Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large
oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by
serialism,
atonality,
Stravinsky,
Italian music The term ''Italian music'' is ambiguous and may refer to several topics:
*The music of Italy
*The folk, popular, classical (especially opera) musics of Italy and the Italian people
, flag =
, flag_caption = The national ...
,
Arabic music
Arabic music or Arab music ( ar, الموسيقى العربية, al-mūsīqā al-ʿArabīyyah) is the music of the Arab world with all its diverse music styles and genres. Arabic countries have many rich and varied styles of music and also man ...
and
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
, as well as traditional schools of German composition. In particular, his stage works reflect "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life".
Henze was also known for his political convictions. He left Germany for Italy in 1953 because of a perceived intolerance towards his
leftist politics and
homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...
. Late in life he lived in the village of
Marino in the central Italian region of
Lazio
it, Laziale
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 =
, demographics1_info1 =
, demographics1_title2 ...
, and in his final years still travelled extensively, in particular to Britain and Germany, as part of his work. An avowed
Marxist and member of the
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy.
The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...
, Henze produced compositions honoring
Ho Chi Minh
(: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as (' Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as P ...
and
. At the 1968 Hamburg premiere of his
requiem for Che Guevara, titled ''
Das Floß der Medusa
' (''The Raft of the Medusa'') is a secular oratorio by the German composer Hans Werner Henze. It is regarded as a seminal work in the composer's alignment with left-wing politics.
Background
Henze wrote it as a Requiem for Che Guevara, and set ...
'' (''The Raft of Medusa''), the placing of a red flag on the stage sparked a riot and the arrest of several people, including the librettist. Henze spent a year from 1969 to 1970 teaching in
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
.
Life and works
Early years
Henze was born in
Gütersloh
Gütersloh () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in the area of Westphalia and the administrative region of Detmold. Gütersloh is the administrative centre for a district of the same name and has a population of 100,194 peo ...
,
Westphalia
Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants.
The territory of the regio ...
, the eldest of six children of a teacher, and showed an early interest in art and music. That and his political views led to conflict with his conservative father. Henze's father, Franz, had served in the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and was wounded at
Verdun
Verdun (, , , ; official name before 1970 ''Verdun-sur-Meuse'') is a large city in the Meuse department in Grand Est, northeastern France. It is an arrondissement of the department.
Verdun is the biggest city in Meuse, although the capital ...
. He worked as a teacher in a school at
Bielefeld
Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Detmold and the ...
, formed on progressive lines, but it was closed in 1933 by government order because its progressive style was out of step with official views. Franz Henze then moved to Dünne, a small village near
Bünde, where he fell under the spell of
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
propaganda. Books by Jewish and Christian authors were replaced in the Henze household by literature reflecting Nazi views; the whole family was expected to fall into line with Franz's new thinking. The older boys, including Hans, were enrolled in the
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...
.
Although the Henze household was filled with talk of current affairs, Hans was also able to hear broadcasts of classical music (especially
Mozart) and eventually his father realized that his son had a vocation as a musician. Henze began studies at the state music school of
Braunschweig
Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...
in 1942, where he studied piano, percussion, and theory. Franz Henze rejoined the army in 1943 and he was sent to the Eastern front, where he died. Henze had to break off his studies after being
conscripted
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day und ...
into the army in 1944, towards the end of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
. He was trained as a radio operator. He was soon captured by the British and held in a
prisoner-of-war camp
A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war.
There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. ...
for the remainder of the war. In 1945 he became an accompanist in the Bielefeld City Theatre, and continued his studies under
Wolfgang Fortner
Wolfgang Fortner (12 October 1907 – 5 September 1987) was a German composer, composition teacher and conductor.
Life
Fortner was born in Leipzig. From his parents, who were both singers, Fortner very early on had intense contact with music.
...
at
Heidelberg University
}
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, B ...
in 1946.
Henze had some successful performances at
Darmstadt, including an immediate success in 1946 with a neo-baroque work for piano, flute and strings, that brought him to the attention of
Schott's, the music publishers. He also took part in the famous
Darmstadt New Music Summer School
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 ...
, a key vehicle for the propagation of
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
techniques. At the 1947 summer school, Henze turned to
serial technique
In music, serialism is a method of composition using series of pitches, rhythms, dynamics, timbres or other musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though some of his contemporaries were als ...
.
In his early years he worked with
twelve-tone technique
The twelve-tone technique—also known as dodecaphony, twelve-tone serialism, and (in British usage) twelve-note composition—is a method of musical composition first devised by Austrian composer Josef Matthias Hauer, who published his "law o ...
, for example in his
First Symphony and First Violin Concerto of 1947.
Sadler's Wells Ballet
The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded i ...
visited Hamburg in 1948; this inspired Henze to write a choreographic poem, ''Ballett-Variationen'', which he completed in 1949. The first ballet he saw was
Frederick Ashton's ''Scènes de Ballet''. He wrote a letter of appreciation to Ashton, introducing himself as a 22-year-old composer. The next time he wrote to Ashton he enclosed the score of his ''Ballett-Variationen'', which he hoped Ashton might find of interest. This work was first performed in
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...
in September 1949 and staged for the first time in
Wuppertal
Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and tow ...
in 1958. In 1948 he became musical assistant at the Deutscher Theater in
Konstanz
Konstanz (, , locally: ; also written as Constance in English) is a university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the south of Germany. The city houses the University of Konstanz and was th ...
, where his first
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...
', based on the work of
Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-emin ...
, was created.
In 1950 he became
ballet
Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
conductor at the
Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden
The Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden ('Hessian State Theatre Wiesbaden') is a German theatre located in Wiesbaden, in the German state Hesse. The company produces operas, plays, ballets, musicals and concerts on four stages. Known also as the ...
in
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
, where he composed two operas for radio, his First Piano Concerto, as well as his first stage work of real note, the jazz-influenced opera ''
Boulevard Solitude
' is a ' (lyric drama) or opera in one act by Hans Werner Henze to a German libretto by Grete Weil after the play by Walter Jockisch, in its turn a modern retelling of Abbé Prévost's 1731 novel ''Manon Lescaut''. The piece is a reworking of the ...
'', a modern recasting of the traditional
Manon Lescaut
''The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut'' ( ) is a novel by Antoine François Prévost. Published in 1731, it is the seventh and final volume of ''Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité'' (''Memoirs and Adventures of a Ma ...
story.
Move to Italy
Henze left Germany in 1953, in reaction to
homophobia and the country's general political climate. His publisher, Schott's, had also offered Henze an advance on royalties, on condition that he leave his conducting posts to focus on composition. This financial incentive allowed Henze to move to Italy, where he remained for most of his life. He settled on the island of
Ischia
Ischia ( , , ) is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about from Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Roughly trapezoidal in shape, it measures approximately east to west ...
in the
Gulf of Naples
The Gulf of Naples (), also called the Bay of Naples, is a roughly 15-kilometer-wide (9.3 mi) gulf located along the south-western coast of Italy (province of Naples, Campania region). It opens to the west into the Mediterranean Sea. It i ...
. Also residents on the island were the composer
William Walton
Sir William Turner Walton (29 March 19028 March 1983) was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include ''Façade'', the cantat ...
and his wife
Susana, who took a great interest in the young German composer. Henze's ''Quattro poemi'' for orchestra in 1955 made clear that he had moved far from the principles of the Darmstadt avant-garde. In January 1956 he left Ischia and moved to the mainland to live in
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
. Initially he suffered further disappointment, with controversial premieres of the opera ''
König Hirsch
' (in English, ''The Stag King'') is an opera in three acts by Hans Werner Henze to a German libretto by after ''Il re cervo'', a theatrical fable (1762) by Carlo Gozzi. He revised it as ''Il re cervo'', premiered in 1963 at the Staatstheater Kas ...
'', based on a text by
Carlo Gozzi, and the ballet ''Maratona di danza'', with a
libretto by
Luchino Visconti
Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo (; 2 November 1906 – 17 March 1976) was an Italian filmmaker, stage director, and screenwriter. A major figure of Italian art and culture in the mid-20th century, Visconti was one of the ...
. However, he then began a long-lasting and fruitful creative partnership with the poet
Ingeborg Bachmann
Ingeborg Bachmann (25 June 1926 – 17 October 1973) was an Austrian poet and author.
Biography
Bachmann was born in Klagenfurt, in the Austrian state of Carinthia, the daughter of Olga (née Haas) and Matthias Bachmann, a schoolteacher. Her f ...
. Working with her as librettist, he composed the operas ''
Der Prinz von Homburg'' (1958) based on a text by
Heinrich von Kleist
Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist (18 October 177721 November 1811) was a German poet, dramatist, novelist, short story writer and journalist. His best known works are the theatre plays '' Das Käthchen von Heilbronn'', ''The Broken Jug'', ''Amph ...
and ''
Der junge Lord
''Der junge Lord'' (''The Young Lord'') is an opera in two acts by Hans Werner Henze to a German libretto by Ingeborg Bachmann, after Wilhelm Hauff's 1827 fairy tale "Der Affe als Mensch" (The Ape as Man) from ''Der Scheik von Alessandria und sein ...
'' (1964) after
Wilhelm Hauff
Wilhelm Hauff (29 November 180218 November 1827) was a Württembergian poet and novelist.
Early life
Hauff was born in Stuttgart, the son of August Friedrich Hauff, a secretary in the Württemberg ministry of foreign affairs, and Hedwig Wilhelmi ...
, as well as ''Serenades and Arias'' (1957) and his ''Choral Fantasy'' (1964).
He composed his ''Five Neapolitan Songs'' for
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (28 May 1925 – 18 May 2012) was a German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous Lieder (art song) performers of the post-war period, best known as a singer of Franz Schubert's Lieder, ...
soon after his arrival in Naples. A later sojourn in Greece provided the opportunity to complete his
Hölderlin-based work ''Kammermusik 1958'', dedicated to
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...
and premiered by the tenor
Peter Pears
Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears ( ; 22 June 19103 April 1986) was an English tenor. His career was closely associated with the composer Benjamin Britten, his personal and professional partner for nearly forty years.
Pears' musical career starte ...
, the guitarist
Julian Bream and an eight-member chamber ensemble.
Henze moved in 1961 to a secluded villa, 'La Leprara', on the hills of
Marino, overlooking the River Tiber south of Rome. This time also signalled a strong leaning towards music involving the voice.
From 1962 until 1967, Henze taught masterclasses in
composition
Composition or Compositions may refer to:
Arts and literature
*Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography
*Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...
at the
Mozarteum
Mozarteum University Salzburg (German: ''Universität Mozarteum Salzburg'') is one of three affiliated but separate (it is actually a state university) entities under the “Mozarteum” moniker in Salzburg municipality; the International Mo ...
in
Salzburg
Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872.
The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...
, and in 1967 he became a visiting professor at
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...
in
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...
. One of his greatest successes was the premiere of the opera ''
Die Bassariden'' at the Salzburg Festival.
In the following period, he greatly strengthened his political involvement which also influenced his musical work. For example, the première of his
oratorio
An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is ...
''
Das Floß der Medusa
' (''The Raft of the Medusa'') is a secular oratorio by the German composer Hans Werner Henze. It is regarded as a seminal work in the composer's alignment with left-wing politics.
Background
Henze wrote it as a Requiem for Che Guevara, and set ...
'' in Hamburg failed when his
West Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
collaborators refused to perform under a portrait of
and a revolutionary flag had been placed upon the stage. His politics also influenced his
Sixth Symphony (1969), Second Violin Concerto (1971), ''
Voices'' (1973), and his piece for spoken word and chamber orchestra, ''
El Cimarrón'', based on a book by Cuban author
Miguel Barnet
-->
Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to:
Places
* Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands
* São Miguel (disa ...
about escaped black
slaves during Cuba's colonial period.
An established composer
His political critique reached its high point in 1976 with the premiere of his opera ''
We Come to the River
''We Come to the River – '' is an opera by Hans Werner Henze to an English-language libretto by Edward Bond. Henze and Bond described this work as "Actions for music", rather than an opera. It was Henze's 7th opera, originally written for The Ro ...
''.
In the same year Henze founded the ''
Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte'' in
Montepulciano
Montepulciano () is a medieval and Renaissance hill town and ''comune'' in the Italian province of Siena in southern Tuscany. It sits high on a limestone ridge, east of Pienza, southeast of Siena, southeast of Florence, and north of Rome b ...
for the promotion of new music, where his children's opera ''Pollicino'' premiered in 1980. From 1980 until 1991 he led a class in composition in the
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
Music School. In 1981 he founded the Mürztal Workshops in the Austrian region of
Styria, the same region where he set up the
Deutschlandsberg
Deutschlandsberg (; sl, Lonč) is a town in Deutschlandsberg (district), Deutschlandsberg district of Styria, Austria. It is located in southern Austria, near the border with Slovenia. It is approximately 35 km from Graz. Popular tourist att ...
Youth Music Festival in 1984. In 1988 he founded the
Munich Biennale
The Munich Biennale (german: Münchener Biennale) is a contemporary opera and music theatre festival in the city of Munich. The full German name is ''Internationales Festival für neues Musiktheater'', literally: International Festival for New Musi ...
, an "international festival for new music theatre", of which he was the artistic director.
His own operas became more conventional once more, for example ''
The English Cat'' (1983), and ''
Das verratene Meer'' (1990), based on
Yukio Mishima
, born , was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, nationalist, and founder of the , an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was considered fo ...
's novel ''Gogo no Eiko'', known in English as ''
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea''.
His later works, while less controversial, continued his political and social engagement. His ''
Requiem'' (1990–93) comprised nine 'sacred concertos' for piano, trumpet and chamber orchestra, and was written in memory of
Michael Vyner, the artistic director of the
London Sinfonietta
The London Sinfonietta is an English contemporary chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London.
The ensemble has headquarters at Kings Place and is Resident Orchestra at the Southbank Centre. Since its inaugural concert in 1968—givi ...
. The
choral Ninth Symphony (1997), which is dedicated to the “heroes and martyrs of German anti-fascism," is set to a libretto by
Hans-Ulrich Treichel
Prof. Dr. Hans-Ulrich Treichel (born 12 August 1952) is a Germanist, novelist and poet. His earliest published books were collections of poetry, but prose writing has become a larger part of his output since the critical and commercial success ...
, based on motifs from the novel ''
The Seventh Cross
''The Seventh Cross'' (german: Das siebte Kreuz) is a novel by Anna Seghers, one of the better-known examples of German literature circa World War II. It was first published in Mexico by ''El Libro Libre'' In 1942. The English translation came o ...
'' by
Anna Seghers
Anna Seghers (; born ''Anna Reiling,'' 19 November 1900 – 1 June 1983), is the pseudonym of a German writer notable for exploring and depicting the moral experience of the Second World War. Born into a Jewish family and married to a Hungarian ...
. It is a rejection of Nazism, which Henze himself had experienced in his youth. His last success was the 2003 premiere of the opera ''
L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe'' (English: The Hoopoe and the Triumph of Filial Love) at the Salzburg Festival, with a text he wrote himself, based on a
Syrian fairy tale. Other late compositions include ''
Sebastian im Traum'' (2004) for large orchestra and the opera ''
Phaedra
Phaedra may refer to:
Mythology
* Phaedra (mythology), Cretan princess, daughter of Minos and Pasiphaë, wife of Theseus
Arts and entertainment
* ''Phaedra'' (Alexandre Cabanel), an 1880 painting
Film
* ''Phaedra'' (film), a 1962 film by ...
'' (2007).
Henze lived with his partner Fausto Moroni from the early sixties, and Moroni planned and planted the hillside garden around La Leprara. Moroni cared for the composer when he suffered a
nervous breakdown
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...
during which he barely spoke and had to be encouraged to eat. In 2007, shortly after Henze's sudden recovery, Moroni died after a lengthy battle with cancer. ''Elogium Musicum'' (2008), for large orchestra and chorus singing Henze's own Latin text, is a memorial to his partner of more than forty years.
In 1995 Henze received the Westphalian Music Prize, which has carried his name since 2001. Invited by
Walter Fink
Walter Fink (16 August 1930 – 13 April 2018) was a German entrepreneur and a patron of contemporary classical music. He is known for being a founding member, executive committee member and sponsor of the Rheingau Musik Festival, where he initia ...
, he was the tenth composer featured in the annual
Komponistenporträt of the
Rheingau Musik Festival
The (RMF) is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres. Concerts take place at culturally important locations, such as Eberbach Abbey and Schloss Johannisberg, ...
in 2000, but owing to illness he did not attend. The music included his ''Requiem''. On 7 November 2004, Henze received an honorary doctorate in Musicology from the
Hochschule für Musik und Theater München
The University of Music and Performing Arts Munich (german: Hochschule für Musik und Theater München), also known as the Munich Conservatory, is a performing arts conservatory in Munich, Germany. The main building it currently occupies is ...
(University for Music and Performing Arts, Munich). In 1975 he became an Honorary Member of the
Royal Academy of Music, London.
The English version of his autobiography, ''Bohemian Fifths'', was published in 1998.
Henze died in
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
on 27 October 2012 at the age of 86.
Works
Henze's music has incorporated
neoclassicism,
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
, the
twelve-tone technique
The twelve-tone technique—also known as dodecaphony, twelve-tone serialism, and (in British usage) twelve-note composition—is a method of musical composition first devised by Austrian composer Josef Matthias Hauer, who published his "law o ...
,
serialism, and some
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
or
popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fu ...
. Although he did study atonalism early in his career, after his move to Italy in 1953 Henze's music became considerably more Neapolitan in style. His opera ''
König Hirsch
' (in English, ''The Stag King'') is an opera in three acts by Hans Werner Henze to a German libretto by after ''Il re cervo'', a theatrical fable (1762) by Carlo Gozzi. He revised it as ''Il re cervo'', premiered in 1963 at the Staatstheater Kas ...
'' ("The Stag King") contains lush, rich textures. This trend is carried further in the opulent ballet music that he wrote for English choreographer
Frederick Ashton's ''
Ondine'', completed in 1957. While
Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sym ...
and
Weber were important influences, the music for ''Ondine'' contains some jazz and there is much in it redolent of
Stravinsky—not only Stravinsky the neo-classical composer, but also the composer of ''
The Rite of Spring
, image = Roerich Rite of Spring.jpg
, image_size = 350px
, caption = Concept design for act 1, part of Nicholas Roerich's designs for Diaghilev's 1913 production of '
, composer = Igor Stravinsky
, based_on ...
''. His ''Maratona di danza'', on the other hand, required much tighter integration of jazz elements, complete with an on-stage band, which was very different from the more romantic ''Ondine''. Henze received much of the impetus for his ballet music from his earlier job as ballet adviser at the
Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden
The Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden ('Hessian State Theatre Wiesbaden') is a German theatre located in Wiesbaden, in the German state Hesse. The company produces operas, plays, ballets, musicals and concerts on four stages. Known also as the ...
.
The textures for the cantata ''Kammermusik'' (1958, rev. 1963) are far harsher; Henze returned to atonalism in ''Antifone'', and later the other styles mentioned above again became important in his music.
Awards
*
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize
The Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (short: Siemens Music Prize, german: link=no, Ernst von Siemens Musikpreis) is an annual music prize given by the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste (Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts) on behalf of the Ernst v ...
(1990)
*
Praemium Imperiale
Prince Takamatsu
The Praemium Imperiale ( ja, 高松宮殿下記念世界文化賞, Takamatsu-no-miya Denka Kinen Sekai Bunka-shō, World Culture Prize in Memory of His Imperial Highness Prince Takamatsu) is an international art prize inaugur ...
(2000)
*
Deutscher Tanzpreis
The Deutscher Tanzpreis (German Dance Prize) is a prestigious prize for artistic dance in Germany. It has been awarded annually since 1983.
The ''Deutscher Berufsverband für Tanzpädagogik'' awarded the prize until 2012. From 2013 to 2017, it wa ...
(2001)
References
Further reading
* Bokina, John. 1997. ''Opera and Politics: From Monteverdi to Henze.'' New Haven: Yale University Press. .
* Henze, Hans Werner. 1984. ''Musik und Politik. Schriften und Gespräche''
usic and Politics: Collected WritingsEd. by Jens Brockmeier. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, (1st Edition 1976, ). English translation of 1st German edition by Peter Labanyi: UK 1982 (Faber & Faber, ) and US 1982 (Cornell University Press, ).
* Henze, Hans Werner. 1998. ''Bohemian Fifths: An Autobiography.'' Translated by Stewart Spencer. London: Faber & Faber.
ranslation of ''Reiselieder mit böhmischen Quinten: Autobiographische Mitteilungen 1926–1995''. Frankfurt: S. Fischer, 1996.
*
Kennedy, Michael. 2006. ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'', 2nd edition, revised. Associate editor, Joyce Bourne. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. .
* Palmer-Füchsel, Virginia. 2001. "Henze, Hans Werner". ''
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...
'', second edition, edited by
Stanley Sadie and
John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
*
Weryha-Wysoczański, Chevalier Rafael de. 2000. ''Zwei Aquarelle von Hans Werner Henze'', in: ''Komposition als Kommunikation. Zur Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts'', Hamburger Jahrbuch für Musikwissenschaft, vol 17, pp. 415–421, edited by
Constantin Floros, Frankfurt; Berlin; Bern; Bruxelles; New York; Oxford; Vienna: Peter Lang. . .
External links
*
*
Schott Music: Hans Werner HenzeSchirmer: Hans Werner Henze
'Henze at 80' – BBC website including recorded interview extractsListen to Henze's "The Electric Cop" at Acousmata music blog
*
Intervista a Hans Werner Henze / a cura di Antonella Calzolari e Velio Carratoni13 June 2007 – Video with an interview in Italian, by Antonella Calzolari and () and transcription published in the magazine ' n.232 (2008)
*
by Bruce Duffie, 27 November 1981 (mostly about his operas)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henze, Hans Werner
1926 births
2012 deaths
20th-century classical composers
20th-century German composers
20th-century German male musicians
21st-century classical composers
21st-century German composers
21st-century German male musicians
Ballet composers
Composers awarded knighthoods
Deutsche Grammophon artists
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize winners
Gay musicians
German male classical composers
German opera composers
Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music
International Rostrum of Composers prize-winners
Jazz-influenced classical composers
Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
LGBT classical composers
LGBT classical musicians
LGBT musicians from Germany
Male opera composers
Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin
People from Gütersloh
People from the Province of Westphalia
Heidelberg University alumni
Pupils of René Leibowitz
Pupils of Wolfgang Fortner
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Varèse Sarabande Records artists
Hitler Youth members
German Army soldiers of World War II
German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United Kingdom
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people