Hans Ulrich Engelmann

Biography

Engelmann studied composition with Hermann Heiss and Wolfgang Fortner. He was a regular attendee of the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music, and he was particularly affected by the twelve-tone classes of René Leibowitz (1948) and Ernst Krenek (1951), which helped him move from free atonality to serialism. Eventually, he would publish a history of the courses. In 1947, he began studying musicology with Gennrich Friedrich and Helmut Osthoff, earning a Ph.D in 1952. He also studied philosophy with Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Hans-Georg Gadamer.

A brief marriage took him to Iceland from 1953-4, before returning to Darmstadt to work as the music adviser and composer for the Hessisches Landestheater for the next seven years. His next post was in the same capacity at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, where his tenure lasted from 1961-9. He also held the same position one more time at the Städtische Bühnen in Bonn from 1972-3. In 1969, he began teaching at the Frankfurt Musikhochschule, and he remained on the faculty there for seventeen years.

In the early 60's, Engelmann began to incorporate techniques like electronic sound generation, graphic notation, jazz and collage into his music. By the end of the decade, he had assembled a pluralistic style which he showcased in large multimedia works such as Ophelia (1969). From 1974-9, he was largely occupied with revising his earlier work, before returning to smaller, less eclectic compositions.

A recipient of many scholarships and awards throughout his career, some of Engelmann's most notable honors include scholarships from Harvard and the Villa Massimo (1960, 1967, 1983), the Lidice Prize of Radio Prague (1960), the Stereo Prize of the German broadcasting industry (1969), the Johann Heinrich Merck Award (1971), the Goethe Medal (1986), the Order of the BRD (1991) and the Hessian Order pour le merite (1997).

Selected works

Stage

Orchestra

Vocal

Chamber

Notable pupils

Writings