Irmin Schmidt | |
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 Irmin Schmidt (2022) | |
| Born | 29 May 1937 Berlin, Germany |
| Occupations |
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| Spouse | Hildegard Schmidt |
| Website | irminschmidt |
Irmin Schmidt (born 29 May 1937) [1] is a German keyboardist and composer, best known as a founding member of the band Can.
Schmidt was born in Berlin, Germany, began his studies in music at the conservatorium in Dortmund, at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and he studied composition in Karlheinz Stockhausen's Cologne Courses for New Music at the Rheinische Musikschule , Cologne. [2]
He started work mainly as a conductor and performed in concerts with the Bochum Symphony; the Vienna Symphony; and the Dortmund Ensemble for New Music, which he founded in 1962. During this time, he received several conducting awards. Schmidt also worked as Kapellmeister at the Theater Aachen, as docent for musical theatre and chanson at the Schauspielschule Bochum (drama school), and as concert pianist.
In 1968, Schmidt founded the experimental krautrock band Can with Holger Czukay, Michael Karoli, and Jaki Liebezeit. Schmidt served as Can's keyboardist until the group's disbandment in 1979. He participated in both reunions of Can, in 1986 and 1991.
Schmidt has scored more than 40 films and television programs, including Knife in the Head (1978) and Palermo Shooting (2008). He has recorded a few solo albums and written an opera, Gormenghast , based on Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy . Gormenghast premiered at the Opernhaus Wuppertal in 1998. Excerpts from the work were released on Spoon Records in 1999. [3] His wife Hildegard Schmidt has been responsible for Can's management and record label, Spoon Records, since the 1970s.
As of 2008, Schmidt lives in Southern France. His interests outside music include cooking. [4] In 2015, he received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Chevalier). [5]
In 2018, Schmidt and British writer and editor Rob Young published a book on Can entitled All Gates Open: The Story of Can . [6]
Following the death of Can lead vocalist Damo Suzuki in February 2024, Schmidt is now the last surviving member of the classic personnel of Can.
Can were a German experimental rock band formed in Cologne in 1968 by Holger Czukay, Irmin Schmidt (keyboards), Michael Karoli (guitar), and Jaki Liebezeit (drums). The group featured several vocalists, including the American Malcolm Mooney (1968–70) and the Japanese Damo Suzuki (1970–73). They have been widely hailed as pioneers of the German krautrock scene.
Jaki Liebezeit was a German drummer, best known as a founding member of experimental rock band Can. He was called "one of the few drummers to convincingly meld the funky and the cerebral".
David C. Johnson was an American composer, flautist, and performer of live electronic music.
Momente (Moments) is a work by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, written between 1962 and 1969, scored for solo soprano, four mixed choirs, and thirteen instrumentalists. A "cantata with radiophonic and theatrical overtones", it is described by the composer as "practically an opera of Mother Earth surrounded by her chicks". It was Stockhausen's first piece composed on principles of modular transposability, and his first musical form to be determined from categories of sensation or perception rather than by numerical units of musical terminology, which marks a significant change in the composer's musical approach from the abstract forms of the 1950s.
This is a discography of the krautrock band Can.
Gruppen for three orchestras (1955–57) is amongst the best-known compositions of German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, and is Work Number 6 in the composer's catalog of works. Gruppen is "a landmark in 20th-century music ... probably the first work of the post-war generation of composers in which technique and imagination combine on the highest level to produce an undisputable masterpiece".
Kumo is a British musician and composer, the pseudonym of Jono Podmore who was born in 1965.
Carré (Square) for four orchestras and four choirs (1959–60) is a composition by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, and is Work Number 10 in the composer's catalog of works.
Musik im Bauch is a piece of scenic music for six percussionists and music boxes composed by Karlheinz Stockhausen in 1975, and is Number 41 in his catalog of works. The world premiere was presented on 28 March 1975 as part of the Royan Festival. The performance was given by Les Percussions de Strasbourg in the haras in the town of Saintes, near to Royan. Its duration is roughly 38 minutes.
The Grey Area is a Mute Records division founded in 1990 to restore and reissue the catalogue of artists who influenced Daniel Miller, head of Mute Records, and to reissue previous recordings of Mute artists. In 1983, Mute had to partner with Industrial Records for the reissue of Throbbing Gristle albums. This division was created following the partnerships signed with Can and Cabaret Voltaire.
Harlekin (Harlequin) is a composition for unaccompanied clarinet by Karlheinz Stockhausen, named for the commedia dell'arte character Harlequin. It was composed in 1975 and is Number 42 in his catalogue of works. A shorter, derived work called Der kleine Harlekin is Number 42½.
Stop is a composition for orchestra by Karlheinz Stockhausen, work-number 18 in the composer’s catalogue of works, where two performing realisations are also found as Nr. 18½ and Nr. 18⅔.
Expo, for three performers with shortwave radio receivers and a sound projectionist, is a composition by Karlheinz Stockhausen, written in 1969–70. It is Number 31 in the catalogue of the composer's works.
Schlagtrio is a chamber-music work for piano and two timpanists composed by Karlheinz Stockhausen in 1952. It is Nr. ⅓ in his catalogue of works.
Plus-Minus, 2 × 7 pages for realisation, is a composition for one or several performers by Karlheinz Stockhausen, first written in 1963 and redrafted in 1974. It is Nr. 14 in the composer's catalogue of works, and has a variable performing length that depends on the version worked out from the given materials. The score is dedicated to Mary Bauermeister.
René Tinner is a Swiss recording engineer and producer, who has produced over 200 studio records and numerous live performances.
Gormenghast is an opera in three acts composed by Irmin Schmidt to an English-language libretto by Duncan Fallowell, based on Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy. It premiered at the Opernhaus Wuppertal on 15 November 1998.
In music, the Cologne School is a loosely associated group of composers and performers of the generation that came to prominence in the 1970s, who lived and worked in the city of Cologne, Germany.
Musik für ein Haus is a group-composition project devised by Karlheinz Stockhausen for the 1968 Darmstädter Ferienkurse. Fourteen composers and twelve instrumentalists participated, with the resulting performance lasting four hours. It was not regarded by Stockhausen as a composition belonging solely to himself, and therefore was not assigned a number in his catalog of works.
All Gates Open: The Story of Can is a book about the German experimental rock band Can, written by British writer and editor Rob Young and Can founding member Irmin Schmidt. It was published in May 2018 in the United Kingdom by Faber and Faber in two editions, a trade edition in hardback, and a handbound and autographed limited edition.
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