colloquium48 - How to compose a bad piece

Compose a piece for a shoe. Compose a bad piece. Compose the most intelligent piece you can imagine.

On composition etudes.

Studying composition is, of course, learning by doing. The students write piece by piece and thus, step by step, come closer and closer to their own sound, their own aesthetics. They learn to have something to say - and to be able to express it.

On this path, however, it seems to make sense, not unlike learning to play an instrument, to also focus on specific techniques, aesthetic questions, hitherto untried experiments: In the form of short etudes. Both in individual and group lessons, this can be an instructive way; by building a compositional repertoire through these exercises, students can access these techniques and skills in their own work.

During this lecture, I'll be presenting and discussing composition etudes that I and my students have developed.

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Johannes Kreidler (1980) studied composition, electronic music and music theory in Freiburg and The Hague, among others with mathias spahlinger and Orm Finnendahl. In 2012 he was awarded the Kranichsteiner Music Prize of the Darmstadt Summer Course for New Music. Since 2019, he is Professor for Composition at the Hochschule für Musik Basel.

Performances (selection): Donaueschinger Musiktage, Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, Ultraschall Berlin, MaerzMusik Berlin, Foreign Affairs Berlin, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz Berlin, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Eclat Stuttgart, Biennale Venice, Gaudeamus Music Week Amsterdam, Warsaw Autumn, Biennale de Musique en Scène Lyon, Ultima Festival Oslo, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Musica Strasbourg, MusicAcoustica Festival Beijing, Liquid Architecture Melbourne

Books Musik mit Musik – Texte 2005-2011 and Sätze über musikalische Konzeptkunst. Texte 2012-2018

[www.kreidler-net.de]