Konrad Boehmer

Konrad Boehmer (born May 24, 1941) is a Dutch composer and writer of German birth.

Boehmer was born in Berlin. His music reflects his Marxist political agenda, which is made explicit in many of his writings from the late 1960s and 1970s (e.g., Boehmer 1970). A self-declared member of the Darmstadt School (Boehmer 1987), he studied composition in Cologne with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Gottfried Michael Koenig, and philosophy, sociology, and musicology at the University of Cologne, where he received a PhD in 1966. After receiving his doctorate, he settled in Amsterdam, working until 1968 at the Institute for Sonology, Utrecht University. In 1972 he was appointed professor of music history and theory at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague.

His compositions characteristically employ serial organization or montage, sometimes with elements of jazz and rock music (as in his opera "Doktor Faustus" and the electronic "Apocalipsis cum figuris"). In other works, such as "Canciones del camino" and "Lied uit de vert" Marxist songs serve as basic material.

elected Compositions

* "Variation" for chamber orchestra (1959-61)
* "Position" for electronic sounds, vocal sounds, and orchestra (1960–61)
* "Zeitläufte" for eight instruments (1962)
* "Information" (1964–65)
* "Aspekt" electronic music (1964–66)
* "Canciones del camino" for orchestra (1973–74)
* "Schrei dieser Erde" for percussion and tape, (1979)
* "Doktor Faustus" opera (1980-83)
* "Apocalipsis cum figuris", electronic music (1984)
* "Woutertje Pieterse" for nine vocalists and orchestra (1985-1987)
* "Il combattimento" for violin, cello, and orchestra (1989-90)
* "Et in Arcadia ego" for string quartet (1992)
* "Kronos protos" for 14 instruments (1995)
* "Orpheus Unplugged" (1999-2000) piano and tape
* "Ouroboros" for piano (2002)
* "Doktor Fausti Höllenfahrt" for orchestra (2006)

ources

* Boehmer's website: http://www.kboehmer.nl/
* Boehmer, Konrad. 1967. "Zur Theorie der offenen Form in der neuen Musik". Darmstadt: Edition Tonos. (Second edition 1988.)
* Boehmer, Konrad. 1970. "Zwischen Reihe und Pop: Musik und Klassengesellschaft". Vienna: [Publisher]
* Boehmer, Konrad. 1987. “The Sanctification of Misapprehension into a Doctrine: Darmstadt Epigones and Xenophobes”. English translation by Sonia Prescod Jokel. "Key Notes" 24:43–47
* Sabbe, Herman. 2001. "Boehmer, Konrad", "The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians" ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell, vol. 2. London: Macmillan, 2001.