Hans Zender
Born in 1936 in Wiesbaden, Hans Zender studied composition, piano and conducting at the Musikhochschulen of both Frankfurt and Freiburg. By 1964, he was already principal conductor of the Bonn Opera, before being appointed General Director of Music in Kiel in 1969. In 1972 he assumed the post of principal conductor of the Radio Symphony Orchestra Saarbrücken, which he held for over 10 years. From 1984 to 1987 he served as General Director of Music at the Hamburg State Opera.
Since 1988 he has been Professor for Composition at the Frankfurt Musikhochschule and since 1999 he has acted as permanent guest conductor and member of the artistic board of the SWR Symphony Orchestra in Baden-Baden and Freiburg.
In addition to his engagement as an international conductor (for example at music festivals like Bayreuth, Wien, Salzburg, Berlin etc.), Hans Zender has forged a worldwide reputation as a composer of orchestral and chamber music, vocal works and opera (including Stephen Climax, 1979/84 and Don Quixote, 1989/94).
He is also member of the Berlin Academy of Arts and the Munich-based Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts.
In 1997 Hans Zender was awarded the Goethe Prize from the City of Frankfurt. In the same year, CPO released a CD edition (17 CDs) featuring works conducted by him, ranging from classical to contemporary music. The collected essays of Hans Zender were also published under the titles "Happy New Ears" and "Wir steigen niemals in denselben Fluss" (Herder, Freiburg).
In 2004 his texts about music 1975-2003 have been published under the title:
"Die Sinne denken" (Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden).
In 2004 his texts about music 1975-2003 have been published under the title:
"Die Sinne denken" (Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden).
Hans Zender's third Opera ("Chief Joseph") has been premiered in June 2005 at the Berlin State Opera. In 2005/2006 he will be Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin as well as "Composer in Residence" at the German Symphonic Orchestra.
Adonde? Whereto?
In music, there are closed, harmonically balanced forms; and there are open forms which take the audience on a labyrinthine voyage. In this piece, the listener is invited to move through a vast, jagged vast landscape: arriving at sudden destinations, followed by new departures, by short, then longer stretches, craggy and then again very lovely images, and by no recognisable main pat, which would allow one some kind of orientation. This way, the listener’s perception is entirely dependent on current events, possibly resembling the young bride in Juan de la Cruz’s sacred love poem: searching for her loved one, who has fled “like a hart”, through valleys and across mountains, she is ready, without fear, to cross every and any limit of safety. Juan’s crystalline verses are composed in lines of seven and eleven syllables. This gave the signal for my composition – to use as single pervading order only harmonies of sounds which contain as basic intervals either the 7th or 11th overtone. Both intervals are not contained in the system of tempered notes. The 11th overtone is almost exactly a quarter of a note deeper compared to a chromatic half-tone; whereas the difference of the 7th amounts to something like a sixth of a tone. In order to be able to realize these intervals from every pitch, it is necessary to use a system of 72 intervals within each octave. Ever since the early nineties, I’ve conceived and written my work using this highly differentiated scale. This implied developing a new notation system, special instrumental modifications but in particular a new coherent harmonic which aids both players and audience in consciously identifying these unusual intervals. Otherwise, microtonal pieces either run the danger of drowning in a chromaticism that can no longer be controlled or they revert to a “spectral tonality”. If one deals with these highly differentiated intervals on a daily basis, they become not only self-evident but also indispensable. At least that’s how I feel. I regard them as essential in order to be able to express a corresponding tonal complexity.
In order to ensure a reliable realisation, a second piano is used in “Adonde” which is tuned a quarter tone lower and a harp the strings of which are partially tuned a sixth of a note lower. Both help the strings and wind instruments to orientate themselves in this “undergrowth” of minute intervals. Next to the solo-violin, the soprano, too, has a very difficult part. She has to be able to hit such micro-intervals without instrumental support as her part is not “integrated” in the usual sense into the score but moves parallel to the orchestra. The piece is written “in memoriam Arnold Schönberg” and dedicated to Klangforum Wien in heartfelt friendship. This has a number of reasons. 100 years ago, Schönberg founded with his 1st?. chamber symphony one of the most important musical traditions of contemporary music: the chamber ensemble which ranges between the traditional categories of orchestra and music and which, like Noah’s Ark, preserves the essence of occidental art music, transforms it and leads it into the future. The collective decision making and cooperative structures of these newly founded ensembles for contemporary music world-wide only mirror some of the currently developed intellectual trends of modern times. These have a tendency to abandon hierarchical structures, turning towards a free coexistence of various forms instead. This becomes apparent not only in the diversity of styles and forms of speech but also in the variety of instrumental means and combinations. For many decades I have tried to contribute my share, trying to help such ensembles – and especially Klangforum Wien – in order for their work to be adequately appreciated and supported by society, which is nowhere the case, except in France. I admire the incredibly hard work of these musicians immensely – musicians who are amongst the best of their kind world-wide and at the same time the worst paid – an absolute disgrace for civilised mankind. When Klangforum asked me to write a piece for their 25th anniversary, it was stipulated that the piece should have a musical connection with either Schönberg’s chamber symphony or Berg’s chamber concerto. It will be easy to identify Schönberg’s theme, racing ahead with unquenchable optimism, in my piece. However one should not miss the fact that it is projected into microtonal harmonies.
This is precisely the way in which I believe myself to be assimilating Schönberg’s spirit. I’d also like to quote him verbally at the end of this article: “The discovery of our chromatic scale was a stroke of luck for the development of music... however this sequel of notes is not the last, final aim of music, but a temporary position. The overtone series [succession of overtones?] which led the ear to this point, still contains many problems which will require further work ... the ear will have to address these problems, b e c a u s e i t w a n t s t o.” (Hans Zender)
In music, there are closed, harmonically balanced forms; and there are open forms which take the audience on a labyrinthine voyage. In this piece, the listener is invited to move through a vast, jagged vast landscape: arriving at sudden destinations, followed by new departures, by short, then longer stretches, craggy and then again very lovely images, and by no recognisable main pat, which would allow one some kind of orientation. This way, the listener’s perception is entirely dependent on current events, possibly resembling the young bride in Juan de la Cruz’s sacred love poem: searching for her loved one, who has fled “like a hart”, through valleys and across mountains, she is ready, without fear, to cross every and any limit of safety. Juan’s crystalline verses are composed in lines of seven and eleven syllables. This gave the signal for my composition – to use as single pervading order only harmonies of sounds which contain as basic intervals either the 7th or 11th overtone. Both intervals are not contained in the system of tempered notes. The 11th overtone is almost exactly a quarter of a note deeper compared to a chromatic half-tone; whereas the difference of the 7th amounts to something like a sixth of a tone. In order to be able to realize these intervals from every pitch, it is necessary to use a system of 72 intervals within each octave. Ever since the early nineties, I’ve conceived and written my work using this highly differentiated scale. This implied developing a new notation system, special instrumental modifications but in particular a new coherent harmonic which aids both players and audience in consciously identifying these unusual intervals. Otherwise, microtonal pieces either run the danger of drowning in a chromaticism that can no longer be controlled or they revert to a “spectral tonality”. If one deals with these highly differentiated intervals on a daily basis, they become not only self-evident but also indispensable. At least that’s how I feel. I regard them as essential in order to be able to express a corresponding tonal complexity.
In order to ensure a reliable realisation, a second piano is used in “Adonde” which is tuned a quarter tone lower and a harp the strings of which are partially tuned a sixth of a note lower. Both help the strings and wind instruments to orientate themselves in this “undergrowth” of minute intervals. Next to the solo-violin, the soprano, too, has a very difficult part. She has to be able to hit such micro-intervals without instrumental support as her part is not “integrated” in the usual sense into the score but moves parallel to the orchestra. The piece is written “in memoriam Arnold Schönberg” and dedicated to Klangforum Wien in heartfelt friendship. This has a number of reasons. 100 years ago, Schönberg founded with his 1st?. chamber symphony one of the most important musical traditions of contemporary music: the chamber ensemble which ranges between the traditional categories of orchestra and music and which, like Noah’s Ark, preserves the essence of occidental art music, transforms it and leads it into the future. The collective decision making and cooperative structures of these newly founded ensembles for contemporary music world-wide only mirror some of the currently developed intellectual trends of modern times. These have a tendency to abandon hierarchical structures, turning towards a free coexistence of various forms instead. This becomes apparent not only in the diversity of styles and forms of speech but also in the variety of instrumental means and combinations. For many decades I have tried to contribute my share, trying to help such ensembles – and especially Klangforum Wien – in order for their work to be adequately appreciated and supported by society, which is nowhere the case, except in France. I admire the incredibly hard work of these musicians immensely – musicians who are amongst the best of their kind world-wide and at the same time the worst paid – an absolute disgrace for civilised mankind. When Klangforum asked me to write a piece for their 25th anniversary, it was stipulated that the piece should have a musical connection with either Schönberg’s chamber symphony or Berg’s chamber concerto. It will be easy to identify Schönberg’s theme, racing ahead with unquenchable optimism, in my piece. However one should not miss the fact that it is projected into microtonal harmonies.
This is precisely the way in which I believe myself to be assimilating Schönberg’s spirit. I’d also like to quote him verbally at the end of this article: “The discovery of our chromatic scale was a stroke of luck for the development of music... however this sequel of notes is not the last, final aim of music, but a temporary position. The overtone series [succession of overtones?] which led the ear to this point, still contains many problems which will require further work ... the ear will have to address these problems, b e c a u s e i t w a n t s t o.” (Hans Zender)