- Heinz Karl Gruber
Heinz Karl Gruber (he professionally uses the form HK Gruber) is an
Austria n composer, bass player and singer, born inVienna on 3 January 1943 and a leading figure of the so-called 'Third Viennese School '.Career
Gruber is said to be a descendant (though the descent remains obscure) of
Franz Xaver Gruber , composer of the carol "Stille Nacht" (Silent Night). From 1953 to 1957 Gruber was a member of theVienna Boys Choir . He studied at theVienna Hochschule für Musik , his composition teachers beingAlfred Uhl ,Erwin Ratz andHanns Jelinek , and laterGottfried von Einem , with whom he also studied privately. In 1961 Gruber joined the ensemble "die reihe" as a double bass player, and became principal bass of the Vienna Tonkünstler Orchestra in 1963. In 1968, with his composer friendsKurt Schwertsik andOtto M. Zykan and the violinistErnst Kovacic , he co-founded the 'MOB-art & tone-ART' ensemble, partly to perform their own repertoire (which included a short piece by Gruber, "Bossa Nova", which rapidly became a hit tune) and partly that ofMauricio Kagel . The ensemble may be regarded as the cradle of what has been called the 'Third Viennese School', of which Gruber is now the best-known representative.Like Schwertsik, Gruber had been taught in the post-
Schoenberg ian style of theSecond Viennese School , but – also like Schwertsik – rapidly came to his own personal accommodation totonality and older Viennese traditions. The criticPaul Driver has written of Gruber: ‘Neo-romantic, neo-tonal, neo-expressionistic, neo-Viennese: he isn’t any of those things, so much as a sentient (and downright accomplished) composer who keeps responding to whatever musical stimulus, be it highbrow or lowbrow, 12-tone or 7-tone, bitter or sweet, that comes his way’.Gruber had been composing – and also playing
jazz – from his student days, but achieved international fame in 1978 with "Frankenstein!!", a 'pan-demonium' for chansonnier and orchestra (or large ensemble) on poems from "allerleirausch", a collection of children's verse by his friend, the absurdist and Viennese-dialect poetH.C. Artmann , which he performed as singer around the world in the following few years. He and Schwertsik shared a 'Composers' Portrait' feature at the 1979Berlin Festival, and Gruber has subsequently been ranked among Austria’s leading composers. As a performer (conductor, singer, bass player) he has been involved in music byPeter Maxwell Davies ,Hanns Eisler , andKurt Weill , and made notable CD recordings of the latter two composers.elected Worklist
tage Works:
* "Die Vertreibung aus dem Paradies", melodrama for speakers and instrumentalists (1966)
* "Gomorra", opera to a libretto byRichard Bletschacher (1970-96)
* "Gloria von Jaxtberg" (Gloria, a Pigtale), 2-act music-theatre for 5 singers and 9 session musicians, plus harp (1992-4)
* "Der Herr Nordwind", opera in 2 parts (2003-5)Orchestral:
* Concerto for Orchestra, op.3 (1960)
* "Manhattan Broadcasts" for light orchestra (1962-4)
* "fürbass", Concerto for double bass and orchestra (1965)
* "Revue" for chamber orchestra, op.22 (1968; first movement recomposed as "Vergröszerung" for orchestra, 1971)
* "Phantom-Bilder auf dem Spur eines verdächtigen Themas" (Photo-fit Pictures on the trail of a suspected theme) for small orchestra (1977)
* Violin Concerto No.1 "‘... aus schatten Duft gewebt ...’" (1978)
* "Rough Music" – Concerto for percussion and orchestra (1983)
* "Charivari" - An Austrian Journal for orchestra (1983)
* Violin Concerto No.2 "Nebelsteinmusik" for violin and strings (1988)
* Cello Concerto (1989)
* "Aerial", concerto for trumpet and orchestra (1989-9)
* "Zeitfluren", Concerto for Chamber Orchestra (2001)
* "Dancing in the Dark", orchestra (2002)
* "Hidden Agenda" for orchestra (2006)Brass
* "Demilitarized Zones", March-Paraphrase for brass band (1979)
Vocal & Choral:
* Mass for chorus and ensemble (1960)
* 3 Songs byRabindranath Tagore for baritone, ensemble & text (1961)
* "Frankenstein!!", a pan-demonium for chansonnier and orchestra (or chamber orchestra) on verses of HC Artmann (1976-77; developed from voice-ensemble "Frankenstein Suite", 1971)
* "Zeitstimmung" for chansonnier and orchestra (1996)Chamber ensemble
* Suite for 2 pianos, wind instruments and percussion (1960)
* "3 Mob Stücke" for 7 interchangeable instruments and percussion (1968; version for trumpet and orchestra arr. 1999)
* Bossa Nova, op.21 (1968)
* "An einen Haushalt"
* "Die wirkliche Wut über der verlorenen Groschen" for 5 players (1972)
* "Anagramm" for 6 celli (1987)Instrumental:
* 4 Pieces for solo violin, op.11
* "6 Episoden (aus einem unterbrochenen Chronik)" for piano, op.20 (1966-7)
* Bossa Nova for violin and piano, op.21e
* "Luftschlösser" (Castles in the Air) for piano (1981)ources
* "Tempo" No.126 (September 1978) containing articles 'The Viennese MOB art & tone ART Group' by
Josef Heinzelmann ; 'HK Gruber: A formal introduction from Two Sides' by David Drew, '"Nali" Gruber: Private Impressions by a Friend' byOtto M. Zykan and HK Gruber, 'Music and Politics'.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.