Foto: public domain (ÖKB)
Ager Klaus
- Compositions
- General Information
- Education
- Activities
- Performances (Selection)
- Commissions (Selection)
- Awards
- Description of Style
- Teacher of (Person)
- Performer of (Composition)
- Broadcasting Performer of (Composition)
- Commissioner of (Composition)
- Contact Person of (Organisation)
- Contact, Links
Compositions
General Information
Klaus Ager was born in Salzburg in 1946. He studied music at the Mozarteum and at the University of Salzburg, as well as at the Conservatoire National et Superieur in Paris under Olivier Messiaen and Pierre Schaeffer.
From 1975 - 1986 Ager was the artistic director of the Austrian Ensemble for Contemporary Music and gave numerous concerts in Austria and abroad. Since 1977 he has been artistic director of the Salzburg festival "Aspekte". In 1954 he founded the "Aspekte new music ensemble", touring in Europe and overseas (Italy, Latvia, Brazil and Austria). He then went on to work as assistant for music theory at the former University of Music and the Performing Arts "Mozarteum" from 1973 - 1979; as professor for composition at the conservatory in Bregenz, Vorarlberg, from 1978 -1986; and, from 1986 on, as professor for music analytics at the Mozarteum. There, Ager was appointed deputy university principal from 1991 - 1995, before taking over as principal from 1995 - 2000. Since 2004 he has been holding the post as president of the Austrian Composers' Association.
Over the past few years, his activities as guest composer and lecturer at various North and South American universities, as well as at institutions in China, Taiwan and Japan, increased. As a composer, he is particularly known for his chamber and orchestra music, as well as electronic and computer music. Ager performed at the most important festivals for contemporary music worldwide.
Numerous works are available on records or CDs (Hoshi for wind quintet; Atacama for solo guitar solo; Alinkonie for various sound generators; wind um ein grab; CLB512; sondern die sterne sinds; Gesang zur Nacht; serenade for piano and orchestra; La regle du jeu etc.)
Klaus Ager, 03.2006
Education
| Period | Education | Instrument | Teacher | Education Organisation | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1967 - 1971
| |||||
|
1967 - 1970
| |||||
|
1967 - 1971
|
conducting | ||||
|
1967 - 1970
|
composition | ||||
|
1967 - 1970
|
musicology | ||||
|
1971 - 1973
|
electro-acoustic music | ||||
|
1971 - 1973
|
composition | ||||
|
courses in composition, electroacoustic and computer music | |||||
|
courses in composition, electroacoustic and computer music |
Activities
| Period | Activity | Organisation | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1970 - 1971
|
accompanist | ||
|
1973
|
freelancer | ||
|
1973 - 1979
|
assistant at the Institute for Music Theory | ||
|
1974
|
freelancer | ||
|
1975 - 1986
|
founder and artistic director | ||
|
1977 - 2006
|
president, artistic director | ||
|
1981 - 1992
|
European Conference of New Music Promoters: president | ||
|
1981 - 1986
|
Conservatory of Bregenz: professor of composition | ||
|
1986
|
professor of music analytics | ||
|
1991 - 1995
|
deputy principal | ||
|
1994
|
founder | ||
|
1995 - 2000
|
principal | ||
|
1997
|
head of the Institute for Music Analysis | ||
|
2004
|
president | ||
|
2006
|
president | ||
|
member | |||
|
self-publishing association, together with other composers from Salzburg (Herbert Grassl etc.): organisation | |||
|
guest composer, lecturer at several universities in North and South America |
Performances (Selection)
| Period | Performance | Composition | Organisation | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||
|
regular performances | ||||
|
regular performances | ||||
|
ISCM Music Festival (Reykjavik, Stockholm, Athen, Seoul, Bern etc.) | ||||
|
Festival of New Music: Stockholm, Paris, Utrecht, Cologne, New York, Barcelona, Toronto, Bratislava, Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Reykjavik, Buenos Aires, Rome, St. Petersburg, Shanghai, Venice, Zagreb and many others |
Commissions (Selection)
| Period | Commission | Composition | Commissioner (Organisation) | Commissioner (Person) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Government of Thailand |
Awards
| Period | Award | Composition | Awarding Organisation |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1975
|
promotional scholarship |
Description of Style
The works up to op. 12 (until about 1975) are characterised by the attempt to find out about the tonal potential of instruments or even of new technologies, something particularly reflected in "silences VI" for Harp and "silences VII" arranged for piano for four hands.
After these somewhat experimental pieces up to "sondern die sterne sinds" I tried to make music, which can be best defined as "incoherent process design". It is about composing chronologically simultaneous processes of different coherency levels, which still remain linearly compact. This lead to very sophisticated compositions reaching their climax in "la regle du jeu" and "a lost shimmer of sunlight I".
Starting with the duets and MaMuMis I dealt intensively with the problems of automatic composition (partly with the help of computers) analyzing above-mentioned technique and gradually arrived at a composing technique which tried to express music in linguistic semantics. This is best seen in the orchestra piece "Fades the light from the sea", where pitch and tone length have, for the most part, been automatically composed with the help of computer software, but also where almost semantically understandable musical processes were created by incorporating the musically familiar. This process was continued more consequently in the chamber music of the mid-1980s: In "Gesang zur Nacht" or "Shigöpotuu" a series of elements which can quasi be understood semantically can be found. In "Gesang zur Nacht" echoes of known 19th and 20th century works are recognizable, contributing their specific meaning to the piece.
The serenade op. 60 for piano and orchestra heralded a new stage in my creative work, following a completely new path, which could be described as symbiosis of "incoherent process design" with the developments of the 1980s. Techniques of variation, independency of individual voices, but also calculating the course characterise the works of this period, the highlights of which certainly are the cantata "Friede!" or "HanLiu-Ker" for bass clarinet.
Klaus Ager
Teacher of (Person)
Performer of (Composition)
Broadcasting Performer of (Composition)
Commissioner of (Composition)
Contact Person of (Organisation)
Contact, Links
moz [dot] ac [dot] at
