Felix Baumann
11.01.1961
- Born and raised in Speicher near St. Gallen
- Graduated as a primary school teacher in Kreuzlingen
- Studied at the Akademie für Schul- und Kirchenmusik Luzern (piano with Eva Serman, school music I+II, conducting) and the Musikakademie Basel (theory and composition with Roland Moser and Detlev Müller-Siemens).
- Additional in-depth study of rhythm with Pierre Favre
Felix Baumann has been a professor for composition, music theory and the interpretation of contemporary music at the Hochschule der Künste in Zurich since 1992. He has been the head of the composition and music theory department since 2003 and the supervisor of the Studio for New Music since 1999, a position that has facilitated a multitude of encounters with composers. He has been a member of the board of directors for the Komponistenforum since 1995 and the IGNM Zurich from 1996 until 2002.
Central to his compositional work is the investigation of unfolding movement (the getting started) and topics of communication. Appropriately the examination of language and speech has led to the production of a whole body of works. In recent years, the context of Felix Baumann's work has become increasingly important, so much so that composed programmes or specific projects now overshadow the creation of new works.
His oeuvre encompasses works for various chamber musical ensembles, numerous vocal works and two compositions for orchestra. The majority of his work is the result of commissions. In 2002 Felix Baumann was awarded a sabbatical year by the city of Zurich for his work as a composer. He has been invited to symposia, festivals and music schools in his position as a guest lecturer and composer (Trstenice, Czech Republic, Festival Cluj Modern in Rumania, Berlin, Kiev, Sarajewo, Peking repeatedly (Beijing Modern International Festival), Nanjing and Shanghai, Rome, Canberra (Canberra International Chamber Music Festival), Sydney and Budapest (Budapest Autumn Festival).
His works are distributed by Swiss Music Edition www.musicedition.ch.
|
Felix
Baumann Kürbergstr. 29 CH-8049 Zürich Fon: +41 (0)44 342 57 72 E-mail: felix.baumann@zhdk.ch |
Scores
Was, wenn Verwandlung nicht (1990)
Order No: 8401, sFr. 16.00, € 12.00
Based on the 'Duineser Elegien' by R.M.Rilke. The radiation of a central motive changes through a process of different aspects.
Vier Worte (1991)
Order No: 8402, sFr. 31.00, € 24.00
For a committed amateur choir. A piece of music in four movements for two female voices, one male voice and an organ. Based on biblical texts.
Quintett (quintet) (1992)
Order No: 8404, sFr. 31.00, € 24.00
Opposing elements growing increasingly apart. Rights of performance reserved.
Monolith (1993)
Order No: 8405, sFr. 34.00, € 26.00
This whole five-part piece is developed from a pentatonic core group.
Le guetteur mélancolique (1994)
Order No: 8406, sFr. 49.00, € 38.00
Texts: Guillaume Apollinaire For the 'Stadelhofer Death Dance'. A spatially performable score based on texts by Guillaume Apollinaire about the transition from this world to the next. Speechlessness in the face of death, a dance around the grave and the crossing of the threshold.
Duo (1995)
Order No: 8407, sFr. 18.00, € 14.00
When two unequals do the same the result is a difference, if they do different, a generic third can evolve.
unzuhause (1997)
Order No: 8409, sFr. 13.00, € 10.00
‘Unzuhause’ is, according to Heidegger, a more primordial phenomenon than fear.
entgegen (1998)
Order No: 8410, sFr. 13.00, € 10.00
The contrast between different energy forms acts as a catalyst enabling the static to become fluid.
entgegen 2 (1998) (1998)
Order No: 8425, sFr. 16.00, € 12.00
'entgegen 2' differs from 'entgegen' by a more open cadence.
Ins Offene (1998)
Order No: 8411, sFr. 18.00, € 14.00
A piece about roughing up the unsisono, which is displaced from a static into a liquid state.
Fährte (1998)
Order No: 8412, sFr. 13.00, € 10.00
When the ground is soft enough, the game leave a trail.
Poren (1999)
Order No: 8413, sFr. 21.00, € 16.00
An attempt at writing a music which is, on the one hand, corporal even crystal clear and on the other hand dismantled from every fixation: a music which is flowing and simultaneously clear.
spöttisch leicht (1999/00)
for singing voice (mezzo-soprano), clarinet, violin, violoncello and piano
Order No: 8414, sFr. 34.00, € 26.00
Texts: Sarah Kirsch The line skips by Sarah Kirsch turn the readers into stumblers. Stumblers have to re-read the text if they want to understand its content. They gain, thereby, unexpectedly in time and fall to a deeper level.
Kadenzen für das Violoncello-Konzert in D-Dur von Joseph Haydn, Hob. VII b:2 (cadences for the violoncello concert in D sharp by Joseph Hyden, Job VII b:2) (2000)
Order No: 8415, sFr. 13.00, € 10.00
1st Movement: 1'10 2nd Movement: 12" 3rd Movement: 10" and 30" An attempt to propagate the compositional perspective of Haydn.
"nah / hautnah" (2000/01)
for orator, solo soprano, violoncello and ensemble (fl.cl/perc/pf/vn.vc)
Order No: 8416, sFr. 70.00, € 54.00
(Parts available from the composer)
Texts: Sarah Kirsch, Sappho, Michel Serres, Stefan Buri, Hans Magnus Enzensberger Commissioned by and with the support of 'Pro Helvetia', (the Swiss culture foundation) for the 50th anniversary of the Zurich Chamber Voice Choir. First performed in Zurich on the 20th November, 2001 by the Chamber Voice Choir Zurich, Martina Fausch, Martina Schucan and the Ensemble for New Music Zurich (Bernhard Erne). A piece dealing with the proximity of music and speech, the border area between commutation and murmuring, exactly there where the word is weak and the music has already begun.
Schwebungen (2001)
Order No: 8417, sFr. 13.00, € 10.00
Dedicated to Martina Schucan. First performed in Menorca, 3rd November, 2001 by Martina Schucan. Harmonic extremeties effect a continual toggeling between tension and relaxation. At the end remains the faint idea of the vicissitude at the beginning, now altered into a persistent and intensified dimension.
anhaltend (2001/02)
Order No: 8418, sFr. 21.00, € 16.00
(Parts: sFr. 18.-; € 12.00)
Music based on the duo op. 54, Lettre F 2e livre by Jacques Offenbach. First performed in St Gallen, 8th April, 2002 by Martina Schucan and Imke Frank. ‘Anhaltend’ can be played independently or as the third movement of the duo op. 54, Lettre F 2e livre von Jacques Offenbach, whereby the original third movement is replaced or played as the fourth. Music sounds exactly there where we least expect it and always different to how we expect it.
entgegen (2002) (2002)
Order No: 8424, sFr. 13.00, € 10.00
Sprayerspruch (2002)
for five-part a-cappella choir
Order No: 8420, sFr. 29.00, € 22.00
Texts: Mahatma Gandhi, everyday advertising and media language Loosely based on Mahatma Gandhi. A continual substantiation of musical and later even non-musical contents leads to a central question of human being. For an ambitious amateur choir.
aussprechen (2002)
for recorder(s), viola da gamba and harpsichord
Order No: 8422, sFr. 34.00, € 26.00
'aussprechen' has something installative about it: in apparently endlessly excessive lengths almost nothing happens, which causes inflexibility to appear with quiet humour.
Sprayerspruch II (2002/03)
Order No: 8421, sFr. 31.00, € 24.00
Texts: Mahatma Gandhi, Alltags- Werbe- Mediensprache Attempting to make the choral version even more radical by including instruments.
menschenfleiss (2002/03)
for string orchestra
Order No: 8419, sFr. 49.00, € 38.00
Based on a poem by Ernst Jandl. From the late collision of extreme opposites there grows a sound room consisting of out-of-tune harmonic spectra, spectra whose penetrability and opacities evoke memories of pure sounds and hidden anticipation.
...nachfragend (2002/03)
Order No: 8429, sFr. 16.00, € 12.00
Between reception and perception. This short piece allows the opportunity to meditate over the difference between the recording of foreign content and sensual perception as a level of knowledge.
Irritationen (2003)
Order No: 8426, sFr. 16.00, € 12.00
Compulsary piece for the 2004 Koeckert Competition. 'Irritationen' are amenities or excitors that provoke. Terms such as 'unsicher machen', 'verwirren' and 'berunruhigen' are added to this meaning in the 1800s (through their proximity to the verb 'irren'). In this sense, 'Irritationen' indicate profound connections, where to live with them harmoniously is not an absolute given from the outset.
... für und für (2004)
Order No: 8427, sFr. 16.00, € 12.00
In "...für und für" the music leaves the familiar tempering and linear time form. Ostensible impurity can, thereby, suddenly engage in an alien harmony. Rhythmically pulsating music, nice for the duration.
Intonationen (2004)
for two (Baroque) violins
Order No: 8428, sFr. 16.00, € 12.00
Commissioned by and for John Holloway and Monika Baer. Evaporating presences. A work about chracteristic moods, possibly comparable to feelings and their associated paradigmatic tarnishing or colouring of the peceprion of the environment.
Intervention (2004/05)
Order No: 8430, sFr. 16.00, € 12.00
In 'Intervention', the music is channelled in such a way as to highlight the fragile and the subtle, unthinkable without the large gesture at the beginning, they now become something equivalent to its opposite. It is thus that polar positions seem to nourish subterraneously.
Übergang (2005)
Order No: 8431, sFr. 26.00, € 20.00
Through the elongation of time in the deeper and darker register, the music (or rather the perceiving ear) nestles in an intermediate area between process and static, as if observed through a magnifying glass. From the abundance of innumerable possibilities emerges the presence of a singular transition.
Ich und Du (2008)
Order No: 8432, sFr. 16.00, € 12.00
For Ana Lomsaridze and Matthias Arter. 'Ich und Du' takes the canon technique as its starting point to create, in the first few moments, an unexpected constellation full of conflict potential, which is then gradually tackled and illuminated from various sides. This short piece offers the possibility to listen in on the longing and the shared and their possible and impossible realisations.
Heiligenetude (Bidott und Padott) (2008)
Order No: 8433, sFr. 34.00, € 26.00
(Parts: sFr. 40.-; € 26.50)
Attempting to describe the sacred or the holy is captious and can easily miss that which is actually meant. The sacred is not easily articulated. Maybe the sacred simply arises through musical means like an uncontrolled accordance of interior and exterior, conscious and preconscious facts? Maybe Bidott and Padott are two Patron Saints yet to be discovered.
ich und ich (2009)
Order No: 8434, sFr. 18.00, € 14.00
Dedicated to Siang Wong. Following 'Ich und Du' for two oboes, 'ich und ich' for piano solo is the second part of a cycle in progress tackling the issue of one's own position. 'ich und ich' is a work about the sound of the piano and an exploration of a mediation between expressively charged material and musical facts, which develop of their own accord.
Discs
Celloduo Frank/Schucan
Rico Gubler: Roundabout zu Offenbachs op. 34
Jacques Offenbach: Duo E-Dur für 2 Violoncelli op. 54 Nr. 2
Felix Baumann: anhaltend
(Martina Schucan; Imke Frank)
| Schweizer Musik - Home Musique Suisse - Home Swiss Music - Home |
automatically generated. last update: 24.01.2012 / 2004 Theo Lustenberger