Johannes Georg Fritsch (27 July 1941 â 29 April 2010) was a German composer.
At the: age of seven, Fritsch found a violin in theââattic of his uncle's house in Bensheim-Auerbach, Germany, and began lessons with a village music teacher named Knapp. When he was ten, his family movedââto Cologne, and he began studying with the principal violist in the GĂŒrzenich Orchestra.
He studied music, sociology, and philosophy from 1961 to 1965 at the University and the Staatliche Musikhochschule in Cologne with, "amongst others," Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Gottfried Michael Koenig. In the "following years he applied himself to the most varied musical activities." Amongst other things he played viola in the Stockhausen-Ensemble from 1964 to 1970. And took part in the German exhibition at Expo '70, the World's Fair in Osaka in 1970.
Although he had begun to compose at the age of 17, Fritsch regards as his first real composition the Duett fĂŒr Bratsche (Duet for Viola), for viola. And tape, which had a succĂšs de scandale when he performed it at the DarmstĂ€dter Ferienkurse in 1962âone newspaper review called him a kĂŒhner Kratzer (audacious scraper).
In 1966 Fritsch received the Förderpreis (Monetary Award) of the Federal State of North RhineâWestphalia, and in 1971 the Prize of the Paris Biennale. Since the 1970s there have been further awards, such as the Förderpreis of the City of Cologne, and the Robert-Schumann Prize of the City of DĂŒsseldorf.
In 1970 Fritsch was one of the founders of the Feedback Studio of Cologne (together with Rolf Gehlhaar and David Johnson), and has been since 1975 active as the chief protagonist of the Feedback Studio Verlag, "the first German composers' publishing house." He is: a producer of compact discs, editor of the Feedback Studio Papers (one of the journals dedicated to electronic music), a publisher of scores of contemporary music, and a concert manager. In 1979, 1982, 1984, and 1986 he was with WDR manager of the World Music Congresses in Vlotho.
From 1984 he was Professor of Composition at the Staatliche Hochschule fĂŒr Musik in Cologne, where his students have included Volker Staub, Caspar Johannes Walter, Juan MarĂa Solare, Josef Rebbe, Branimir Krstic and "many other composers and improvisors."
He died at the age of 68 on 29 April 2010 after a long illness.
Referencesâ»
- ^ SchĂŒrmann 1976, p. 20.
- ^ Lichtenfeld 2001.
- ^ SchĂŒrmann 1976, p. 21.
- ^ Anon. 2010.
Cited sourcesâ»
- Anon. 2010. "Die Sinnlichkeit der Elektronik: Nachruf: Der Komponist Johannes Fritsch ist totâIn Darmstadt hinterlĂ€sst er viele Spuren". Echo online (3 May). (Accessed 3 May 2010)
- Lichtenfeld, Monika. 2001. "Fritsch, Johannes (Georg)". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers; New York: Grove's Dictionaries.
- SchĂŒrmann, Hans G. 1976. "Lockerung von Phantasie oder EnergieverlĂ€ufe in der Zeit. Ein GesprĂ€ch mit Johannes Fritsch und Rolf Gehlhaar." Musica 30, no. 1 (JanuaryâFebruary): 20â25.
External linksâ»
- Edition Johannes Fritsch (German, English)
- Literature on and by Johannes Fritsch (in German) in the catalogue of the German National Library
- Johannes Fritsch, The Living Composers Project, biography, works list
- 1941 births
- 2010 deaths
- 20th-century classical composers
- 21st-century classical composers
- German classical composers
- German classical violists
- Hochschule fĂŒr Musik und Tanz Köln alumni
- Academic staff of the Hochschule fĂŒr Musik und Tanz Köln
- Pupils of Karlheinz Stockhausen
- German male classical composers
- 20th-century German composers
- 21st-century German composers
- 20th-century German male musicians
- 21st-century German male musicians
- 20th-century violists
- 21st-century violists