'' (2013), digital music ***''Tourdion (et basse)'' (2013), digital music **''Una Decantación'' (2014), comprising a single ''independent'' digital work ***''Un sol menor'' (2014), digital music **''Tres Aleaciones'' (2014), a group of three ''independent'' digital works ***''Stehe hier nicht still...'' (2014), digital music ***''Marcha plana'' (2014), digital music ***''Tres ceremonias (an der Schmelzgrenze)'' (2014), digital music **''Dos Imbricaciones'' (2014), a group of two ''independent'' digital works ***''Imbricación I (Süredrath)'' (2012, 2014), digital music ***''Imbricación II (Silétsere)'' (2014), digital music *''La rueca de Mahatma (natura subascolta II)'' (2014), digital music *''W(e)aving (Ein Heldentod (sic)), Digitale Tondichtung'' (2013–14), digital music *''Kalte Töne'' (2013–14), digital music *''Todo y Molécula'' (2013–14), a cycle comprising 6 ''independent'' digital works **''1) Materia prima I, set 1c (Custos Horologii)'' (2014), digital music **''2) Materia prima II (Magma)'' (2014), digital music **''3) Materia prima III (Música Seca I)'' (2014–16), digital music **''4) Materia prima IV (Schwere Schwebstoffe)'' (2014–16), digital music **''5) Materia prima VI (Enigma XXI)'' (2014), digital music **''6) Materia prima VII (Traits and Trails)'' (2014), digital music *''Heridas'' (2016), digital music *''Exploración Diagonal Nº2'' (2014–17), digital music *''Anima XM'ch'na I (Principal Pieces)'' (2017-2021), algorithmic compositions, digital music **''Nº5 (XM'nc'ng)'' (2018) **''Nº10 (XM'm'ri's)'' (2018) **''Nº12 (XM'sh)'' (2018) **''Nº13 (XM'rr'r)'' (2018) **''Nº14 (XM'sur's)'' (2018) **''Nº16 (XM'n'l'g)'' (2019) **''Nº18 (XM'n'l'th)'' (2019) **''Nº19 (XM'd'nt)'' (2019) **''Nº21 (XM'sa'k)'' (2019) **''Nº23 (XM'nt'cs)'' (2019) **''Nº24 (XM'ns'ons)'' (2019) **''Nº29 (XM'b)'' (2019) **''Nº30 (XM'sts)'' (2019) *''Anima XM'ch'na I, Addendum (Secondary Pieces)'' (2017-2021), algorithmic compositions, digital music **''Nº1 (XM'ng'lia)'' (2017) (**) **''Nº2 (XM'r'ñao)'' (2017) (**) **''Nº3 (XM'g'n'tio)'' (2018) (*) **''Nº7 (XM'n'us)'' (2018) (***) **''Nº11 (XM'nf'st)'' (2018) (*) **''Nº15 (XM'dn'ght)'' (2019) (*) **''Nº20 (X(M)p'nto)'' (2019) (*) **''Nº22 (XM'ths)'' (2019) (*) **''Nº25 (XM'ss1)'' (2019) (*) **''Nº26 (XM'ss3)'' (2019) (*) **''Nº27 (XM'ss4)'' (2019) (*) **''Nº28 (XM'ss5)'' (2019) (*) Note: the pieces, result of automatic generation and creation processes, were then (loosely) classified into the following categories: (*) Genéricos Instrumentales (Gramática de la (N.) Música (standard)), (**) Genéricos Globales (World Music), (***) Genéricos Americanos. *''Nº 11 (XM'nf'st II)'' (2018) (digital piano sound), algorithmic composition, digital music *''Aftermat(h)'' (2020) (digital piano sound), algorithmic composition, digital music

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuczer, Bernardo Argentine composers German composers Music theorists 1955 births Living people 20th-century Argentine male artists 21st-century Argentine male artists 20th-century composers 21st-century composers