Julia Heimerdinger | University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (original) (raw)
Books by Julia Heimerdinger
I Don’t Belong Anywhere: György Ligeti at 100, 2022
2023 marks the centenary of Ligeti’s birth, an appropriate moment to take stock of the relevance ... more 2023 marks the centenary of Ligeti’s birth, an appropriate moment to take stock of the relevance this composer has in the contemporary world, to assess where he “belongs” today and how our views of his œuvre and our understanding of his position in musical and cultural history have evolved. What do Ligeti and his music have to say to us in our post-postmodernist age? Why do his works still fascinate us so much? This volume (edited by Wolfgang Marx) offers new readings of core compositions such as «Aventures», «Lontano», the «Hölderlin Fantasies», «Galamb borong» and the Violin Concerto. It also reassesses the context and reception of Ligeti’s works, including the influence of Romanian music (not least in his childhood), musical life in Hungary between 1945 and 1956, the ways in which his thinking was influenced by his experience of different soundscapes, yet also the surprisingly widespread use of his music in film and TV (beyond Kubrick as the usual suspect). Finally it presents new sources discovered or made available only recently: letters exchanged between Ligeti and Aliute Mecys in 1972, the correspondence between the composer and his publisher Schott, and an extended BBC interview from 1997.
Ed. by Juri Giannini, Julia Heimerdinger, and Andreas Holzer, Vienna: Hollitzer 2019. In this vo... more Ed. by Juri Giannini, Julia Heimerdinger, and Andreas Holzer, Vienna: Hollitzer 2019.
In this volume, the anchoring of 20th and 21st century music history in university teaching is comprehensively presented. In addition to an analysis of course catalogues of German-speaking music colleges and universities, 21 international contributions present the situation in various countries worldwide. The review section focuses on the presentation of music history of the last 120 years in popular general music history books that have been published since the year 2000 and can be considered as potential recommended reading for students: Which historical images are conveyed, which selections are made, which emphases are set and what is left out?
With contributions by: José L. Besada & Belén Pérez Castillo | David Blake | Megan Burslem & Cat Hope | María Paula Cannova | Carmen Chelaru, Florinela Popa & Elena Maria Șorban | Pablo Cuevas | Anna Dalos | Hong Ding | Michael Fjeldsøe | Juri Giannini | Thomas Glaser | Þorbjörg Daphne Hall | Julia Heimerdinger | Frank Hentschel | Andreas Holzer | Priscille Lachat-Sarette | Heekyung Lee | Iwona Lindstedt | Wolfgang Marx | Philippe Poisson | Ingrid Pustijanac | Matej Santi | Mike Searby | Assaf Shelleg | Danae Stefanou | Mareli Stolp | Oğuz Usman & Ozan Baysal | Elizaveta E. Willert
This dissertation examines the nearly complete German, English and French secondary literature on... more This dissertation examines the nearly complete German, English and French secondary literature on, and the composers’ commentary on, three renowned works of the European postwar avant-garde. With the aid of the software MAXQDA, I undertook a meta-analysis combining qualitative and quantitative methods to discover what the texts address and in which amounts, which terms play important roles in them, and what they say about subjects like perception and meaning. I analyse individual terms and topics and interpret their significance based on how often or how seldom each of them arises in the texts in relation to specific works over time. For example, terms or semantic fields such as complexity, extremes, violence and power continuously play a prominent role, while others like world or beauty are rarely used or not used at all during some decades. I discuss the discourses and their arguments - including several so far unknown sources -, which extend over sixty years now, based on analysis producing some surprising results – both for the single works and ultimately across works.
Seit Arnold Schönberg 1929/30 seine zwölftönige "Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielszene (Drohe... more Seit Arnold Schönberg 1929/30 seine zwölftönige "Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielszene (Drohende Gefahr, Angst, Katastrophe)" op. 34 schrieb und Theodor W. Adorno in "Komposition für den Film" bemerkte, diese habe "mit untrüglicher Sicherheit genau jene Einsatzstelle für die Verwendung der neuen musikalischen Mittel bezeichnet", wurden unzählige Filmszenen mit solchen musikalischen Mitteln ausgestattet, um drohende Gefahr, Angst oder Katastrophen zu betonen. Dieses Buch enthält einen Abriss der Geschichte Neuer Musik im Spielfilm und untersucht anhand ausführlicher Analysen insbesondere die Verwendung von Musik der Nachkriegs-Avantgarde (György Ligeti, Krzysztof Penderecki u.a.) als Filmmusik in Stanley Kubricks "2001 - A Space Odyssey" und "Shining", in William Friedkins "The Exorcist" und Peter Weirs "Fearless". Untersucht wird, welche Musik wie eingesetzt wurde und vor allem: aus welchen Gründen sie ihren Zweck erfüllt.
Papers by Julia Heimerdinger
I Don't Belong Anywhere: György Ligeti at 100, 2022
Although György Ligeti has never composed film scores himself, his music has quickly found its wa... more Although György Ligeti has never composed film scores himself, his music has quickly found its way into the movies when it first appeared in Stanley Kubrick’s space epos 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968 and later in The Shining (1980) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). While these iconic movies have been widely examined in musicological literature, this chapter gives an overview of various employments of Ligeti’s works in films beyond Kubrick up to today, including feature films, documentaries, TV series and shorts. Even though Kubrick’s influence is still clearly discernible in some respects, the range of uses has broadened over the decades and hold some surprises, like the coupling of Atmosphères’ piccolo-passage with Bruce Lee’s battle cry in Fist of Fury (HK 1972), for example. In all, a crystallisation of favourite works and excerpts can be observed and the selection and coupling of effective bits and pieces is remarkably often matching Ligeti’s own commentaries on his compositions.
Lebensmüde, todestrunken
Das im Budapest der Vorkriegs- und Kriegszeit angesiedelte Drama spielt sich hauptsachlich im ‚Mi... more Das im Budapest der Vorkriegs- und Kriegszeit angesiedelte Drama spielt sich hauptsachlich im ‚Mikrokosmos‘ des Restaurants Laszlo Szabos ab und handelt von den Beziehungen und Geschichten der sich hier begegnenden Menschen und Gaste. Im Zentrum stehen die Dreierbeziehung zwischen Laszlo, seiner Partnerin Ilona und dem Hauspianisten Andras – und ihr Verhaltnis zu dem als Tourist einkehrenden, spater als SS-Standartenfuhrer wiederkehrenden deutschen Geschaftsmann Hans Wieck. Hans, der sich ebenfalls in Ilona verliebt und sich nach einem vereitelten Suizidversuch mit Laszlo anfreundet, sorgt spater fur viel Ungluck. So wird Laszlo, der judisch ist, u. a. durch sein Verschulden deportiert. Eine weitere zentrale Rolle spielt das von Andras fur Ilona komponierte „Lied vom traurigen Sonntag“, das durch eine Schallplattenaufnahme beruhmt und schlieslich beruchtigt wird, da eine Reihe von Suiziden damit in Verbindung gebracht werden. Auch Andras nimmt sich das Leben. Die Suche der Protagonisten nach der ‚Botschaft‘ des – im echten Leben unter dem Titel „Gloomy Sunday“ bekannten – Liedes wird am Ende zur Frage nach menschlicher Wurde. Dabei verliert der Film nie ganz den Ton heiterer Leichtigkeit. 145
This dissertation examines the nearly complete German, English and French secondary literature on... more This dissertation examines the nearly complete German, English and French secondary literature on, and the composers’ commentary on, three renowned works of the European postwar avant-garde. With the aid of the software MAXQDA, I undertook a meta-analysis combining qualitative and quantitative methods to discover what the texts address and in which amounts, which terms play important roles in them, and what they say about subjects like perception and meaning. I analyse individual terms and topics and interpret their significance based on how often or how seldom each of them arises in the texts in relation to specific works over time. For example, terms or semantic fields such as complexity, extremes, violence and power continuously play a prominent role, while others like world or beauty are rarely used or not used at all during some decades. I discuss the discourses and their arguments - including several so far unknown sources -, which extend over sixty years now, based on analysis producing some surprising results – both for the single works and ultimately across works.
musik | kultur | theorie, 2019
Studia Musicologica
This article reflects the ‘verbal history’ of György Ligeti’s most prominent work, the orchestral... more This article reflects the ‘verbal history’ of György Ligeti’s most prominent work, the orchestral piece Atmosphères from 1961. It discusses previously unknown notes from the György Ligeti collection at the Paul Sacher Stiftung, Basel as well as official comments by Ligeti. In addition, it takes into account the secondary literature, beginning with Harald Kaufmann’s influential text “Strukturen im Strukturlosen” (1964), which was partly co-authored by Ligeti. The main aspects in focus are the composer’s own distinction within the contemporary music scene, his way of describing his work in terms of perception, and his handling of the concepts of effect and structure.
In: Die Musikgeschichte des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts im universitären Unterricht – The Teaching o... more In: Die Musikgeschichte des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts im universitären Unterricht – The Teaching of Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Music History at Universities and Conservatories of Music (= Anklaenge 2018), ed. by Juri Giannini, Julia Heimerdinger & Andreas Holzer, Wien: Hollitzer, 2019.
In: Die Musikgeschichte des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts im universitären Unterricht – The Teaching o... more In: Die Musikgeschichte des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts im universitären Unterricht – The Teaching of Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Music History at Universities and Conservatories of Music (= Anklaenge 2018), ed. by Juri Giannini, Julia Heimerdinger & Andreas Holzer, Wien: Hollitzer, 2019.
in: Krieg Singen, ed. by Detlef Diederichsen and Holger Schulze, Berlin 2017, 62–77., 2017
Accompanying text of an exhibition of concert programmes from the WW I at Haus der Kulturen der W... more Accompanying text of an exhibition of concert programmes from the WW I at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin 2015.
Using a selection of concert programs, the exhibition of the Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung provided insight into concert life during the period from 1914–1918.
in: „Ein Blinder im Labyrinth“. György Ligetis Positionierung im Neue-Musik-Diskurs, hg. von Stefan Weiss und Volker Helbing, Studia Musicologica, Vol. 57, Juni 2016, H. 1-2, S. 207-220., 2016
This article reflects the ‘verbal history’ of György Ligeti’s most prominent work, the orchestral... more This article reflects the ‘verbal history’ of György Ligeti’s most prominent work, the orchestral piece Atmosphères from 1961. It discusses previously unknown notes from the György Ligeti collection at the Paul Sacher Stiftung, Basel as well as official comments by Ligeti. In addition, it takes into account the secondary literature, beginning with Harald Kaufmann’s influential text “Strukturen im Strukturlosen” (1964), which was partly co-authored by Ligeti. The main aspects in focus are the composer’s own distinction within the contemporary music scene, his way of describing his work in terms of perception, and his handling of the concepts of effect and structure.
in: Filmmusik und Narration. Über Musik im filmischen Erzählen, ed. by Manuel Gervink and Robert Rabenalt, Marburg 2017, 231-248 S. , 2017
A short survey about electrocoustic sounds and music in film: + The sound of electrification, + T... more A short survey about electrocoustic sounds and music in film: + The sound of electrification, + The attribution of objects, figures and atmospheres, + Alien worlds, parallel universes and distant times, + Ambiguity, + Dynamisation
in: Zum Brüllen! Interdisziplinäres Symposium über das Lachen, hrsg. von Gordon Kampe, Hildesheim: Olms 2016 (= Folkwang Studien 17), S. 189-208.
Ein kurzer Abriss der Geschichte des Lachlieds. A short survey of the history of the laughing son... more Ein kurzer Abriss der Geschichte des Lachlieds.
A short survey of the history of the laughing song.
Since decades it is rumoured that Kubrick used Ligeti’s music for his sensational space epic “200... more Since decades it is rumoured that Kubrick used Ligeti’s music for his sensational space epic “2001: A Space Odyssey” without permission. Latest investigations of previously unexploited papers from the György Ligeti collection at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel (Switzerland) and the evaluation of statements by contemporary witnesses suggest that this popular version of the story is in fact based on some interesting misunderstandings.
I Don’t Belong Anywhere: György Ligeti at 100, 2022
2023 marks the centenary of Ligeti’s birth, an appropriate moment to take stock of the relevance ... more 2023 marks the centenary of Ligeti’s birth, an appropriate moment to take stock of the relevance this composer has in the contemporary world, to assess where he “belongs” today and how our views of his œuvre and our understanding of his position in musical and cultural history have evolved. What do Ligeti and his music have to say to us in our post-postmodernist age? Why do his works still fascinate us so much? This volume (edited by Wolfgang Marx) offers new readings of core compositions such as «Aventures», «Lontano», the «Hölderlin Fantasies», «Galamb borong» and the Violin Concerto. It also reassesses the context and reception of Ligeti’s works, including the influence of Romanian music (not least in his childhood), musical life in Hungary between 1945 and 1956, the ways in which his thinking was influenced by his experience of different soundscapes, yet also the surprisingly widespread use of his music in film and TV (beyond Kubrick as the usual suspect). Finally it presents new sources discovered or made available only recently: letters exchanged between Ligeti and Aliute Mecys in 1972, the correspondence between the composer and his publisher Schott, and an extended BBC interview from 1997.
Ed. by Juri Giannini, Julia Heimerdinger, and Andreas Holzer, Vienna: Hollitzer 2019. In this vo... more Ed. by Juri Giannini, Julia Heimerdinger, and Andreas Holzer, Vienna: Hollitzer 2019.
In this volume, the anchoring of 20th and 21st century music history in university teaching is comprehensively presented. In addition to an analysis of course catalogues of German-speaking music colleges and universities, 21 international contributions present the situation in various countries worldwide. The review section focuses on the presentation of music history of the last 120 years in popular general music history books that have been published since the year 2000 and can be considered as potential recommended reading for students: Which historical images are conveyed, which selections are made, which emphases are set and what is left out?
With contributions by: José L. Besada & Belén Pérez Castillo | David Blake | Megan Burslem & Cat Hope | María Paula Cannova | Carmen Chelaru, Florinela Popa & Elena Maria Șorban | Pablo Cuevas | Anna Dalos | Hong Ding | Michael Fjeldsøe | Juri Giannini | Thomas Glaser | Þorbjörg Daphne Hall | Julia Heimerdinger | Frank Hentschel | Andreas Holzer | Priscille Lachat-Sarette | Heekyung Lee | Iwona Lindstedt | Wolfgang Marx | Philippe Poisson | Ingrid Pustijanac | Matej Santi | Mike Searby | Assaf Shelleg | Danae Stefanou | Mareli Stolp | Oğuz Usman & Ozan Baysal | Elizaveta E. Willert
This dissertation examines the nearly complete German, English and French secondary literature on... more This dissertation examines the nearly complete German, English and French secondary literature on, and the composers’ commentary on, three renowned works of the European postwar avant-garde. With the aid of the software MAXQDA, I undertook a meta-analysis combining qualitative and quantitative methods to discover what the texts address and in which amounts, which terms play important roles in them, and what they say about subjects like perception and meaning. I analyse individual terms and topics and interpret their significance based on how often or how seldom each of them arises in the texts in relation to specific works over time. For example, terms or semantic fields such as complexity, extremes, violence and power continuously play a prominent role, while others like world or beauty are rarely used or not used at all during some decades. I discuss the discourses and their arguments - including several so far unknown sources -, which extend over sixty years now, based on analysis producing some surprising results – both for the single works and ultimately across works.
Seit Arnold Schönberg 1929/30 seine zwölftönige "Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielszene (Drohe... more Seit Arnold Schönberg 1929/30 seine zwölftönige "Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielszene (Drohende Gefahr, Angst, Katastrophe)" op. 34 schrieb und Theodor W. Adorno in "Komposition für den Film" bemerkte, diese habe "mit untrüglicher Sicherheit genau jene Einsatzstelle für die Verwendung der neuen musikalischen Mittel bezeichnet", wurden unzählige Filmszenen mit solchen musikalischen Mitteln ausgestattet, um drohende Gefahr, Angst oder Katastrophen zu betonen. Dieses Buch enthält einen Abriss der Geschichte Neuer Musik im Spielfilm und untersucht anhand ausführlicher Analysen insbesondere die Verwendung von Musik der Nachkriegs-Avantgarde (György Ligeti, Krzysztof Penderecki u.a.) als Filmmusik in Stanley Kubricks "2001 - A Space Odyssey" und "Shining", in William Friedkins "The Exorcist" und Peter Weirs "Fearless". Untersucht wird, welche Musik wie eingesetzt wurde und vor allem: aus welchen Gründen sie ihren Zweck erfüllt.
I Don't Belong Anywhere: György Ligeti at 100, 2022
Although György Ligeti has never composed film scores himself, his music has quickly found its wa... more Although György Ligeti has never composed film scores himself, his music has quickly found its way into the movies when it first appeared in Stanley Kubrick’s space epos 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968 and later in The Shining (1980) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). While these iconic movies have been widely examined in musicological literature, this chapter gives an overview of various employments of Ligeti’s works in films beyond Kubrick up to today, including feature films, documentaries, TV series and shorts. Even though Kubrick’s influence is still clearly discernible in some respects, the range of uses has broadened over the decades and hold some surprises, like the coupling of Atmosphères’ piccolo-passage with Bruce Lee’s battle cry in Fist of Fury (HK 1972), for example. In all, a crystallisation of favourite works and excerpts can be observed and the selection and coupling of effective bits and pieces is remarkably often matching Ligeti’s own commentaries on his compositions.
Lebensmüde, todestrunken
Das im Budapest der Vorkriegs- und Kriegszeit angesiedelte Drama spielt sich hauptsachlich im ‚Mi... more Das im Budapest der Vorkriegs- und Kriegszeit angesiedelte Drama spielt sich hauptsachlich im ‚Mikrokosmos‘ des Restaurants Laszlo Szabos ab und handelt von den Beziehungen und Geschichten der sich hier begegnenden Menschen und Gaste. Im Zentrum stehen die Dreierbeziehung zwischen Laszlo, seiner Partnerin Ilona und dem Hauspianisten Andras – und ihr Verhaltnis zu dem als Tourist einkehrenden, spater als SS-Standartenfuhrer wiederkehrenden deutschen Geschaftsmann Hans Wieck. Hans, der sich ebenfalls in Ilona verliebt und sich nach einem vereitelten Suizidversuch mit Laszlo anfreundet, sorgt spater fur viel Ungluck. So wird Laszlo, der judisch ist, u. a. durch sein Verschulden deportiert. Eine weitere zentrale Rolle spielt das von Andras fur Ilona komponierte „Lied vom traurigen Sonntag“, das durch eine Schallplattenaufnahme beruhmt und schlieslich beruchtigt wird, da eine Reihe von Suiziden damit in Verbindung gebracht werden. Auch Andras nimmt sich das Leben. Die Suche der Protagonisten nach der ‚Botschaft‘ des – im echten Leben unter dem Titel „Gloomy Sunday“ bekannten – Liedes wird am Ende zur Frage nach menschlicher Wurde. Dabei verliert der Film nie ganz den Ton heiterer Leichtigkeit. 145
This dissertation examines the nearly complete German, English and French secondary literature on... more This dissertation examines the nearly complete German, English and French secondary literature on, and the composers’ commentary on, three renowned works of the European postwar avant-garde. With the aid of the software MAXQDA, I undertook a meta-analysis combining qualitative and quantitative methods to discover what the texts address and in which amounts, which terms play important roles in them, and what they say about subjects like perception and meaning. I analyse individual terms and topics and interpret their significance based on how often or how seldom each of them arises in the texts in relation to specific works over time. For example, terms or semantic fields such as complexity, extremes, violence and power continuously play a prominent role, while others like world or beauty are rarely used or not used at all during some decades. I discuss the discourses and their arguments - including several so far unknown sources -, which extend over sixty years now, based on analysis producing some surprising results – both for the single works and ultimately across works.
musik | kultur | theorie, 2019
Studia Musicologica
This article reflects the ‘verbal history’ of György Ligeti’s most prominent work, the orchestral... more This article reflects the ‘verbal history’ of György Ligeti’s most prominent work, the orchestral piece Atmosphères from 1961. It discusses previously unknown notes from the György Ligeti collection at the Paul Sacher Stiftung, Basel as well as official comments by Ligeti. In addition, it takes into account the secondary literature, beginning with Harald Kaufmann’s influential text “Strukturen im Strukturlosen” (1964), which was partly co-authored by Ligeti. The main aspects in focus are the composer’s own distinction within the contemporary music scene, his way of describing his work in terms of perception, and his handling of the concepts of effect and structure.
In: Die Musikgeschichte des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts im universitären Unterricht – The Teaching o... more In: Die Musikgeschichte des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts im universitären Unterricht – The Teaching of Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Music History at Universities and Conservatories of Music (= Anklaenge 2018), ed. by Juri Giannini, Julia Heimerdinger & Andreas Holzer, Wien: Hollitzer, 2019.
In: Die Musikgeschichte des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts im universitären Unterricht – The Teaching o... more In: Die Musikgeschichte des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts im universitären Unterricht – The Teaching of Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Music History at Universities and Conservatories of Music (= Anklaenge 2018), ed. by Juri Giannini, Julia Heimerdinger & Andreas Holzer, Wien: Hollitzer, 2019.
in: Krieg Singen, ed. by Detlef Diederichsen and Holger Schulze, Berlin 2017, 62–77., 2017
Accompanying text of an exhibition of concert programmes from the WW I at Haus der Kulturen der W... more Accompanying text of an exhibition of concert programmes from the WW I at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin 2015.
Using a selection of concert programs, the exhibition of the Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung provided insight into concert life during the period from 1914–1918.
in: „Ein Blinder im Labyrinth“. György Ligetis Positionierung im Neue-Musik-Diskurs, hg. von Stefan Weiss und Volker Helbing, Studia Musicologica, Vol. 57, Juni 2016, H. 1-2, S. 207-220., 2016
This article reflects the ‘verbal history’ of György Ligeti’s most prominent work, the orchestral... more This article reflects the ‘verbal history’ of György Ligeti’s most prominent work, the orchestral piece Atmosphères from 1961. It discusses previously unknown notes from the György Ligeti collection at the Paul Sacher Stiftung, Basel as well as official comments by Ligeti. In addition, it takes into account the secondary literature, beginning with Harald Kaufmann’s influential text “Strukturen im Strukturlosen” (1964), which was partly co-authored by Ligeti. The main aspects in focus are the composer’s own distinction within the contemporary music scene, his way of describing his work in terms of perception, and his handling of the concepts of effect and structure.
in: Filmmusik und Narration. Über Musik im filmischen Erzählen, ed. by Manuel Gervink and Robert Rabenalt, Marburg 2017, 231-248 S. , 2017
A short survey about electrocoustic sounds and music in film: + The sound of electrification, + T... more A short survey about electrocoustic sounds and music in film: + The sound of electrification, + The attribution of objects, figures and atmospheres, + Alien worlds, parallel universes and distant times, + Ambiguity, + Dynamisation
in: Zum Brüllen! Interdisziplinäres Symposium über das Lachen, hrsg. von Gordon Kampe, Hildesheim: Olms 2016 (= Folkwang Studien 17), S. 189-208.
Ein kurzer Abriss der Geschichte des Lachlieds. A short survey of the history of the laughing son... more Ein kurzer Abriss der Geschichte des Lachlieds.
A short survey of the history of the laughing song.
Since decades it is rumoured that Kubrick used Ligeti’s music for his sensational space epic “200... more Since decades it is rumoured that Kubrick used Ligeti’s music for his sensational space epic “2001: A Space Odyssey” without permission. Latest investigations of previously unexploited papers from the György Ligeti collection at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel (Switzerland) and the evaluation of statements by contemporary witnesses suggest that this popular version of the story is in fact based on some interesting misunderstandings.