Bernd Alois Zimmermann was born on March 20, 1918, and died on August 10, 1970. He was a German composer. He is most well-known for his opera Die Soldaten, which is considered one of the most important German operas of the 20th century, following those by Berg. His music used a variety of techniques, such as dodecaphony and musical quotation. It included styles from the avant-garde, serial, and postmodern movements.

Life

Zimmermann was born in Bliesheim, which is now part of Erftstadt, near Cologne. He grew up in a rural Catholic community in western Germany. His father worked for the German Reichsbahn, a railroad company, and also farmed land. In 1929, Zimmermann began attending a private Catholic school, where he first experienced music. After the NSDAP, a political group, closed all private schools, he moved to a public Catholic school in Cologne. In 1937, he earned his Abitur, a type of school diploma.

That same year, he completed his required service for the Reichsarbeitsdienst, a labor program. From late 1937 to early 1938, he studied teaching methods at the Hochschule für Lehrerausbildung, a teacher training school in Bonn.

In early 1938, he began studying music education, musicology, and composition at the University for Music in Cologne. In 1940, he joined the Wehrmacht, the German military, but was released in 1942 due to a serious skin illness. He returned to his studies but did not finish his degree until 1947 because of the war. By 1946, he had already become an independent composer, working mainly for radio. Between 1948 and 1950, he participated in the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, a music course, where he studied with René Leibowitz and Wolfgang Fortner, among others.

In 1957, he received a scholarship to stay at the German Academy at Villa Massimo in Rome. He also became a professor of composition, taking over from Frank Martin, and taught film and broadcast music at the Musikhochschule Köln. One of his notable students was Clarence Barlow. In the 1960s, his work as a composer gained more recognition. He received another scholarship to Villa Massimo in 1963 and a fellowship at the Academy of Arts in Berlin. His opera Die Soldaten premiered in 1965, after being delayed because it required many performers and was very difficult to perform. The Cologne Opera had called it "unplayable."

Zimmermann faced a deep emotional crisis due to depression and worsening eye health. On August 10, 1970, he committed suicide at his home in Königsdorf near Cologne, five days after finishing the score of his final composition, Ich wandte mich um und sah an alles Unrecht, das geschah unter der Sonne (often translated as "…The Turning" in English). At the time, he was also preparing another opera, Medea, based on a work by Hans Henny Jahnn.

Music

The composer developed his musical style over time, aligning with the evolution of modern music, which was largely disconnected from German composers during the Nazi era. He initially composed in the neoclassical style, then explored free atonality and twelve-tone music, and later adopted serialism in 1956. His interest in jazz occasionally influenced his works, such as his Violin Concerto or Trumpet Concerto.

Unlike the Darmstadt School (comprising composers like Stockhausen, Boulez, and Nono), Zimmermann did not completely abandon traditional musical elements. By the late 1950s, he created his own unique style called "Klangkomposition," a German term meaning a composition focused on sound planes and tone colors. This style combines and overlaps musical material from different historical periods, including Medieval, Baroque, Classical, Jazz, and Pop music, using advanced techniques. Zimmermann’s use of this method ranged from including short musical references in works like Photoptosis to creating entirely collaged pieces, such as the ballet Musique pour les soupers du Roi Ubu. In his vocal compositions, especially Requiem f, he layered texts from multiple sources to shape the music. He described his approach using the metaphor "the spherical form of time," emphasizing a circular, non-linear view of time.

Works

• Extemporale for Piano (1946)
• Capriccio for Piano
• Lob der Torheit (burlesque cantata by Goethe), for solo, choir, and large orchestra (1947)
• Enchiridion I for Piano (1949)
• Märchensuite for Orchestra (1950)
• Alagoana (Caprichos Brasileiros) Ballet Suite (1950)
• Rheinische Kirmestänze (1950, rearranged in 1962 for 13 wind instruments)
• Concert for Violin and Orchestra (1950)
• Sonata for Solo Violin (1951)
• Symphony in One Movement (1951, revised 1953)
• Enchiridion II for Piano (1951)
• Concerto for Oboe and Chamber Orchestra (1952)
• Des Menschen Unterhaltsprozeß gegen Gott (lit. The People's Maintenance Suit Against God), Radio Opera in Three Acts with Text from Pedro Calderón de la Barca and Adapted by Matthias Bungart
• Nobody Knows the Trouble I See: Concert for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra (1954)
• Sonata for Solo Viola (1955)
• Konfigurationen (Configurations) for Piano (1956)
• Perspektiven — Musik für ein imaginäres Ballet (Perspectives — Music for an Imaginary Ballet) for 2 Pianos (1956)
• "Die fromme Helene" after Wilhelm Busch, Sounded as a "Rondo Popolare" for Narrator and Instrumental Ensemble (1957)
• Canto di Speranza: Cantata for Cello and Small Orchestra (1957)
• Omnia Tempus Habent: Cantata for Soprano and 17 Instruments (1957)
• Impromptu for Orchestra (1958)
• Dialoge: Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (1960), Re-written with the Title Monologue for Two Pianos (1964)
• Sonata for Solo Cello (1960)
• Présence, Ballet Blanc for Piano Trio and Narrator (with Words from Paul Pörtner) (1961)
• Antiphonen for Viola and 25 Instrumentalists (1961)
• Tempus Loquendi for Solo Flute (1963)
• Un "petit rien" (1964) for Ensemble, after Les Oiseaux de lune by Marcel Aymé
• Musique pour les soupers du Roi Ubu (Ballet Noir en Sept Parties et Une Entrée): Ballet after Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry (1966)
• Die Soldaten: Opera in Four Acts, Libretto by the Composer after the Drama of the Same Name by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz (1965)
• Concerto for Cello and Orchestra en forme de pas de trois (1966), Dedicated to Siegfried Palm
• Tratto: Electronic Composition (1967)
• Intercomunicazione for Cello and Piano (1967)
• Die Befristeten for Jazz Quintet (1967)
• Photoptosis: Prelude for Large Orchestra (1968)
• Requiem für einen jungen Dichter — Lingual for Narrator, Soprano, Baritone, Three Choirs, Electric Tape, Orchestra, Jazz Combo, and Organ (1969)
• Vier kurze Studien for Solo Cello (1970)
• Stille und Umkehr: Orchestra Sketches (1970)
• Tratto 2: Electronic Composition (1970)
• Ich wandte mich um und sah an alles Unrecht, das geschah unter der Sonne: "Ekklesiastische Aktion" for Two Narrators, Bass, and Orchestra (1970)
• Plus Various Compositions for Radio, Theater, and Film