Helmut Lachenmann

He created compositions of many genres. In an opera, Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern based on Andersen's "The Little Match Girl" and texts by Leonardo da Vinci and Gudrun Ensslin, the performers speak, play instruments, sing and act. Instrumental works include piano pieces, string quartets such as Gran Torso and Reigen seliger Geister, ensemble works such as Mouvement (- vor der Erstarrung), and music for large orchestra including Accanto which juxtaposes a solo clarinet to an "orchestra of noise, friction, and unorthodox sound generation". Lachenmann is regarded among the leading German composers of his time.

Helmut Lachenmann studied at State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart. Training under Luigi Nono, Johann Nepomuk David and Jürgen Uhde is recorded. Arturo Gervasoni is recorded as having studied under Helmut Lachenmann. The recorded working language is German and English. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are opera. Residence is recorded at Höfingen. Employment is recorded with Conservatoire de Paris, Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media and State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart. Works named in the authority record are Reigen seliger Geister, Gran Torso, Grido and Mouvement. Distinctions recorded are Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg, Bach Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and Berliner Kunstpreis.

• Name — Helmut Lachenmann • Born — 27 November 1935 • Birthplace — Stuttgart, Germany • Education — Musikhochschule Stuttgart • Occupation — * Composer • Pianist • Academic teacher • Essayist • Organizations — * Musikhochschule Stuttgart • Musikhochschule Hannover • Awards — * Bach Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg • Ernst von Siemens Music Prize • BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award

Lachenmann was born in Stuttgart on 27 November 1935; His father was a pastor. After the end of the Second World War, at age eleven, he began to sing with the Stuttgarter Hymnus-Chorknaben. Showing an early aptitude for music, he already composed in his teens. He studied piano with Jürgen Uhde and composition and theory with Johann Nepomuk David at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart from 1955 to 1958. He encountered Luigi Nono at the 1957 Darmstädter Ferienkurse, and became Nono's first private student in Venice from 1958 to 1960, staying in his home. Nono inspired him to reflect social and political contexts, and to use unconventional techniques and noises in his compositions. Lachenmann's works were first performed in public in 1962, Fünf Strophen for nine instruments and the piano piece Echo Andante at the Venice Biennale and the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. In the mid-1960s, Lachenmann was inspired by Olivier Messiaen who taught in Darmstadt. He worked briefly at the electronic music studio at the University of Ghent in 1965, composing his only published tape piece Szenario during that period but thereafter focused almost exclusively on purely instrumental music.

Lachenmann is married to the Japanese pianist Yukiko Sugawara.

Several events have been staged in 2025 to celebrate Lachenmann's 90th birthday. The Ensemble Modern has collaborated with him, continuing a tradition of three decades, to play his Concertini, composed for the ensemble in 2005, in four major halls in German. At the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, their concert is part of a focus on Lachenmann of several events, including his string quartets. A concert played there and at the Kölner Philharmonie combines his Ausklang for piano and orchestra (1985) with Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, played by Jean-Frédéric Neuburger and the SWR Symphonieorchester conducted by François-Xavier Roth. Klangwerkstatt Berlin programmed two chamber music works to mark the occasion, Intérieur I for piano (1966) and Salut für Caudwell for two guitarists (1977). A concert of the Goethe-Institut Boston featured his Guero (Lachenmann) for piano (1970) and works by two of his students. Oper Frankfurt features an evening with Lachenmann in conversation with Enno Poppe and a performance of Mouvement (– vor der Erstarrung) (1984).

The chronological list is sourced from Lachenmann's publisher Breitkopf & Härtel and IRCAM: • Fünf Variationen über ein Thema von Franz Schubert (German Dance in C-sharp minor, D643) for piano (1956) • Rondo for two pianos (1957) • Souvenir for 41 instruments (1959) • Due Giri, two studies for orchestra (1960) • Tripelsextett for 18 instruments (1960–61, lost) • Fünf Strophen for 9 instruments (1961, withdrawn) • Echo Andante for piano (1961–62) • Angelion for 16 instruments (1962–63, withdrawn) • Wiegenmusik for piano (1963) • Introversion I for 18 instruments (1963, withdrawn) • Introversion II for 8 instruments (1964. withdrawn) • Scenario for tape (1965) • Streichtrio I for violin, viola and cello (1965) • Intérieur I for one percussionist (1966) • Notturno for small orchestra and solo cello (1966/67) • Trio fluido for clarinet, viola and percussion (1966/68) • Consolations I for 12 voices and percussion (1967) • temA for flute, voice and cello (1968) • Consolations II for 16 voices (1968) • Air, music for large orchestra with percussion solo (1968–69) • Pression for cello (1969–70, revised 2010) • Dal niente (Interieur III) for clarinet (1970) • Guero (Lachenmann), piano study (1970) • Kontrakadenz for large orchestra (1970–71) • Montage for clarinet, cello and piano (1971) • Klangschatten – mein Saitenspiel for three Konzertflügel (pianoforte) and string ensemble (1972) • Gran Torso, music for string quartet (1972) • Fassade for large orchestra (1973) • Schwankungen am Rand, for sheet metal and strings (1974–75) • Zwei Studien for violin (1974) • Accanto, music for solo clarinet and orchestra (1975–76) • Les Consolations for choir and orchestra (1976–78) • Salut für Caudwell, music for two guitarists (1977) • Tanzsuite mit Deutschlandlied, music for orchestra and string quartet (1979–80) • Ein Kinderspiel, seven little pieces for piano (1980) • Harmonica, music for large orchestra and solo tuba (1981–83) • Mouvement (- vor der Erstarrung) for ensemble (1982/84) • Ausklang for piano and orchestra (1984–85) • Dritte Stimme zu J. S. Bachs zweistimmiger Invention d-moll BWV 775 for three instruments (1985) • Staub for orchestra (1985–87) • Toccatina, violin study (1986) • Allegro sostenuto, music for clarinet, cello and piano (1986–88) • Tableau for orchestra (1988) • Reigen seliger Geister, string quartet (1989) • "...zwei Gefühle...", Musik mit Leonardo for speaker and ensemble (1992) • Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern / Musik mit Bildern (music with images) theatre music for very large orchestra and soloists (1988–96) • Serynade for piano (1998) • NUN for flute, trombone, male choir and orchestra (1999) • Sakura-Variationen for saxophone, percussion and piano (2000) • Grido, string quartet (2001) • Schreiben for orchestra (2003) • Double (Grido II) for string orchestra (2004) • Concertini for large ensemble (2005) •...got lost..., music for soprano and piano (2008) • Sakura mit Berliner Luft for saxophone, piano and percussion (2008) • Marche fatale for piano (2016–17) • Berliner Kirschblüten for piano (2016–17) • Marche Fatale for orchestra (2017) • My Melodies for eight horns and orchestra (2012–18)

He was employed by Conservatoire de Paris, Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media and State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart. He belonged to Academy of Arts, Berlin, Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts and Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten. He worked at Höfingen.

Helmut Lachenmann is recorded as having received Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg and Bach Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.

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