Hildegard Westerkamp (born April 8, 1946, in

Osnabrück Osnabrück (; wep, Ossenbrügge; archaic ''Osnaburg'') is a city in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population ...

, Germany) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

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 ...

, radio artist, teacher and sound ecologist of German origin.Kirk MacKenzie. "Westerkamp, Hildegard." ''Grove Music Online''. ''Oxford Music Online''. Oxford University Press, accessed December 5, 2015. She studied flute and piano at the Conservatory of Music in Freiburg, West Germany from 1966 to 1968 and moved to Canada in 1975. She received a

Bachelor of Music Bachelor of Music (BM or BMus) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree, and the majority of work consists of pre ...

from the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

in 1972 and a Master of Arts from

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located from ...

in 1988. She taught acoustic communication at Simon Fraser University from 1982 to 1991.

Biography

In 1972, she married the Canadian poet and playwright Norbert Ruebsaat and has collaborated with him on a number of projects.

Music

Many of her compositions deal with the acoustic environment and she often incorporates the medium of tape in conjunction with live instruments or voices, combining, manipulating and processing environmental sounds. Because her work focuses on nature, humanity, childhood and motherhood, it is more based in sound and not what would usually be considered as "music". She has been influenced by studying the works of composers like

Pauline Oliveros Pauline Oliveros (May 30, 1932 – November 24, 2016) was an American composer, accordionist and a central figure in the development of post-war experimental and electronic music. She was a founding member of the San Francisco Tape Music Cente ...

, John Cage and

Barry Truax Barry Truax (born 1947) is a Canadian composer who specializes in real-time implementations of granular synthesis, often of sampled sounds, and soundscapes. He is credited with developing the first ever implementation of real-time granular s ...

. Collaborations She collaborated with director Gus Van Sant, with whom she seemed to share work that explored similar concepts. To quote Randolph Jordan, "Her compositions are ideally suited for helping to flesh out Van Sant's portraits of young people adrift in worlds from which they are seemingly detached, but who might well be pointing towards alternative modes of environmental awareness."

1973–91

From 1973–80 Westerkamp worked as a research associate along with

R. Murray Schafer Raymond Murray Schafer (18 July 1933 – 14 August 2021) was a Canadian composer, writer, music educator, and environmentalist perhaps best known for his World Soundscape Project, concern for acoustic ecology, and his book ''The Tuning of th ...

at the

World Soundscape Project The World Soundscape Project (WSP) was an international research project founded by Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer in the late 1960s at Simon Fraser University. The project initiated the modern study of acoustic ecology. Its ultimate goal is ...

. This work fed into Schafer's book ''The Tuning of the World.'' In 1974 she began working as a producer and host at

CFRO CFRO-FM, licensed and owned by Vancouver Co-operative Radio, is a non-commercial community radio station in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is a legally registered co-operative and is branded as ''Co-op Radio''. The station broadcasts on 100.5 MH ...

(Vancouver Cooperative Radio). Through her work with Schafer and with radio, she developed a deep interest and concern for noise and the acoustic environment, which greatly influenced her style of composition. After this time, she began to experiment with recording, processing, and mixing environmental sounds in the recording studio. Westerkamp was involved in several other research projects on noise, acoustic ecology and music. From 1974 to 1975, she was a researcher with the Noise Abatement Project of the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation in Vancouver. Throughout the 1980s, she developed an interest in music for live performance, and in creating installations and other "composed environments" (sometimes in collaboration) for specific sites. In 1982, she was a researcher for the Women in Music project at

. She is also a founding member of the World Forum on Acoustic Ecology (WFAE).

1991 - present

After 1991, Westerkamp devoted herself to more fully to composing, lecturing, and writing, disseminating her compositions and ideas at concerts and conferences. She was editor of ''The Soundscape Newsletter'' from 1991 - 1995 and joined the editorial committee of ''Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology'', for the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology in 2000. She has also composed soundtracks for radio dramas and film and her music has been featured in movies by Gus Van Sant including ''

Elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae an ...

'' (2003) and '' Last Days'' (2005). She collaborated with

Jesse Zubot Jesse Zubot (of Britannia Beach, British Columbia) is a Canadian musician primarily known for his unique violin playing. Zubot also works as a composer, producer and recording engineer. History Zubot's acoustic-instrumental group Zubot ...

on the electronic score for '' Koneline'' (2016). Some of Westerkamp's works are directly related to feminism. In 1990, she composed "École Polytechnique", which was commissioned by Montréal Musiques Actuelles/New Music America. According to Andra McCartney and Marta McCarthy,"Hildegard Westerkamp's (1990) composition École Polytechnique is an artistic response to one of Canada's most profoundly disturbing mass murders, the 1989 slaying of fourteen women in Montreal, Quebec."

Discography

Recordings featuring Westerkamp's compositions, chronologically: * (1989) ''Kits Beach Soundwalk'' * (1990) ''Anthology of Canadian Music:Electroacoustic music'' * (1990) ''The Aerial 2'' * (1990) ''Électro clips'' (empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 9004, rereleased 1996 as IMED 9604) * (1994) ''Radio Rethink - art and sound transmission'' * (1995) ''Der Verlust der Stille'' * (1995) ''Klang Wege'' * (1995) ''Transmissions From Broadcast Artists, Radius #4'' * (1996) ''The Vancouver Soundscape'' * (1996) ''Transformations'' (empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 9631) * (1997) ''1977-1997, 20 Jahre Osnabrücker Komponisten'' * (1998) ''Harangue I'' (Earsay, ES 98001) * (1998) ''Harangue II'' (Earsay, ES 98005) * (1999) ''The Dreams of Gaia'' * (2000) ''Radiant Dissonance'' * (2002) ''Into India'' (Earsay, ES 02002) * (2003) ''Musique inpirée et tirée du film Elephant'' * (2003) ''S:on''

List of works

Compositions

*''Whisper Study'' (1975–79) *''Familie mit Pfiff (Theme and Variations)'' (1976) *''Fantasie for Horns I'' (1978) *''Fantasie for Horns II'' (1979) *''A Walk Through the City'' (1981) *''Attending to Sacred Matters'' (2002) *''Cool Drool'' (1983) *''His Master's Voice'' (1985) *''Harbour Symphony'' (1986) *''Cricket Voice'' (1987) *''Moments of Laughter'' (1988) *''Kits Beach Soundwalk'' (1989) * ''The Deep Blue Sea'' (1989) *''Breathing Room'' (1990) *''École polytechnique'' (1990) *''Beneath the Forest Floor'' (1992) *''India Sound Journal'' (1993) *''Sensitive Chaos" (1995)'' *''Dhvani'' (1996) *''Talking Rain'' (1997) *''Gently Penetrating beneath the sounding surfaces of another place'' (1997) *''Into the Labyrinth'' (2000) *''Attending to Sacred Matters'' (2002) *''Like a Memory'' (2002) *''Breaking News'' (2002) *''Für Dich-For You'' (2005)

Composed environments and sound installations

*''Cordillera'' (Music from the New Wilderness Festival, Western Front Gallery, Vancouver, Feb 1980) *''Zone of Silence Story'', with Norbert Ruebsaat (Zone of Silence Project, Museum of Quebec, Quebec City, Dec 1985–Jan 1986 *''Coon Bay'' (1988) *''Türen der Wahrnehmung'' (Ars Electronica '89, Linz, Austria, Sept 1989) *''Nada - An Experience in Sound'', in collaboration with Savinder Anand, Mona Madan, and Veena Sharma (Mati Ghar, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts Janpath, New Delhi, India, 10–25 Dec, 1998) *''At the Edge of Wilderness'', in collaboration with photographer Florence Debeugny (Industrial Ear, Vancouver, Sept 8-16, 2000; Whyte Museum, Banff, 11 Oct, 2002 – 19 Jan, 2003; Victoria College of the Arts, Melbourne, 19–27 March 2003) *''Soniferous Garden'', rev. of Part 4 of ''Nada'' (Engine 27, New York, 7–15 Nov, 2000; Sound Practice irst UKISC Conference on Sound Culture and Environments Dartington College of Arts, UK, Feb 2001; CCNOA, Brussels, 2–9 Feb, 2003; x-tract Sculpture Musicale, Podewil, Berlin, 1–12 Apr, 2003)

References

Notes

External links

*
Ear Room interview (Mark Peter Wright 6th July 2011)"Composer showcase: Hildegard Westerkamp" Canadian Music Centre"The signal of noise."
Ideas: With Paul Kennedy. CBC Radio.
Paula Gordon Show
{{DEFAULTSORT:Westerkamp, Hildegard Living people German composers German classical composers Canadian classical composers Canadian sound artists Women sound artists 20th-century classical composers German women composers German film score composers Electroacoustic music composers 1946 births Hochschule für Musik Freiburg alumni Simon Fraser University faculty University of British Columbia alumni Canadian women in electronic music Women classical composers 20th-century German composers 20th-century Canadian composers German emigrants to Canada 20th-century women composers 20th-century Canadian women musicians 20th-century German women musicians Canadian women composers