Four seminar-workshops on electroacoustic music in a space – the Salone
degli Arazzi – adapted for live music thanks to the installation of an
eight-channel broadcasting system. A group of students or former
students of Alvise Vidolin, who has taught electronic music at the
Venice Conservatory for thirty-five years.
A homage in the workshop spirit of the maestro with performers of acoustic instruments, sound directors, historic
excerpts and new productions. A living space resounding with a “laptop
orchestra”, voices and pieces by established composers, acoustic
instruments and electronic sounds.
On Saturday 11 July the concert for Alvise Vidolin will close the four all-day events serie.
Programma dell’incontro
2.30 p.m. Seminar on the work of Koenig and analysis of the 8-tracks Polychromie.
The softwares developed by Koenig (Project 1 and 2, SSP Sound Synthesis Program,
actual release).
4.00 p.m. Coffee break
4.30 p.m. The space in Koenig multitrack works
The theoretical writings by Koenig.
Interview with Koenig.
6.00 p.m. Listening to music by Gottfried Michael Koenig in multitrack versions:
Klanfiguren II, 1955-56
Terminus 1 and 2, 1962-67
Selection from Funktionen, 1967-69
Polychromie, 2001
7.00 p.m. End of seminar
Biographical note
Gottfried Michael Koenig, born in 1926 in Magdeburg, Germany,
studied church music in Braunschweig, composition, piano, analysis and
acoustics in Detmold, music representation techniques in Cologne and
computer technique in Bonn. He attended the Darmstadt music summer
schools for several years, later as a lecturer. From 1954 to 1964
Koenig worked in the electronic music studio of West German Radio at
Cologne, assisting other composers (including Stockhausen, Kagel,
Evangelisti, Ligeti, Brün), and producing his own electronic
compositions (Klangfiguren, Essay, Terminus 1). During this period he
also wrote orchestral and chamber music (for piano,
string quartet, woodwind quintet).
From 1958 he was an assistant in the radio drama department at the
Cologne academy of music, where he taught electronic music, composition
and analysis from 1962. In 1964 Koenig moved to the Netherlands. Until
1986 he was director and later chairman of the Institute of Sonology at
the University of Utrecht. During this period the Institute acquired a
worldwide reputation, particularly for its annual Sonology course.
Koenig also lectured extensively in the Netherlands and other countries
and developed his computer programs "Project 1", "Project 2" and "SSP",
designed to formalise the composition of musical structure-variants. He
continued to produce electronic works (Terminus 2, the Funktionen
series). These were followed by the application of his computer
programs, resulting in chamber music (Übung for piano, the Segmente
series, 3 ASKO Pieces, String Quartet 1987, String Trio) and works for
orchestra (Beitrag, Concerti e Corali).
Since 1986, when the Institute moved from Utrecht University to the
Royal Conservatory at The Hague, Koenig has continued to compose,
produce computer graphics and develop musical expert systems. The first
three volumes of his theoretical writings were published between 1991
and 1993 under the title "Ästhetische Praxis" by Pfau Verlag; an
Italian selection appeared under the title "Genesi e forma" (Semar,
Rome 1995) . A fourth volume followed in 1999, a fifth in 2002; the
sixth will be a complete thematic index.
In 1961 Koenig received an incentive award from the Federal State of
North Rhine-Westphalia, in 1987 the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize from the
City of Amsterdam, in 1991 the Christoph and Stephan Kaske Prize. In
2002 the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Saarbrücken,
Germany, awarded Koenig an honorary doctorate. In the winter semester
of 2002/2003 he was Visiting Professor for Computer Music at the
Technical University, Berlin.
