Michael von Biel (born 30 June 1937) is a German

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

cellist The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, D3 ...

, and graphic

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

Life

Biel was born in Hamburg, the son of Werner von Biel and Ursula von Biel (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Lampert). After finishing school in Canterbury, England, he studied piano, theory, and composition in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

(1956–57),

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

(1958–60),

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

(1960, with

Morton Feldman Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School ...

, amongst others),

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

(1961–62, with

Cornelius Cardew Cornelius Cardew (7 May 193613 December 1981) was an English experimental music composer, and founder (with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons) of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected experimental music, ...

), and

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 ...

(with

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) 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. He is known for his groun ...

). From 1961 to 1963 he attended the

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 ...

International Vacation/Holiday Courses for New Music. In 1964 he received a commission from the WDR for the electronic piece ''Fassung''. From 1965–66 he was Composer in Residence at the

State University of New York The State University of New York (SUNY, , ) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is one of the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. Led by c ...

in Buffalo. Since 1966 Michael von Biel has lived in Cologne, where he came into contact with artists of the

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...

movement. From 1968–69 he studied with

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...

at the

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

Kunstakademie. In the following years he created works in the visual realm especially. His ''Jagdstück'' (1966) for brass, contrabass, tape, and amplified barbecues was probably partly inspired by his contact to artists from the

movement.

Compositions (selective list)

*''Für Klavier'' no.1–3 (three piano pieces for Morton Feldman), for piano four-hands (1960–61) *''Book for Three'', for violin and two pianos, or three pianos (1961–62) *''Doubles'', 29 pieces for violin and piano (1961) *String Quartet No. 1 (1962) *String Quartet No. 2 (1963) *''Fassung'', electronic music for four loudspeaker groups(1963–64) *''Quartett mit Begleitung'', for string quartet and cello (1965) *''Deklination'', for alto voice, piano, 3 percussionists, harp, cello, contrabass, and electronics (1965) *''Welt'' I and II, action scores (1965–66) *''The Plain of S'cairn'', for five or more winds and five or more strings (1966) *''Jagdstück'' for brass, contrabass, tape, and amplified barbecues (1966) *''Composition'' for orchestra (1968) *''Deutsche Landschaften'', for solo cello (1970) *Cello Concerto (1971) *''Übungsstück'', for solo cello with filtered feedback (1971) *Preludes, for cello (1972) *''13 traditionelle Stücke'', for 2 guitars (1974–77) *Pieces for two guitars (1976) *''Fragment'', for two electric guitars (1981) *Nineteen Pieces for piano, synthesizer, glockenspiel, percussion, and electric guitar (1985) *Twenty-eight Pieces for Piano (1987–89) *''Acht Projekt (Aufsatzstück)'', for piano (1992) *Pieces for piano (1992)

Sources

External links

Feedback Studio survey of works
Living people 1937 births German classical composers 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers German classical cellists Pupils of Karlheinz Stockhausen German male classical composers 20th-century German composers 21st-century German composers 20th-century German male musicians 21st-century German male musicians 20th-century cellists 21st-century cellists {{Germany-composer-stub

Life

Compositions (selective list)

Sources

Further reading

External links