Portrait of the composer Bernhard Lang (2007)
Bernhard Lang (2007)

Bernhard Lang (born 24 February 1957 Linz, Austria) is an Austrian composer, improviser and programmer of musical patches and applications. His work can be described as contemporary classical, with roots, however, in various genres such as 20th-century avant-garde, European classical music, jazz, free jazz, rock, punk, techno, EDM, electronica, electronic music, and computer-generated music. His works range from solo pieces and chamber music to large ensemble pieces and works for orchestra and musical theatre. Besides music for concert halls, Lang designs sound and music for theatre, dance, film and sound installations.

Bernhard Lang came to prominence with his work cycle Differenz/Wiederholung (DW, Difference/Repetition), composed since 1998,[1][2] in which he illuminated and examined the themes of reproductive and DJ cultures based on the philosophic work of Gilles Deleuze. Sociocultural and socially critical questions, as in Das Theater der Wiederholungen/The Theatre of Repetitions (2003) are examined as closely as intrinsically musical and music-cultural problems ("I hate Mozart", 2006).

Another focus is the "recycling" of historic music, which Lang creates using self-programmed patches, applying filter and mutation processes (as in the "Monadologie" cycle).

In the works of Lang's Game series, the performers are given a set of predetermined rules by which they must guide their decisions and interactions. In other words, these works are based on the principles of controlled improvisation or determined indeterminacy.[3]

In addition to classical European instruments, Lang also makes use of their amplified electrical counterparts (e.g. electric viola) as well as mutually microtonally de-tuned ensemble groups. Analogue and digital synthesizers, keyboards, rock music instruments (electric guitar and bass, drumset), turntables (the trailblazing instrument of the hiphop culture), rappers, Arabian singers, the spoken voice and live-electronics (mainly the self-programmed "Loop Generator") are similarly used.

Education and career

Bernhard Lang studied at the Brucknerkonservatorium in Linz (Austria). In 1975, he moved to Graz to study philosophy and German philology, jazz (Dieter Glawischnig), piano (Harald Neuwirth), counterpoint (Hermann Markus Pressl), and harmony and composition (Andrzej Dobrowolski). From 1977 to 1981, he worked with various jazz ensembles as composer, arranger and pianist. At the Institute of Electronic Music (IEM) in Graz, he began his work in the area of electronic music and computer-based composition systems. From 1984 to 1989, he worked at the Conservatory in Graz while continuing his studies with Georg Friedrich Haas and Gösta Neuwirth. In 1987, he co-founded the composer's club "die andere saite" (roughly "the alternate string", a German-language pun referring also to "the other side"). Together with Winfried Ritsch, he developed the software CADMUS in C++.

In 1989, he began teaching at the Graz University of the Arts, where he was appointed Professor of Composition in 2003, a post which he held until his retirement in 2022.[2]

Since 2000, Lang has given numerous lectures in Europe and abroad, including at the Darmstadt Summer Course, Ostrava Days, Impuls Graz, Berlin's University of the Arts, Vienna's University of Music and Performing Arts and the Vienna Conservatory, as well as holding guest lectureships in, among other cities, Munich, Zurich, Basle, Oslo, Madrid, London, New York[2] and Paris.[4]

Lang has collabarated with dancers and choreographers such as Xavier Le Roy, Willi Dorner, Christine Gaigg and Silke Grabinger.[5][6]

In 2004–2005 Lang had a scholarship at the International Artists' House Villa Concordia in Bamberg, and in 2006 he was the featured composer at Wien Modern. This was followed by a working residency in 2007 at the Künstleratelier Thomas Bernhard Archiv in Gmunden. In 2007-2008 he was composer-in-residence at the Theater Basel, in 2008-2009 Capell-Compositeur of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and in 2013–14 guest lecturer for composition in Lucerne.[2][7]

Bernhard Lang is an honorary member of Klangforum Wien[8] and has been a member of the Akademie der Künste Berlin since 2014. According to an evaluation initiated in 2017 by the Italian music magazine "Classic Voice" by more than 100 experts in contemporary music, Lang is one of the ten most important living composers.[9][10]

Lang's works have been released on numerous CDs and LPs, most notably on Kairos[11] and GODrec.[12]

Since 2016, Bernhard Lang's entire catalogue of works are published by Ricordi Berlin.[13]

The Differenz/Wiederholung (DW) series

Gilles Deleuze's book Difference and Repetition marks a turning point in Lang's compositional language. The Differenz/Wiederholung (DW, Difference/Repetition) series began in 1998 and currently comprises about 40 works.[14]

Lang uses DJ techniques such as loops and scratching in his music,[2] and employs repetition in a variety of ways. Among these are sections that are repeated in the same form or motifs whose shape changes slightly with each repetition; automatic repetitions result from this procedure, as do continuous developments or abrupt changes. Just as important as the repetition is the difference; the question arises whether one is now hearing the same thing or whether something has changed after all. The focus is thus not only on the actual performance, but also about the individual listener's perception.[15]

Music Theatre

Music theatre is a special passion of Bernhard Lang. There are currently about 20 works in this genre, among them:

Das Theater der Wiederholungen, based on the writings of the Marquis de Sade and William S. Burroughs and choreographed by Xavier Le Roy, was premiered at the festival Steirischer Herbst, Graz in 2003.[16][17]

esc#5 Impostors, for five voices and amplified ensemble, is one of seven short operas based on a libretto by Jonathan Safran Foer. The premiere took place in 2005 at the Oper unter den Linden, Berlin.[18][2]

I Hate Mozart, with a libretto by Michael Sturminger, was composed for the Viennese Mozart Year festival in 2006. It is a parody of the opera business, a behind-the-scenes look at the relationships between singers, opera conductors, managers and artists' agents.[19][20]

Montezuma – Fallender Adler, based on a text by Christian Loidl, for 6 voices, choir, jazz combo, turntables, ensemble and pre-recorded electronic sounds, is a work commissioned by the Kulturhauptstadt Linz09, but was not performed in Linz. The premiere took place in June 2010 at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, with further performances in the following season.[21][22][23]

Der Reigen, after a libretto by the Viennese writer-director Michael Sturminger and based on the play by Austrian dramatist Arthur Schnitzler, was commissioned by the German Schwetzingen Festival, where it had its premiere in 2014. Further performances followed in 2014 at the New Opera Days Ostrava and in 2019 at the Bregenzer Festspiele and at the Wien Modern Festival.[2][24]

Der Golem, for voices, choir, large orchestra and jazz trio based on the novel by Gustav Meyrink and a video libretto by Peter Misotten, was premiered at the Nationaltheater Mannheim in 2016.[2]

ParZeFool, based on Richard Wagner's Parsifal and staged by Jonathan Meese, was composed in 2017 and commissioned by the Vienna Festival, with performances at the Theater an der Wien and the Berlin Festival.[2]

Der Hetzer, a re-writing of Giuseppe Verdi's Otello, had its world premiere at the Dortmund Theatre in 2021. In the intervals between the four acts local hip-hop artists, rappers and DJs comment on their own experiences with the opera's central themes.[25]

Cheap Opera #2 "Playing Trump", a work commissioned by the Hamburg State Opera with a libretto by Dieter Sperl, based on original texts by the former US president, premiered in 2021.[26]

The End of Creation. Anthropocene, premiered at the Staatstheater Augsburg in April 2022, is an overwriting of Haydn's Schöpfung. The original libretto is replaced by a new one written by André Bücker based on Lord Byron's Darkness and Jean Paul's Rede des Toten Christus vom Weltgebäude herab (Speech of the Dead Christ from the World Building). Lang's work is the last part of the full-length staged oratorio. The first two parts of Haydn's Schöpfung conform for the most part with the original, but the recitatives have been transformed by Dietmar Dath into scenes for actors. Lang composed the very different third part, which shows our planet when the human part of creation comes to an end. The work was also performed in the 2022/23 season.[27][28][29]

HIOB, an opera for voices, choir, orchestra and jazz trio, based on Michael Sturminger's libretto after the novel Job by Joseph Roth, was premiered in February 2023 at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt to standing ovations.[30][31][32][33]

The Monadologie series

The Monadologie series, beginning in 2007, consists of more than 40 works. Lang calls the concept "musical-cellular processing", derived from Leibniz's Monadology.[34] Lang's pieces are basically meta-compositions, i.e. machine-assisted reworkings of existing scores. With the use of a computer programme he developed, the original structures are disintegrated and then reassembled with the help of cellular automata and granulators, similar to the experimental film techniques of the destructivist Raphael Montañez Ortiz.[35][36]

Lang uses his own works as source material, but also compositions by, for example, Beethoven (Hammerklaviersonate,[37] VII. Sinfonie),[38] Richard Strauss (Don Quixote),[39] Anton Bruckner (Linzer Sinfonie –Das kecke Beserl),[40] Puccini (Butterfly Overture,[41] Madame Butterfly's aria Im weiten Weltall fühlt sich der Yankee heimisch),[42] Chopin (12 Études),[43] Arnold Schönberg (II. Kammersinfonie)[44] and Petr Kotik's (Many Many Women).[45]

The GAME series

Lang has been composing pieces of the GAME series since 2016. The basis for this is experience of improvisation, e.g. with Uli Fussenegger, and with organised improvisation projects of Klangforum Wien, the Scan Projects. In the GAME pieces there is no longer a continuous score, but a collection of playing rules from which the musicians can make choices. Therefore, the pieces change with each performance.[46]

The Hermetika series

The Hermetika series, begun in 2008, consists of choral pieces based on a collection of hermetic texts ranging from ancient mystical writings to quasi-dadaistic enigmatic codes. These can be inner voices, voices of angels and demons, happenings in trance or sleep states, the voices described in medivial grimoires. Language is transformed into sound or into imaginary meanings and signs through projection and individual interpretation.

Festivals

Lang's works have been performed at numerous festivals, such as Moscow Alternativa Festival, Moscow Modern, resistance fluctuations Los Angeles 1998, Tage Absoluter Musik Allentsteig I und II, Klangarten, Herbstfestival Lissabon 1998, Steirischer Herbst Graz, Wien Modern,[47] Münchner Opernfestspiele, Darmstädter Ferienkurse, Donaueschingen Festival, Salzburg Festival, Disturbances – Music Theater Workshop Copenhagen 2003, Moving Sounds Festival New York 2010,[48] Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, Impuls Tanz Wien, MaerzMusik Berlin,[49] Warsaw Autumn,[50] Contempuls Prague,[51] Eclat Stuttgart,[52] Edinburgh International Festival,[53] Suntory Hall Summer Festival Tokyo,[54] ManiFeste Festival Paris,[55][56] and Ostrava Days.[57][58][59][60]

Awards and honors

Works (selection)

Lang's entire catalogue of works are published by Ricordi.[2]

Stage works

Orchestra music

Ensemble music

Music for choir/vocal ensemble

Chamber music

Film music

Music for dance performance

Jazz/Improvisation

Electronic compositions/sound installations/remixes

Discography (selection)

CDs

DVDs

LPs

References

  1. ^ Campbell, Edward (2013-11-07). Music After Deleuze. A&C Black. p. 61. ISBN 978-1-4411-7348-5.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Lang Bernhard, Biography and Works". Ricordi. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  3. ^ Dysers, Christine (2023). Bernhard Lang. Critical Guides to Contemporary Composers. Bristol, UK / Chicago, USA: Intellect, The University of Chicago Press. p. 87. ISBN 978-1-78938-763-6.
  4. ^ "IRCAM, Bernhard Lang". IRCAM. Retrieved 6 July 2023.
  5. ^ "Portrait: Bernhard Lang – Austrian Music Export". 2010-08-24.
  6. ^ Wolf Perez, Edith (2015-11-19). "Silke Grabinger inszeniert eine Bernhard Lang Komposition" (in German).
  7. ^ "Lang Bernhard – db.musicaustria.at".
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  9. ^ "Classic Voice Survey" (pdf). Retrieved 2023-08-19.
  10. ^ "212 – Gennaio 2017 Musica Classica".
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  14. ^ Dysers, Christine (2023). Bernhard Lang. Critical Guides to Contemporary Composers. Bristol, UK / Chicago, USA: Intellect, The University of Chicago Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-78938-763-6.
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  17. ^ "BERNHARD LANG: Das Theater der Wiederholungen – KAIROS". 2 July 2015.
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  30. ^ "Standing Ovations für HIOB – Stadttheater Klagenfurt" (in German). Retrieved 2023-08-20.
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  32. ^ Kager, Reinhard (11 February 2023). "Bernhard Langs Oper 'Hiob' nach Joseph Roth in Klagenfurt – FAZ". Faz.net (in German). Retrieved 2023-08-20.
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  34. ^ "Edinburgh International Festival (3) – Weber, Beethoven, Strauss, and Bernhard Lang". Retrieved 2023-08-19.
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  37. ^ "Catalogue – Ricordi, Monadologie XXXh 'Hammer'".
  38. ^ "Catalogue – Ricordi, Monadologie XXVIII 'Seven'".
  39. ^ "Catalogue – Ricordi, Monadologie II 'Der Neue Don Quixote'".
  40. ^ "Catalogue – Ricordi, Monadologie XIII "The Saucy Maid"".
  41. ^ "Catalogue – Ricordi, Monadologie XIVa".
  42. ^ "Catalogue – Ricordi, Monadologie XIVb".
  43. ^ "Catalogue – Ricordi, Monadologie XXXVI "Chopin" – 12 Etüden".
  44. ^ "Catalogue – Ricordi, Monadologie VII 'Kammersinfonie'".
  45. ^ "Catalogue – Ricordi, Monadologie XVII 'SheWAsOne'".
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  48. ^ "2010 Moving Sounds Festival at le poisson rouge". Archived from the original on October 10, 2010. Retrieved August 18, 2023.((cite web)): CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  49. ^ "EXB Winter mazes: Bernhard Lang – Exberliner". 9 March 2016. Retrieved 2023-08-17.
  50. ^ "61. Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music". Retrieved 2023-08-17.
  51. ^ "Jestliže bylo vše řečeno, opakujte to. Bernhard Lang redefinuje skladby klasiků – Vltava" (in Czech). 12 December 2021. Retrieved 2023-08-17.
  52. ^ "ECLAT Festival neue Musik Stuttgart feiert Jubiläum – miz.org". Retrieved 2023-08-18.
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  76. ^ "ImPulsTanz Performances 2004 – Cie. Willi Dorner (AT)". Retrieved 2023-08-28.
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  88. ^ "BERNHARD LANG: ParZeFool (3 CDs) – KAIROS". 2 August 2019. Retrieved 2024-01-09.
  89. ^ "BERNHARD LANG: The Cold Trip – KAIROS". 20 July 2017. Retrieved 2024-01-09.
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  92. ^ "Die Ö1 Jazznacht, SA 26 02 2011, 23:03 – oe1.ORF.at" (in German). 2011-02-26. Retrieved 2024-01-09.
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  97. ^ "Bernhard Lang / Philip Jeck / Alter Ego – TablesAreTurned (2011, Vinyl) – Discogs". Discogs. Retrieved 2024-01-09.
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Further reading

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