Bernd Alois Zimmermann facts for kids

Bernd Alois Zimmermann (born March 20, 1918 – died August 10, 1970) was an important German composer. He is perhaps best known for his opera Die Soldaten. This opera is seen as one of the most important German operas of the 20th century. Zimmermann's music was very diverse. He used many different techniques, including dodecaphony (a way of composing with all twelve notes) and musical quotation (using parts of other music). His style included avant-garde (new and experimental), serialism (a structured way of composing), and postmodern ideas.

Life of Bernd Alois Zimmermann

Zimmermann was born in Bliesheim, a small town near Cologne, Germany. He grew up in a Catholic community in the countryside. His father worked for the German railway company (the Reichsbahn) and was also a farmer.

In 1929, Bernd started attending a private Catholic school. This is where he first truly discovered music. When the NSDAP (a political party in Germany at the time) closed all private schools, he moved to a public Catholic school in Cologne. He finished school there in 1937.

That same year, he completed his duty for the Reichsarbeitsdienst (a labor service). From late 1937 to early 1938, he studied teaching at a university in Bonn.

In early 1938, he began studying music education, music history, and composition at the University for Music in Cologne. In 1940, he was called to serve in the Wehrmacht (the German armed forces). However, he was released in 1942 because of a serious skin illness. He went back to his studies, but he didn't get his degree until 1947 because of the end of World War II. By 1946, he had already started working as a composer, mostly for radio. From 1948 to 1950, he attended the Kranichsteiner/Darmstädter Ferienkursen für Neue Musik. These were summer courses for new music, where he learned from famous composers like René Leibowitz and Wolfgang Fortner.

In 1957, Zimmermann received a special scholarship to stay at the German Academy in Rome, Italy. He also became a Professor of Composition, Film, and Broadcast Music at the Cologne Music University. In the 1960s, he became more successful as a composer. He received another scholarship to Rome in 1963 and became a member of the Academy of Arts, Berlin. His opera Die Soldaten premiered in 1965, which brought him much fame. Before this, the opera had not been performed because it needed so many musicians and was very difficult. The Cologne Opera even thought it was "unplayable."

Zimmermann faced health challenges, including a quickly worsening eye problem. On August 10, 1970, he passed away at his home in Königsdorf near Cologne. This was just five days after he finished his last composition, Ich wandte mich und sah an alles Unrecht das geschah unter der Sonne. At that time, he was also working on another opera called Medea.

One of Zimmermann's well-known students was Clarence Barlow.

Zimmermann's Music Style

Zimmermann played a big part in the development of new music in Germany. German composers had been mostly separated from these new ideas during the time of the Nazi regime. He first wrote music in a neoclassical style, which means it was inspired by older, classical music. Then he moved to atonality (music without a clear key) and twelve-tone music (a specific way of organizing all twelve notes). By 1956, he was using serialism, a very structured method of composing.

Zimmermann loved jazz music, and you can sometimes hear its influence in his pieces. You might notice it in his Violin Concerto or Trumpet Concerto.

Unlike some other composers of his time, like Stockhausen or Boulez, Zimmermann did not completely break away from traditional music. In the late 1950s, he created his own unique style called "Klangkomposition." This German word describes a way of composing that focuses on layers of sound and different tone-colors.

Klangkomposition often combines and overlaps musical ideas from many different time periods. This could include music from the Middle Ages, the Baroque era, the Classical period, and even Jazz and Pop music. He used advanced musical techniques to do this. Sometimes, Zimmermann would embed small musical quotes from other pieces, like in his orchestral work Photoptosis. Other times, entire pieces were built like a collage, such as the ballet Musique pour les soupers du Roi Ubu. In his vocal works, especially Requiem for a Young Poet, he used overlapping texts from various sources to move the piece forward. He described his musical approach using the idea of "the spherical form of time," meaning all musical times exist at once.

Works

• Extemporale for piano (1946)
• Capriccio for Piano
• Lob der Torheit (a cantata based on a text by Goethe), for solo voice, choir, and large orchestra (1947)
• Enchiridion I for piano (1949)
• Märchensuite for orchestra (1950)
• Alagoana (Caprichos Brasileiros) Ballet Suite (1950)
• Rheinische Kirmestänze (1950, later arranged in 1962 for 13 wind instruments)
• Concert for Violin and orchestra (1950)
• Sonata for solo violin (1951)
• Symphony in one movement (1951, revised 1953)
• Enchiridion II for piano (1951)
• Concerto for oboe and chamber orchestra (1952)
• Des Menschen Unterhaltsprozeß gegen Gott (The People's Maintenance Suit Against God) Radio opera in three acts with text from Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1952)
• Nobody knows the trouble I see Concert for trumpet and chamber orchestra (1954)
• Sonata for Viola solo (1955)
• Konfigurationen (Configurations) for piano (1956)
• Perspektiven — Musik für ein imaginäres Ballet (Perspectives — Music for an imaginary ballet.) for 2 pianos (1956)
• "Die fromme Helene" after Wilhelm Busch sounded as a "Rondo popolare" for narrator and instrumental ensemble (1957)
• Canto di speranza Cantata for cello and small orchestra (1957)
• Omnia tempus habent Cantata for soprano and 17 instruments (1957)
• Impromptu for orchestra (1958)
• Dialoge Concerto for two pianos and orchestra (1960)
  • Re-written with the title Monologue for two pianos (1964)
• Sonata for solo cello (1960)
• Présence, ballet blanc for piano trio and narrator (with words from Paul Pörtner) (1961)
• Antiphonen for viola and 25 instrumentalists (1961)
• Tempus Loquendi for solo flute (1963)
• Musique pour les soupers du Roi Ubu (Ballet noir en sept parties et une entrée) Ballet after "Ubu Roi" by Alfred Jarry (1966)
• Die Soldaten Opera in four acts, libretto (the text of an opera) by the composer after the drama by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz (1965)
• Concerto for Cello and Orchestra en forme de pas de trois (1966), dedicated to Siegfried Palm
• Tratto Electronic composition (1967)
• Intercomunicazione for cello and piano (1967)
• Die Befristeten for jazz quintet (1967)
• Photoptosis Prelude for large orchestra (1968)
• Requiem für einen jungen Dichter — Lingual for narrator, soprano, baritone, three choirs, electric tape, orchestra, jazz combo and organ (1969)
• Vier kurze Studien for solo cello (1970)
• Stille und Umkehr orchestra sketches (1970)
• Tratto 2 Electronic composition (1970)
• Ich wandte mich um und sah alles Unrecht das geschah unter der Sonne — Ekklesiastische Aktion for two narrators, bass and orchestra (1970)
• Plus various compositions for radio, theater, and film

See also

In Spanish: Bernd Alois Zimmermann para niños