Music of Helmut Lachenmann

With his revolutionary concept of a 'concrete
instrumental music', the leading and most
influential contemporary German composer Helmut
Lachenmann (born 1935) has hugely expanded the
available repertoire of extended playing
techniques on traditional musical instruments for
generating a great variety of noises. His
uncompromising, superbly crafted masterpieces
also display successful compositional methods for
meaningful applications of these beautiful new
sounds. Our survey will combine biography, music
theory, analysis, score study and guided
listening to yield an overview of Lachenmann's
work and historical influence, as well as an
appreciation of his profound critical thought and
his abundant musical imagination.