Hans-Joachim Hespos – Analysen und Kontexte

Folkwang Universität der Künste, Essen, Germany

Since 1960 Hans-Joachim Hespos has, in his composition, consistently sought to enrich music by means of his gestural approach and in so doing he has aspired to a new definition of the performer’s creative role committed to the latter’s associatability. These central achievements are juxtaposed with the fact that talking and writing about Hespos’ music, given the highly individual forms of notation and theatrical components of his works, is determined by frequently occurring topoi. These topoi, like Eva-Maria Houben’s “rästelhafte Gebilde” (mysterious formations), have so far been obstacles to a more in-depth and analytical understanding of Hespos’ creative work as a result of the wordy non-analyses, score paraphrasing or lexical lists of performance instructions. To mark Hespos’ 75th birthday in 2013 the two authors, Stefan Drees and Gordon Kampe, wish to question this cliché in their publication and point to new paths for accessing the scores and the music itself. The Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation is funding the publication of this study of Hans-Joachim Hespos’ creative work.

2011–2013
Essen

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