Klaus K Hübler, 1956 - 2018

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

https://johnsonsrambler.wordpress.com/2018/03/05/rip-klaus-k-hubler/

[Joseph K]

Thanks for the link.

This is sad news. BTW I think he was born in 56.

[Richard Barrett]

A composer of highly individual and thought-provoking music, and a very warm-hearted human being. I first met him in 1984 when I was knocked somewhat sideways by his 3rd String Quartet, although it's his later work I've subsequently come to value most. The Berlin concert Tim mentions in his blog was in fact the last time he and I met. I hope it will be possible in times to come to hear more of his work (although there isn't a huge amount of it) than is available in recordings at the moment.

[Serial_Apologist]

1956 is correct. (Also it's Hübler.) A composer of highly individual and thought-provoking music, and a very warm-hearted human being. I first met him in 1984 when I was knocked somewhat sideways by his 3rd String Quartet, although it's his later work I've subsequently come to value most. The Berlin concert Tim mentions in his blog was in fact the last time he and I met. I hope it will be possible in times to come to hear more of his work (although there isn't a huge amount of it) than is available in recordings at the moment.

Not having heard of this composer before I confused him with the Swiss composer Klaus Huber. The link provided by ferney offers excerpts mainly from earlyish works. Did his idiom subsequently change?

[Richard Barrett]

Not having heard of this composer before I confused him with the Swiss composer Klaus Huber. The link provided by ferney offers excerpts mainly from earlyish works. Did his idiom subsequently change?

It changed a few times. His earliest works are in a post-Berg kind of idiom. The pieces he's best known for, written during the 1980s, involve expanding the possibilities of notation to separate the different actions of playing from one another (for example the two hands of a string player), an idea he developed from some of the 1970s works of his teacher Brian Ferneyhough. In 1989 he suffered a stroke which put him out of action for a few years (and after which he never fully recovered his mobility), and when he began to compose again the music became much more sparse and disjointed. There's a sense of continuity through it all nevertheless, a strong sense of tradition coupled with a compulsion to take things to their limits, and indeed beyond - as the 3rd Quartet progresses it is increasingly occupied with intricate actions by the players which result in little or no sound being produced, a rather dramatic and disturbing thing to see.

[ahinton]

Not having heard of this composer before I confused him with the Swiss composer Klaus Huber. The link provided by ferney offers excerpts mainly from earlyish works. Did his idiom subsequently change?

I suspect that you might not be alone in such confusion and, to complicate matters further, there's also Nicolaus (Nikolaus?) A. Huber (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_A._Huber ) - not to mention the cellist Nikolaus Huebner (although I don't know if he's a composer as well)...

[Serial_Apologist]

It changed a few times. His earliest works are in a post-Berg kind of idiom. The pieces he's best known for, written during the 1980s, involve expanding the possibilities of notation to separate the different actions of playing from one another (for example the two hands of a string player), an idea he developed from some of the 1970s works of his teacher Brian Ferneyhough. In 1989 he suffered a stroke which put him out of action for a few years (and after which he never fully recovered his mobility), and when he began to compose again the music became much more sparse and disjointed. There's a sense of continuity through it all nevertheless, a strong sense of tradition coupled with a compulsion to take things to their limits, and indeed beyond - as the 3rd Quartet progresses it is increasingly occupied with intricate actions by the players which result in little or no sound being produced, a rather dramatic and disturbing thing to see.

Thanks Richard - Tony Marsh, the late and to many much-missed drummer who was associated with Evan Parker among many others, would sometimes do this in mid-set before continuing as before, as if conjuring sounds inaudible to us but presumably not himself from the continuing intricate movements of his hand movements in mid-air.

[Bryn]

I just had the good fortune to find a "Used - Very Good" copy of Sylvie Lacroix's "Fruits" CD via amazon.de for a mere €0.69. though the p&p pushed it up to £4.52. I have been listening to the two Hubler on the disc via QOBUZ. I will await the delivery of the disc to listen again.