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Baumann Felix

(11. 01. 1961)

Baumann Felix
Baumann Felix
Imbisbühlstrasse 51
CH-8049 Zürich (ZH)
Schweiz

Tel: +41 (0)44 342 57 74
Fax: +41 (0)44 342 57 72



Genre: Classical Music
Professional activity: Composers, Authors
Biography
* 11. 01. 1961 Speicher/SG.

- Graduated as a primary school teacher in Kreuzlingen
- Studied at the Akademie für Schul- und Kirchenmusik Luzern (piano with Eva Serman, school music I+II, conducting) and the Musikakademie Basel (theory and composition with Roland Moser and Detlev Müller-Siemens).
- Additional in-depth study of rhythm with Pierre Favre
Felix Baumann has been a professor for composition, music theory and the interpretation of contemporary music at the Hochschule der Künste in Zurich since 1992. He has been the head of the composition and music theory department since 2003 and the supervisor of the Studio for New Music since 1999, a position that has facilitated a multitude of encounters with composers. He has been a member of the board of directors for the Komponistenforum since 1995 and the IGNM Zurich from 1996 until 2002.
Central to his compositional work is the investigation of unfolding movement (the getting started) and topics of communication. Appropriately the examination of language and speech has led to the production of a whole body of works. In recent years, the context of Felix Baumann's work has become increasingly important, so much so that composed programmes or specific projects now overshadow the creation of new works.
His oeuvre encompasses works for various chamber musical ensembles, numerous vocal works and two compositions for orchestra. The majority of his work is the result of commissions. In 2002 Felix Baumann was awarded a sabbatical year by the city of Zurich for his work as a composer. He has been invited to symposia, festivals and music schools in his position as a guest lecturer and composer (Trstenice, Czech Republic, Festival Cluj Modern in Rumania, Berlin, Kiev, Sarajewo, Peking repeatedly (Beijing Modern International Festival), Nanjing and Shanghai, Rome, Canberra (Canberra International Chamber Music Festival), Sydney and Budapest (Budapest Autumn Festival).
His works are distributed by Swiss Music Edition www.musicedition.ch


Work list

Was, wenn Verwandlung nicht (1990)

Instrumentation: for piano solo

Based on the 'Duineser Elegien' by R.M.Rilke.The radiation of a central motive changes through a process of different aspects.

Duration: 7' 00"

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Vier Worte (1991)

Instrumentation: for choir and organ

Texts: Bibel / Liturgie

For a committed amateur choir. A piece of music in four movements for two female voices, one male voice and an organ. Based on biblical texts.

Duration: 19' 00"

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Laub (1991)

Instrumentation: for guitar solo

A collection of pieces for tuition.

Duration: 40' 00"
Gitarrenforum Winterthur
c/o Bissig
Lustgartenstr. 9
CH-9000 St. Gallen
Quintet (1992)

Instrumentation: for oboe, horn and string trio

Opposing elements growing increasingly apart.
Rights of performance reserved.


Duration: 22' 00"

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Monolith (1993)

Instrumentation: for orchestra (2.2.2.2/2.2.2.0/3perc/5.5.5.5.3)

This whole five-part piece is developed from a pentatonic group core.

Duration: 10' 00"

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Le guetteur mélancolique (1994)

Instrumentation: for two clarinets, two harps, piano, six percussion, two orators and four choir groups

Texts: Guillaume Apollinaire

For the 'Stadelhofer Death Dance'. A spatially performable score based on texts by Guillaume Apollinaire about the transition from this world to the next. Speechlessness in the face of death, a dance around the grave and the crossing of the threshold.

Duration: 16' 00"

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Duo (1995)

Instrumentation: for violine and double-bass

When two unequals do the same the result is a difference, if they do different, a generic third can evolve.

Duration: 15' 00"

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aufwärts (1997)

Instrumentation: for flute, guitar and violoncello

A non octave-identical ladder is the starting point and the tonal centre of this piece in four movements.

Duration: 16' 00"
Gitarrenforum Winterthur
c/o Bissig
Lustgartenstr. 9
CH-9000 St. Gallen
unzuhause (1997)

Instrumentation: for alto saxophone solo

'Unzuhause' is, according to Heidegger, a more primordial phenomenon than fear.

Duration: 8' 00"

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entgegen (1998)

Instrumentation: for basset horn solo

The contrast between different energy forms acts as a catalyst enabling the static to become fluid.

Duration: 7' 00"

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entgegen (2002)

Instrumentation: version for clarinette in B

Duration: 7' 00"

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entgegen 2 (1998)

Instrumentation: for basset horn solo

'entgegen 2' differs from 'entgegen' by a more open cadence.

Duration: 8' 00"

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Ins Offene (1998)

Instrumentation: for alto flute, English horn and soprano saxophone

A piece about the keying of the unsisono, which is displaced from a static into a liquid state.

Duration: 15' 00"

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Fährte (1998)

Instrumentation: for trombone solo

When the ground is soft enough, the game leave a track.

Duration: 8' 00"

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Poren (1999)

Instrumentation: for three basset horns

An attempt at writing a music which is, on the one hand, corporal even crystal clear and on the other hand dismantled from every fixation: a music which is flowing and simultaneously clear.

Duration: 9' 00"

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spöttisch leicht - 5 Lieder nach Gedichten von Sarah Kirsch (1999-2000)
5 Songs based on poems by Sarah Kirsch

Instrumentation: for singing voice (mezzo-soprano), clarinet, violin, violoncello and piano

Texts: Sarah Kirsch

The line skips by Sarah Kirsch turn the readers into stumblers. Stumblers have to re-read the text if they want to understand its content. They gain, thereby, unexpectedly in time and fall to a deeper level.

Duration: 15' 00"

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Kadenzen für das Violoncello-Konzert in D-Dur von Joseph Haydn, Hob. VII b:2 (2000)

Instrumentation: for violoncello

1. Movement: 1'102. Movement: 12"3. Movement: 10" and 30"An attempt to propagate the compositional perspective of Haydn.

Duration: 2' 00"

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"nah / hautnah" (2000-2001)
'Radio Play'

Instrumentation: for orator, solo soprano, violoncello and ensemble (fl.cl/perc/pf/vn.vc)

Texts: Sarah Kirsch, Sappho, Michel Serres, Stefan Buri, Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Commissioned by and with support of 'Pro Helvetia', (the Swiss culture foundation) for the 50th anniversary of the Zurich Chamber Voice Choir. First performed in Zurich on the 20th November 2001 by the Chamber Voice Choir Zurich, Martina Fausch, Martina Schucan, Ensemble for New Music Zurich (Bernhard Erne). A piece dealing with the proximity of music and speech, the border area between commutation and murmuring, exactly there where the word is weak and the music has already begun.

Duration: 45' 00"

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(Parts available from the composer)
Schwebungen (2001)

Instrumentation: for violoncello solo

Dedicated to Martina Schucan. First performed in Menorca, 3rd November 2001 by Martina Schucan.
Harmonic extremeties effect a continual toggeling between tension and relaxation. At the end remains the faint idea of the vicissitude at the beginning, now altered into a persistent and intensified dimension.


Duration: 8' 00"

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anhaltend (2001-2002)

Instrumentation: for two violincelli

Music based on the duo op. 54, Lettre F 2e livre by Jacques Offenbach.
First performed in St Gallen, 8th April, 2002 by Martina Schucan and Imke Frank. 'Anhaltend' can be played independently or as the third movement of the duo op. 54, Lettre F 2e livre von Jacques Offenbach, whereby the original third movement is replaced or played as the fourth. Music sounds exactly there where we least expect it and always different to how we expect it.

Duration: 9' 00"

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CHF: 16.80
(Parts: CHF 16.20)
Sprayerspruch (2002)
Music

Instrumentation: for five-part a-cappella choir

Texts: Mahatma Gandhi, Alltags- Werbe- Mediensprache

Texts: Mahatma Gandhi, everyday advertising and media language
Loosely based on Mahatma Gandhi.
A continual substantiation of musical and later even non-musical contents leads to a central question of human being. For an ambitious amateur choir.

Duration: 13' 00"

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CHF: 21.60
Sprayerspruch II (2002-2003)

Instrumentation: for five-part choir and three basset horns

Texts: Mahatma Gandhi, Alltags- Werbe- Mediensprache

Texts: Mahatma Gandhi, Alltags- Werbe- Mediensprache
Attempting to make the choral version even more radical by including instruments.

Duration: 15' 00"

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CHF: 33.60
aussprechen (2002)
Trio

Instrumentation: for recorder, viola da gamba and harpsichord

'aussprechen' has something installative about it: in apparently endlessly excessive lengths almost nothing happens, which causes inflexibility to appear with quiet humour.

Duration: 15' 00"

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CHF: 22.80
menschenfleiss (2002-2003)
Music

Instrumentation: for string orchestra

Based on a poem by Ernst Jandl.
From the late collision of extreme opposites there grows a sound room consisting of out-of-tune harmonic spectra, spectra whose penetrability and opacities evoke memories of pure sounds and hidden anticipation.

Duration: 14' 00"

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... nachfragend (2002-2003)

Instrumentation: for flute and harpsichord

Between reception and perception. This short piece allows the opportunity to meditate over the difference between the recording of foreign content and sensual perception as a level of knowledge.

Duration: 2' 30"

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CHF: 12.60
Irritationen (Irritations) (2003)

Instrumentation: for violin solo

Compulsary piece for the 2004 Koeckert Competition.
'Irritationen' are amenities or excitors that provoke. Terms such as 'unsicher machen', 'verwirren' and 'berunruhigen' are added to this meaning in the 1800s (through their proximity to the verb 'irren'). In this sense, 'Irritationen' indicate profound connections, where to live with them harmoniously is not an absolute given from the outset.

Duration: 6' 00"

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...für und für (2004)

Instrumentation: for violoncello solo

In "...für und für" the music leaves the familiar tempering and linear time form. Ostensible impurity can, thereby, suddenly engage in an alien harmony. Rhythmically pulsating music, nice for the duration.

Duration: 7' 00"

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CHF: 12.60
Intonationen (2004)
3 short pieces

Instrumentation: for two (baroque) violins

Commissioned by and for John Holloway and Monika Baer.
Evaporating presences. A work about chracteristic moods, possibly comparable to feelings and their associated paradigmatic tarnishing or colouring of the peceprion of the environment.


Duration: 8' 00"

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CHF: 15.30
Intervention (2004-2005)

Instrumentation: for oboe solo

In 'Intervention', the music is channelled in such a way as to highlight the fragile and the subtle, unthinkable without the large gesture at the beginning, they now become something equivalent to its opposite. It is thus that polar positions seem to nourish subterraneously.

Duration: 8' 00"

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Übergang (2005)

Instrumentation: for bass clarinet (in B), bassoon and violoncello

Through the elongation of time in the deeper and darker register, the music (or rather the perceiving ear) nestles in an intermediate area between process and static, as if observed through a magnifying glass. From the abundance of innumerable possibilities emerges the presence of a singular transition.

Duration: 10' 00"

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CHF: 19.20
Ich und Du (2008)

Instrumentation: for 2 oboes

'Ich und Du' takes the canon technique as its starting point to create, in the first few moments, an unexpected constellation full of conflict potential, which is then gradually tackled and illuminated from various sides. This short piece offers the possibility to listen in on the longing and the shared and their possible and impossible realisations.

Duration: 3' 00"

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Heiligenetude (Bidott und Padott) (2008)

Instrumentation: for small ensemble (fl, ob, cl, bn, hn, vn, va, vc)

Attempting to describe the sacred or the holy is captious and can easily miss that which is actually meant. The sacred is not easily articulated. Maybe the sacred simply arises through musical means like an uncontrolled accordance of interior and exterior, conscious and preconscious facts?
Maybe Bidott and Padott are two Patron Saints yet to be discovered.

Duration: 5' 00"

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(Parts: CHF 30.60)
ich und ich (2009)

Instrumentation: für Klavier solo

Dedicated to Siang Wong.
Following 'Ich und Du' for two oboes, 'ich und ich' for piano solo is the second part of a cycle in progress tackling the issue of one's own position.
'ich und ich' is a work about the sound of the piano and an exploration of a mediation between expressively charged material and musical facts, which develop of their own accord.



Duration: 7' 00"

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2efnmz5 (2009)

Instrumentation: for ensemble ad lib.

Conceptual piece for the 'Ensemble für neue Musik Zürich' (for its 25th anniversary). The concept effectively comprises all the music ever played over the past 25 years performed at a lightening speed agreed upon in advance (not less than 15 seconds).

Duration: 1' 00"

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CHF: 9.00
Urgrund (2010)
Duo

Instrumentation: for violoncello and piano

Duration: 12' 00"

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Baustelle Dialog (2011)

Instrumentation: for shakuhachi and (Baroque) violin

Duration: 15' 00"

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hellwach (2012)

Instrumentation: for ensemble (fl, cl, hn, tbn, perc, pf, vn, va, vc)

This piece deals with intensity, how it is able to continually change or increase and to what degree the listening experience differs from the compositional approach.

Duration: 12' 00"

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CHF: 33.00
Schimmer (2012-2013)

Instrumentation: for large orchestra (3.2.3.2/4.2.3.1/timp.2perc/hp/16.14.12.10.8)

In "Schimmer" wird das Ohr einer vordergründigen Reizarmut ausgesetzt, um das Hören mittels Dehnvorgängen zu beleben. Dabei kreist das kompositorische Denken um Fragen, was es braucht, damit Musik greift und Resonanz erzeugt.

Duration: 16' 00"

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CHF: 38.70
an vorbei (2014)

Manuscript
CHF: 44.40
2 Lieder (2015)

Instrumentation: Für mittlere Singstimme und Klavier

Manuscript
CHF: 15.60
Konzert für Akkordeon und Orchester (2016-2017)
Zerbrechliches Gleichgewicht

Instrumentation: für Akkordeon und Orchester

Im Zentrum des Konzerts für Akkordeon und Orchester steht das Moment des fragilen Gleichgewichts, eines prekären und gleichzeitig Glück verheissenden, immer nur temporären Zustands und die Gefahr um dessen Verlust. Inspiriert durch die Mobiles von Alexander Calder, gerät die Musik immer wieder aus ihrem Gleichgewicht. Sie kommt mit allerlei Kräften ins Spiel, kämpft mit Schlagseiten und pendelt zwischen Anziehung und Abstossung.

Duration: 32' 00"

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ungleich (2017-2018)

Instrumentation: für Violine und Violoncello

ungleich ist eine Bearbeitung des Duos für Violine und Kontrabass aus den Jahren 1994/95.
Dabei wurde die Vorlage nicht unversehrt übernommen, sondern auf die Gegebenheiten der beiden lnstrumente angepasst, die Notation aktualisiert und vor allem der 2. Satz neu gesetzt.
ungleich macht erfahrbar, dass dasselbe, wenn es von zwei verschiedenen interpretiert wird, ein Verschiedenes ergibt. Dasselbe ist nicht dasselbe, Verschiedenes verschmelzt oft
besser.


Duration: 10' 00"

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unzuhause III (2017)

Instrumentation: Fassung für zwei (Alt-) Saxophone

Der Titel ,unzuhause' ist eine Wortschöpfung des Philosophen Martin Heidegger.
,Unzuhause' sei das ursprünglichere Phänomen von Angst, quasi der Boden, auf dem sie sich
erst ausbildet. Die lnterpretierenden und Rezipierenden sind herausgefordert, entlang der
Ungleichgewichte in der Musik in ein Spiel mit der eigenen Mitte zu treten.


Duration: 10' 00"

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KippMoment (2019)

Instrumentation: Fassung für 2 (Alt-)Saxophone

Wie ereignen sich durchs Hören Wahrnehmungsverschiebungen?
Geschrieben zur Vernissage von Arbeiten Bildender Künstler:innen, kann dieses Stück mobileartig in Teilen gespielt oder in einer stringenten Abfolge realisiert werden.


Duration: 10' 00"

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CHF: 14.40
Discography
Celloduo Frank / Schucan (Grammont Porträt Nr. 91, 2004)
Works:
Gubler, Rico: Roundabout - Zu Offenbachs op. 34 (2001-2002)
Baumann, Felix: anhaltend (2001-2002)
With more works of: Jacques Offenbach
Info: www.fonoteca.ch
Bibliography
Baumann, Felix (et al.): Wann ist ein Stück Musik zu Ende? Zwei Antworten von Felix Baumann und Rico Gubler, in: Dissonanz 78 (2002) [Internet]
Nolte, Lisa D.: Der Mensch und das Ohr. Der Komponist Felix Baumann, in: Dissonanz (Juni 2014) 126 (2014), S. 33-35 [Internet]
Gottstein, Björn: Swiss Piano (CD ZHdK). Piano Works by Emmanuel Nunes and Rudolf Kelterborn (CD Guild), in: Dissonanz 115 (2011), S. 89-90 [Internet]
Gubler, Rico (et al.): Wann ist ein Stück Musik zu Ende? Zwei Antworten von Felix Baumann und Rico Gubler, in: Dissonanz 78 (2002) [Internet]


Last updated: 2024-02-06 11:25:53