Hans Werner Henze facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Hans Werner Henze
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Henze in 1960
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| Born | 1 July 1926 |
| Died | 27 October 2012 (aged 86) Dresden, Germany
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| Education | Heidelberg University |
| Occupation | Classical composer |
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Hans Werner Henze (born July 1, 1926 – died October 27, 2012) was an important German composer. He wrote many different kinds of music. His style was influenced by many things, like jazz and traditional German music. He was especially known for his music for the stage, like operas and ballets.
Henze also had strong political beliefs. He moved from Germany to Italy in 1953. He felt that Germany was not accepting of his political views and his personal life. He lived in a village in Italy for most of his life. Henze was a member of the Italian Communist Party. He wrote music honoring leaders like Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara. In 1968, a performance of his work Das Floß der Medusa (The Raft of Medusa) caused a riot. This happened because a red flag was placed on the stage. Henze even taught in Cuba for a year.
Contents
Life and Works of Hans Werner Henze
Early Life and Musical Beginnings
Hans Werner Henze was born in Gütersloh, Germany. He was the oldest of six children. His father was a teacher. From a young age, Hans loved art and music. This sometimes caused disagreements with his father, who had more traditional views.
His father, Franz, fought in the First World War. After the war, he became a teacher. Later, he started to support the Nazi party. This changed the family home. Books by Jewish and Christian authors were removed. Hans and his older brothers joined the Hitler Youth.
Even with these changes, Hans listened to classical music, especially Mozart. His father eventually saw that Hans was meant to be a musician. In 1942, Henze began studying music in Braunschweig. He learned piano, percussion, and music theory.
In 1943, his father went back to the army and died in the war. In 1944, Hans himself was called into the army during the Second World War. He worked as a radio operator. Soon, he was captured by the British and held in a prisoner-of-war camp. After the war ended in 1945, he became a musician at a theater. He also continued his music studies at Heidelberg University.
Henze's music started to gain attention. In 1946, a piece he wrote for piano, flute, and strings was very successful. This made music publishers interested in him. He also attended the Darmstadt New Music Summer School. This school was important for new music styles. There, Henze began to use a technique called serial technique.
In his early years, Henze used the twelve-tone technique in his music. This included his First Symphony and First Violin Concerto in 1947. He was also inspired by ballet. He wrote a ballet piece called Ballett-Variationen in 1949. In 1948, he worked at a theater in Konstanz. There, his first opera, Das Wundertheater, was created.
In 1950, he became a ballet conductor in Wiesbaden. During this time, he wrote two operas for radio and his first Piano Concerto. He also composed a famous opera called Boulevard Solitude. This opera was influenced by jazz music.
Moving to Italy and New Music
In 1953, Henze decided to leave Germany. He felt that the country's political situation and general atmosphere were not welcoming to him. His music publisher also encouraged him to focus only on composing. This allowed Henze to move to Italy. He lived there for most of his life.
He first settled on the island of Ischia. Other famous musicians, like William Walton, lived there too. Henze's music started to change. His piece Quattro poemi (1955) showed he was moving away from some of the very modern music styles. In 1956, he moved to Naples.
He worked with the poet Ingeborg Bachmann. Together, they created several operas. These included Der Prinz von Homburg (1958) and Der junge Lord (1964). He also wrote his Five Neapolitan Songs for a famous singer named Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
In 1961, Henze moved to a quiet villa near Rome. At this time, he started writing more music that included singing. From 1962 to 1967, Henze taught music in Salzburg. In 1967, he became a visiting professor in the United States. One of his biggest successes was the opera Die Bassariden. It premiered at the Salzburg Festival.
After this, his political involvement grew stronger. This also affected his music. For example, his oratorio Das Floß der Medusa caused a big protest in Hamburg. His collaborators refused to perform when a picture of Che Guevara and a revolutionary flag were placed on stage. His political views also influenced his Sixth Symphony (1969) and other works. These included El Cimarrón, which was about escaped black slaves in Cuba.
Becoming a Famous Composer
Henze's political ideas were strongly shown in his 1976 opera We Come to the River. In the same year, he started the Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte in Montepulciano. This was a place to promote new music. His children's opera Pollicino premiered there in 1980.
From 1980 to 1991, he taught composition in Cologne. He also founded other music workshops and festivals in Austria. In 1988, he started the Munich Biennale. This was an international festival for new music theater. He was its artistic director.
His later operas became more traditional. Examples include The English Cat (1983) and Das verratene Meer (1990). Even though they were less controversial, his later works still showed his interest in politics and society.
His Requiem (1990–93) was written for a friend who had passed away. His choral Ninth Symphony (1997) was dedicated to those who fought against Nazism. It was based on a novel about anti-fascism. This showed Henze's strong rejection of Nazism, which he had experienced as a young person.
His last big success was the 2003 opera L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe. He wrote the story himself, based on a Syrian fairy tale. Other late works include Sebastian im Traum (2004) and the opera Phaedra (2007).
Henze lived with his partner, Fausto Moroni, for over forty years. Fausto took care of Henze when he was very ill. In 2007, Fausto passed away after a long illness. Henze wrote a piece called Elogium Musicum (2008) to remember him.
Henze received many awards for his music. In 1995, he received the Westphalian Music Prize. This award was later named after him. He also received an honorary doctorate in Musicology in 2004. In 1975, he became an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London. His autobiography, Bohemian Fifths, was published in 1998.
Hans Werner Henze passed away in Dresden on October 27, 2012, at the age of 86.
Henze's Musical Styles
Henze's music used many different styles. These included neoclassicism, jazz, the twelve-tone technique, and serialism. He even used some rock or popular music elements.
After moving to Italy in 1953, his music became more Italian in style. His opera König Hirsch ("The Stag King") has very rich and full sounds. This style continued in his ballet music for Ondine (1957). While composers like Mendelssohn and Weber influenced him, Ondine also has jazz elements. It also sounds a bit like Stravinsky's music.
His ballet Maratona di danza needed even more jazz. It even had a band on stage. This was very different from the more romantic Ondine. Henze's earlier job as a ballet adviser helped him write so much ballet music.
Later, the sounds in his cantata Kammermusik (1958) became harsher. Henze returned to some of the more modern, atonal styles in other works. Then, he brought back the other styles he had used before.
Awards
- Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (1990)
- Praemium Imperiale (2000)
- Deutscher Tanzpreis (2001)
See also
In Spanish: Hans Werner Henze para niños
