Harry Halbreich (

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, 9 February 1931 –

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, 27 June 2016) was a Belgian

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

.Dust jacket biography of Harry Halbreich from Halbreich (2007).Patrick Szersnovicz. Harry Halbreich (obituary). '' Diapason'', September 2016, No.649, p.18.

Biography

The son of a

Jewish-German The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

father and English mother, Halbreich studied with

Arthur Honegger Arthur Honegger (; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. A member of Les Six, his best known work is probably ''Antigone'', composed between 1924 and 1927 to ...

and later with

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonically ...

at the

Paris Conservatoire The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

, gaining a first prize in analysis and history of music. He later made his base in Belgium. From 1970 to 1976 he was Lecturer (german: Dozent) in Musical Analysis at the Royal Conservatory in

Mons Mons (; German and nl, Bergen, ; Walloon and pcd, Mont) is a city and municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the province of Hainaut, Belgium. Mons was made into a fortified city by Count Baldwin IV of Hainaut in the 12th century. T ...

. He worked on numerous radio broadcasts and co-founded the Belgian music magazine ''Crescendo'' for which he was a major contributor. From 1973 to 1976 he was artistic director of the Festival de Royan. He was known for a number of books, articles and studies on modern and contemporary music, including monograph works on

Claude Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...

, and

Bohuslav Martinů Bohuslav Jan Martinů (; December 8, 1890 – August 28, 1959) was a Czech composer of modern classical music. He wrote 6 symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. He bec ...

. He prepared musical catalogues of the works of Honegger and Martinů, and their works are therefore sometimes referred to by their H number. He assisted Nicolas Bacri in orchestrating Honegger's

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 librett ...

, ''La morte de Sainte Alméenne'', originally written in 1918 for voice and piano; the new version was premiered in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

on 26 November 2005, on the 50th anniversary of the composer's death. Halbreich's interest in modern music led to him writing articles on composers including contemporary music, particularly

Spectral music Spectral music uses the acoustic properties of sound – or sound spectra – as a basis for composition. Definition Defined in technical language, spectral music is an acoustic musical practice where compositional decisions are often informe ...

Horațiu Rădulescu Horațiu Rădulescu (; 7 January 1942 – 25 September 2008) was a Romanian-French composer, best known for the Spectral music, spectral technique of composition. Life Rădulescu was born in Bucharest, where he studied the violin privately with ...

Iancu Dumitrescu Iancu Dumitrescu (born 15 July 1944) is a Romanian avant-garde composer. Life and works Dumitrescu was born in Sibiu, Romania. He received a master's degree in composition in Bucharest, where his teachers included Alfred Mendelsohn. Later, ...

Ana-Maria Avram Ana-Maria Avram (1961–2017) was a Romanian composer, pianist, conductor and musicologist. Biography Avram was born in 1961 in Bucharest, Romania.Schell Michael. "Women in (New) Music: Remembering Ana Maria Avram (1961–2017)", Second Inversio ...

Gérard Grisey Gérard Henri Grisey (; ; 17 June 1946 – 11 November 1998) was a twentieth-century French composer of contemporary classical music. His work is often associated with the Spectralist Movement in music, of which he was a major pioneer. Biograp ...

, and

Tristan Murail Tristan Murail (born 11 March 1947) is a French composer associated with the "spectral" technique of composition. Among his compositions is the large orchestral work ''Gondwana''. Early life and studies Murail was born in Le Havre, France. His fa ...

. He has also written on composers of the past, including

Edgard Varèse Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse (; also spelled Edgar; December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965) was a French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States. Varèse's music emphasizes timbre and rhythm; he coined ...

George Enescu George Enescu (; – 4 May 1955), known in France as Georges Enesco, was a Romanian composer, violinist, conductor and teacher. Regarded as one of the greatest musicians in Romanian history, Enescu is featured on the Romanian five lei. Biog ...

Maurice Ohana Maurice Ohana (12 June 1913 – 13 November 1992) was a French composer. Ohana's output includes choral works, string quartets, suites for ten-string guitar, a ''Tiento'' for six-string guitar, and operas. Life and career Ohana was born in Casab ...

as well as

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

. A personal friend of contemporary performers and composers such as

Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; el, Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde ...

Giacinto Scelsi Giacinto Francesco Maria Scelsi (; 8 January 1905 – 9 August 1988, sometimes cited as 8 August 1988) was an Italian composer who also wrote surrealist poetry in French. He is best known for having composed music based around only one pitch, ...

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century" ...

and

Witold Lutosławski Witold Roman Lutosławski (; 25 January 1913 – 7 February 1994) was a Polish composer and conductor. Among the major composers of 20th-century classical music, he is "generally regarded as the most significant Polish composer since Szyman ...

, he was a keen defender of younger composers. He had a broad interest in culture, and while a convert to Catholicism, he was open to, and expressed deep knowledge of eastern spiritual history alongside Christian mystics. He died on 27 June 2016 at the age of 85.Death of H-number musicologist
/ref> Of his three children, the eldest Frédéric is a painter.

Bibliography

*''Albéric Magnard'', together with Simon-Pierre Perret,

Fayard Fayard (complete name: ''Librairie Arthème Fayard'') is a French Paris-based publishing house established in 1857. Fayard is controlled by Hachette Livre. In 1999, Éditions Pauvert became part of Fayard. Claude Durand was director of Fayard ...

, 2001. () *''Arthur Honegger, un musicien dans la cité des hommes'', Fayard, 1992. () *''L'Oeuvre d'Arthur Honegger : Chronologie, catalogue raisonné, analyses, discographie'', Fayard, 1994. () *''Bohuslav Martinů'', Fayard, 1968. () *''Debussy, sa vie et sa pensée'', together with

Edward Lockspeiser Edward Lockspeiser (21 May 19053 Feb 1973) was an English musicologist, composer, art critic and radio broadcaster on music who specialized in the works and life of French composer Claude Debussy and was considered one of the few British authoritie ...

, Fayard, 1989. () *''Olivier Messiaen'', Fayard, 1980. () *''Bohuslav Martinů Werksverzeichnis, Dokumentation und Biographie''. Zürich: Atlantis Verlag, 1968 (384 pages). *''Bohuslav Martinů Werkverzeichnis und Biographie''. Mainz: Schott, 2007 (579 pages). () * ''Musiciens de France'', together with

Paul-Gilbert Langevin Paul-Gilbert Langevin ( Boulogne-Billancourt, 5 July 1933 – Paris, 4 July 1986) was a French musicologist, who was a specialist on Anton Bruckner, Franz Schubert and 19th-century classical music. History Paul-Gilbert Langevin was the son of ...

, La Revue Musicale, N°324/326, 1979. () * ''Musiciens d'Europe'', together with Paul-Gilbert Langevin, La Revue Musicale, N°388/390, 1986. () *''Roumanie, Terre du Neuvième Ciel'', together with Ana Maria Avram, interviews and papers, Bucharest, Edition Axis Mundi, 1992 (215 pages). *'' La Musique Spectrale au début du XXIè Siècle'', conference in Paris with Harry Halbreich, Ben Watson, Costin Cazaban, Sébastien Beranger, moderated by Ana Maria Avram, CREMAC, 2006 (234 pages).

Notes

Sources

: Part of the text was translated from the Harry Halbreich article in the

French Wikipedia The French Wikipedia (french: Wikipédia en français) is the French-language edition of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. This edition was started on 23 March 2001, two months after the official creation of Wikipedia. It has article ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halbreich, Harry 1931 births 2016 deaths Belgian musicologists category:Belgian Jews Classical music catalogues Conservatoire de Paris alumni Musicians from Berlin