Christfried Schmidt

Christfried Schmidt (born 26 November 1932) is a German composer and arrangeur.

Life

Schmidt was born in 1932 as the son of a miller in Markersdorf. In Görlitz, he attended the grammar school and received piano lessons from Humperdinck's pupil Emil Kühnel. From 1951 to 1954, he studied church music at the Hochschule für Kirchenmusik der Evangelischen Kirche der schlesischen Oberlausitz (B-exam) and from 1955 to 1959 with Werner Buschnakowski (organ) and Johannes Weyrauch (music composition) at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig (A-Exam). In Leipzig, he familiarised himself with Neue Musik with Hermann Heyer.[1][2]

From 1960 to 1962, Schmidt was a church musician in Forst. From 1963 to 1964, he worked as an acting bandmaster in Quedlinburg and then from 1965 to 1980 was a freelance piano teacher and choir director in Quedlinburg. In Warsaw, he met the Japanese musicologist Ichirō Tamura, who enabled him to perform his works in Japan. Since 1980, he has been living as a freelance composer in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg.[3] The artistic breakthrough came with the premiere of his oboe concerto performed by Burkhard Glaetzner at the DDR-Musiktagen 1984.[4]

His orchestral work Memento was premiered in 2002 in the Leipziger Gewandhaus by the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fabio Luisi.[5]

In 2019, the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin under Kai-Uwe Jirka premiered his St. Mark Passion from 1975 after 45 years.[6] The highly expressive, headstrong work combines aleatoric compositional procedures (influenced by Witold Lutosławski's controlled aleatoric music) with a polyphonic way of thinking in the wake of J.S. Bach and the Viennese School.[7][8]

Awards and memberships

Work
YearTitlePremiere yearPremiere location
1965Landnahme1994Berlin
19671. Symphony. Hamlet
19682. Symphony. Martin Luther King
1969piano concerto1974Berlin
1969–1995Chamber music I-XI
1970Petite Suite1970Tokyo
1970Psalm 211971Nürnberg
1971Wind Quintet1973Berlin
Chamber music II1998Görlitz
1973Chamber music VI1983Berlin
1973Tonsetzers Alptraum1976Dresden
1974Violin concerto1991Berlin
1974Cello concerto1976Leipzig
1975 St Mark's Passion 2019 Berlin
1977Flute concerto1978Berlin
1978Ein Märchen – kein Märchen1981Berlin
1980Munch-Musik1981Leipzig
1982Die Zeit und die Zeit danach1985Berlin
1983Oboe concerto1984Berlin
1985Orchestermusik I1988Berlin
1989Das Herz. Opera after Heinrich Mann1996
1996Clarinet Quintet1997Berlin
Memento2000Leipzig

Further reading
  • Ursula Stürzbecher: Komponisten in der DDR. 17 Gespräche. Hildesheim 1979, ISBN 3-8067-0803-7.
  • Georg-Friedrich Kühn: Unbefangen, ungebärdig. Die Extreme des Ausdrucks. Glied der musikalischen Gesellschaft: Christfried Schmidt. In Musik-Texte 4/1984
  • Frank Schneider: Klang-Bilder. Ein alter Aspekt in neuer Musik der DDR. In Bildende Kunst 6/1984
  • Frank Schneider: Christfried Schmidt. In Prospekt Deutscher Verlag für Musik. Leipzig 1987
  • Gerald Felber: Verletzbare Leidenschaftlichkeit. Der Komponist Christfried Schmidt. In Sonntag 36/1987
  • Habakuk Traber: Notizen. Christfried Schmidt zum 60. Geburtstag.In Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 12/1992.
  • Beate Schröder-Nauenburg: Christfried Schmidt. In Komponisten der Gegenwart (KDG). Edition Text & Kritik, Munich 1996, ISBN 978-3-86916-164-8

References
  1. Christfried Schmidt bei RICORDI
  2. Christfried Schmidt beim Kunstberg-Berlin.
  3. Christfried Schmidt on Munzinger-Archiv
  4. Christfried Schmidt at the Sächsische Akademie der Künste
  5. Christfried Schmidt im Archiv Zeitgenössischer Komponisten der Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden]
  6. Isabel Herzfeld (18 April 2019). "Christfried Schmidt's "St. Mark Passion" will be premiered". Der Tagesspiegel. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  7. "Sing-Akademie zu Berlin – Konzerte". Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  8. "Komponist Christfried Schmidt – Der eigensinnige Modernist". Deutschlandfunk (in German). Retrieved 15 November 2020.
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