Professional activity: Composers, Interpreters, Authors
Biography
* 22. 12. 1964, † 01. 12. 2015.
- Raised in Rüschikon/ZH, lives in Basel.
- Studied recorder under the tutelage of Conrad Steinmann at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and composition under Roland Moser at Basel School of music.
Since 1991 - Compositions, from 1995 onwards came thereto sound installations and, in 1998, free improvised music
1997 until 2001 - Collaborates on the project Kaskadenkondensator, Basel
1999 until 2004 - Collaborates in the artistic direction of the Festival for Improvised and Composed Contemporary Music
2001 - Wins the Swiss Association of Musician's Marguerite de Reding Prize with the improvisation quartet 'Babels Besen'
2004/05 - Member of the Istituto Svizzero di Roma (ISR) with a working residency at the Spazio culturale des ISR Venice in 2006
Translations from architecture play an ever-increasing role in the compositions of Hans-Jürg Meier. On the one hand side the power of imagination is of fundamental importance in both arts. On the other both address the holistic invention of forms that develop in time and/or space. His compositions are bound in the coaction of nature, form and beauty in an attempt to provide a quasi-tangible experience of the sensible qualities of the musical material (tones, intervals, sound texture).
Work list
Vereinsamt (1986-1995)
Instrumentation: for speaking choir
Texts: Friedrich Nietzsche
Text: Friedrich Nietzsche.
Duration: 7' 00" Manuscript
weiland (1991)
Instrumentation: for alto recorder and harpsichord
'weiland' (once upon a time) refers here to the once existing balance between rest and occupation, a balance altered at the expense of rest.
Duration: 5' 00"
Hug & Co. Musikverlage
Limmatquai 28-30 CH-8001 Zürich
presso il passo di cristallina (1993)
Instrumentation: for two Renaissance recorders
This piece is based on the real experience of the astonishing quiet shortly before the pass peak on a mountain.
Duration: 7' 00"
Carciofoli Verlag
Postfach CH-8049 Zürich
das licht um einen schatten heller machen (1993-1995)
Instrumentation: for violin and trombone
Three-part piece: grosse Entfernung - Nähe - Entfernung, ohne die innere Beziehung zu verlieren.
Instrumentation: for recorder, bass clarinet, viola, violoncello and two percussionists
The melody is expanded in a tower of quints. A row of variations in three parts where the melody sounds as a whole only in the second part.
Conductor is of use.
A quasi study of the flow of time based on the song bearing the same name by the Beatles.
Duration: 10' 00" Manuscript
... wie wenn ein Strahl ohne Ende in ein Wasserbecken fällt (1994)
Instrumentation: for choir without conductor and four mouth organs
Texts: Robert Musil
Chronological organisation functions in place of the conductor via the ears of the participants. The short text fragments by Robert Musil surface again and again.For an amateur choir.
Two separated but simultaneously played voices (one from Markus Wettstein, and the other from Hans-Jürg Meier) with only one obligation: both voices are of identical duration.
The musical text by Josquin Desprez is read anew (unisonous, spoken, freely contrasted) and is almost original in some parts. Rather more suited to a small choir.
This piece extracts its energy from the contrast between intensity and tenderness.
The opening viola solo is quasi leading the trio.
Duration: 8' 00"
Deutsche Lautengesellschaft
Prinzenkamp 9 D-49731 Sögel
Du kannst an keiner Stelle mit eins beginnen (1999)
Instrumentation: for three electronic tapes (sound insallation)
Fading every-day sounds from the domestic environment are assembled on three electronic tapes. Repeating the tapes results in ever changing combinations of the same sounds.
Duration: var. Manuscript
colours de la rose (1999-2001)
Instrumentation: for alto flute (flute) oboe (english horn) and soprano saxophone (alto saxophone)
A nine-part piece - a confrontation between the music of Guillaume de Machaut and Hans-Jürg Meier.
Over a set period of time the composer Dodo Schielein sent the end part of a composition to Hans-Jürg Meier who, in turn, continued the composition sending the end of his part back to Dodo Schielein, this continued until a composition in twelve parts resulted. Smooth transitions and resumptions keep the piece together.
Instrumentation: for percussion, tenor recorder, viola and violoncello
A music that evolves in extended development, for a performance location with a lot of reverberation. An additional tone installation can sound simultaneously.
Instrumentation: for violin, violoncello and piano
"This piece is based on a structure derived from the structure of the village of Soglio in Bergell. Meier succeeded in building an organic, undramatic yet increasingly enthralling form of attractive sonority - a poetic sound room." (Alfred Zimmerlin)
Instrumentation: for 3 tenor saxiphones and baritone saxophone
Formally based on the floor plan of the 'Santo Stefano in Rotondo'commemoration church on the Monte Celio in Rome the music flows alternately through the physical conditions of the water.
Ariadne's experiences with Theseus and Bacchus are related from the perspective of the Corona Borealis constellation:
1. Theseus and Ariadne: promise of marriage on the island of Nexus
2. Theseus: called upon by an aide to leave
3. Ariadne: abandonment and delusion
4. Ariadne and Bacchus: heavenly wedding and the casting of the crown into the sky, which remained in the form of the constellation.
One can twist and turn it as one will, the eye will always read the surface as a spatial object.
With reference to the floor pattern of the church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli in Venice.
Instrumentation: for 5 instrumental groups (piano and alto sax; alto sax and violoncello; violoncello and trombone; trombone and piano; e-bass and large drum) and 3 soloists (alphorn, violin and voice)
Several ups and downs in a hilly area. Enjoying the view on each occasion with a musical solo. For students.
Instrumentation: for voice (mezzo-soprano) and flute
Text by Marianne Schuppe (staging: Hans-Jürg Meier)
"Between two languages lies a room. Between language and music lies a room. And between reading, resp. listening and writing lies time. Translating is the setting of one's own words resp. signs in relation." (Marianne Schuppe)
Instrumentation: for soprano, 4 Renaissance flutes and lute
Texts from the "Canticum Canticorum".
Music in six parts about the "Santa Maria Formosa" church by Mauro Codussi (Venice):
I ort und zeit (gondola);
II er besingt sie (caminada);
III sie besingt ihn (caminada);
IV minne (hortus conclusus);
V wein (cielo);
VI siegel (fuoco).
Instrumentation: for melodica and objects, saxophone (bar, a) trombone, violin, viola, double bass and voice (soprano)
Texts: Hadrian
A trip to and into the Pantheon in Rome in four parts: Tympanon,
Pronaos, Innenraum, Opaion. The performance places the Endless Column in Targo Jiu by Constantin Brancusi into the Pantheon.
Musik in zwei Teilen, welche vor und nach der Konzertpause gespielt werden. Im ersten Teil werden buchstäblich immer mehr Pausen herausgeschnitten, im zweiten Teil finden die Pausen zu musikalischen Formen und die Klangabfolge verlangsamt sich.
voices prima parte: CHF 15.00
voices seconda parte: CHF 15.00
Eichenlaub und Espenblatt (2014)
Instrumentation: für 21 Sopranblockflöten (Kinder ab ca. 9 Jahren)
Musik für vier Gruppen, welche je für sich und untereinander ein Kommunikationsnetz aufspannen. Angelehnt an Forschungsergebnisse zur Kommunikation von Pflanzen.
Instrumentation: für Stimme (Mezzossopran) und Renaissance-Laute
Texts: Louïze Labé
Drei Sonette von Louïze Labé sind wie als Strophen über denselben Musiktext vertont. Ein Vorspiel und zwei Zwischenspiele wirken wie ruhige, distanzierte Kommata.
12 Fragmente zum Heidelberger Totentanz: Der Konig, von allem stadt, Der bruder, Die junckfrauiwe, Der artzt, Der ritter, Der spieler, Der schriber, Der wucherer, Der kaiser, Der wirt, der dumherr.
Instrumentation: für drei Traversflöten und Schlagzeug
Musik zu Santo Stefano Rotondo (Rom, ca. 460). Die architektonischen Themen der frühchristlich-spätantiken Rundkirche werden musikalisch umgesetzt: kreisende Bewegungen; diaphane Strukturen, welche die Raumstaffelung in musikalischen Schichten wiedergeben; das Licht, welches von den Oberfenstern des Zentralraumes in die Kirche einströmt, spiegelt sich in der wechselweise hellen oder dunklen Harmonik.