Reiner Bredemeyer (2 January 1929 − 5 December 1995) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

composer. He was born in

Vélez, Santander Vélez () is a town and municipality of the Santander Department in northeastern Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Ca ...

and went to school in Breslau. In 1944 he was drafted into military service and was briefly held as a prisoner of war of the American Army in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. After the end of World War II, he met composer

Karl Amadeus Hartmann Karl Amadeus Hartmann (2 August 1905 – 5 December 1963) was a German composer. Sometimes described as the greatest German symphonist of the 20th century, he is now largely overlooked, particularly in English-speaking countries. Life Born in ...

who introduced him to the music of Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók,

Anton Webern Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (3 December 188315 September 1945), better known as Anton Webern (), was an Austrian composer and conductor whose music was among the most radical of its milieu in its sheer concision, even aphorism, and stead ...

, Edgard Varèse, Charles Ives and Erik Satie. From 1949 to 1953 he studied

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 ...

with

Karl Höller Karl Höller (25 July 1907 – 14 April 1987) was a German composer of the late Romantic tradition. Biography Karl Höller was born in Bamberg, Bavaria. He came from a musical family on both sides: his father Valentin Höller was the Bamberg Cath ...

at the Munich Academy for Musical Arts. In 1954

Paul Dessau Paul Dessau (19 December 189428 June 1979) was a German composer and conductor. He collaborated with Bertolt Brecht and composed incidental music for his plays, and several operas based on them. Biography Dessau was born in Hamburg into a ...

took him to East Germany, where Bredemeyer became a master student of

Rudolf Wagner-Régeny Rudolf Wagner-Régeny (28 August 1903, Szászrégen, Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Reghin, Romania) – 18 September 1969, Berlin) was a composer, conductor, and pianist. Born in Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary ...

at the DDR

Academy of Arts, Berlin The Academy of Arts (german: Akademie der Künste) is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The Academy's predecessor organization was fo ...

. He taught at the

Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts The Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts (German: ''Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch'', ''HFS''), based in the Niederschöneweide district of Berlin, Germany, was founded in 1951 as the National Theatre School in Berlin with the stat ...

in Berlin and worked together with

Bertold Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

Walter Felsenstein Walter Felsenstein (30 May 1901 – 8 October 1975) was an Austrian theater and opera director. He was one of the most important exponents of textual accuracy, productions in which dramatic and musical values were exquisitely researched and ba ...

and Ernst Busch. From 1957 to 1960 he was arts director at the Theatre of Friendship in Berlin and from 1961 kapellmeister and composer at the German Theatre. The composers of his generation (

Friedrich Goldmann Friedrich Goldmann (27 April 1941 – 24 July 2009) was a German composer and conductor. Life Born on 27 April 1941 in Siegmar-Schönau (since July 1951 incorporated into Chemnitz), Goldmann's music education began in 1951 when he joined the Dr ...

Georg Katzer Georg Katzer (; 10 January 1935 – 7 May 2019) was a German composer and teacher. The last master student of Hanns Eisler, he composed music in many genres, including works for the stage. Katzer was one of the pioneers of electronic new music ...

und

Friedrich Schenker Friedrich Schenker (23 December 19428 February 2013) was a German avant-garde composer and trombone player. Life Born in the German town of Zeulenroda, Schenker learned trombone and piano as a child and made his first compositional attempts at ...

) broke with

socialist realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is c ...

and closed the gap to western

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 ...

music.so nah - so fern
Deutschlandradio Kultur, Monday 9 November 2009 In 1978 Bredemeyer became a member of the Academy of Arts and in 1988 he was appointed

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

. Until 1989 he served as a board member of the GDR's composers' and musicologists' union. Bredemeyer died in Berlin. His grave is at Cemetery Pankow III, where many renown German artists are buried. His oeuvre includes more than 600 works (of which around 300 are for theatre, film and audio drama), many of which have still not been performed in concert.

Awards

* 1969: Art Prize of the FDGB * 1969: Banner of Labor * 1975: Art Prize of East Germany * 1983: National Prize of East Germany * 1983:

FIPRESCI Prize The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI, short for Fédération Internationale de la PRESse CInématographique) is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world fo ...

at the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the fest ...

* 1986: Composition Award at the National Film Festival of the GDR * 1989: Order of Merit for the Fatherland

External links

*
Reiner Bredemeyer

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bredemeyer, Reiner 1929 births 1995 deaths People from Santander Department 20th-century classical composers German classical composers German male classical composers German film score composers Male film score composers Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit Recipients of the Banner of Labor Recipients of the National Prize of East Germany Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin 20th-century German composers 20th-century German male musicians Recipients of the Medal of Merit of the GDR