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Michael Beil (Weinheim, July 13, 1963) is a German composer of contemporary music. Characteristics of his oeuvre are the combination of instrumental music with live-audio and live-video, and the use of theatrical elements such as a detailed stage direction and scenography. Since 2007 he has been a professor of electronic composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne, where he is in charge of the studio for electronic music.

Biography

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Beil studied piano and music theory at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart from 1984 to 1993, and composition with Manuel Hidalgo. In 1996 he moved to Berlin, teaching music theory and composition at the music schools in Kreuzberg and Neukölln and working as director of the precollege department and the department of contemporary music. Between 2000 and 2007 he was involved in the Berlin scene of new music in various capacities: as artistic director of the festival Klangwerkstatt and as co-founder of the group SKART (together with Stephan Winkler), which organized concerts based on interdisciplinary concepts. In 2007 he became the professor for electronic music at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne and director of the studio for electronic music.[1]

Michael Beil's work is very regularly performed at festivals dedicated to new music, such as the festival Acht Brücken in Cologne, Ultraschall Berlin – Festival für neue Musik, ECLAT Festival Neue Musik Stuttgart, Wien Modern, Donaueschinger Musiktage, TRANSIT in Leuven and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, as well as by collaborations with and performances by specialized ensembles such as musikFabrik, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Mosaik, Ensemble United, Ensemble Garage, Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart and Nadar Ensemble.[1]

Beil has received stipends from Künstlerhaus Wiepersdorf[2] and cité des arts (Paris), and the Heinrich-Gartentor-Stipendium für Videokunst in Thun (Switzerland). He is a laureate of the Camillo Togni price and was selected for the Nachwuchsforum des Ensemble Modern in 1994. In 2023, Beil received the Deutscher Musikautor*innen-Preis (GEMA).[3][4]

Work

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Beil focuses on the combination of instrumental music, electronic music and video. His compositions lean heavily on concepts specific to what typically happens on stage during a concert (not only the performance of music as such, but in particular the many actions not directly aimed at playing) and the way compositions are created. The arrangement on stage is often precisely fixed and the movements of the musicians on stage are elaborated as an integral part of the score. Several compositions presuppose a specific decor and props. In this respect, Beil's music borders on music theater. However, the musical dimension is and remains the starting point of his works.[1]

A central theme in Beil's work is the decoupling of sound and movement. Once disconnected, Beil uses them as building blocks that he can recombine into new configurations, so that the causal relationship between movement and sound loses its self-evidence. Beil's recent focus on virtuality is an extension of this idea. Examples include Bluff for ensemble, tape and live video (2015) and compositions for musicians without instruments, such as Key Jack / Jane (2017). Beil deconstructs the classical concert situation throughout his work through exaggeration and doubling. Furthermore, he calls into question (explicitly or not) the art work as a masterpiece by quoting well-known musical works in new and unusual contexts, or by transforming or deconstructing material that is idiomatic for a certain instrument.[1] "Quotations, for me, are the main material," Beil says of his use of citations.[5] Beil uses recognizable quotations from existing works by other composers is building blocks because of the emotional charge or the references already attached to them. It is those connotations that the composer uses as material – a new meaning that can fade or appear subsequently by incorporating the quotations in new musical contexts.[6]

Beil created most of his compositions in close collaboration with the musicians involved, and regularly worked with ensemble mosaik and with Nadar Ensemble. For Nadar Ensemble, he composed three large-scale compositions, which also show a strong interconnection and evolution between them: exit to enter (2013), Bluff (2015) and Hide To Show (2021).[7]

In the 1990s, before he began focusing on the use of video in his compositions, Beil wrote orchestral and chamber music works, mostly with tape. He integrated pre-recorded video into the concept of a composition for the first time in 1999, with Mach Sieben (for piano, video and tape).[1]

Beil has been using live video since 2006. Around that time, video technology and computer processing speed became sufficient to record live fragments during the concert and process them with a minimum amount of latency. This thus made it possible to project the video recordings immediately afterwards – also in multiple, and inverted or not – and to combine them with the same images and with other live actions. For Branng! (2005), Open Source (2008), Belle Nuit (2009), exit to enter (2013) and Bluff (2015), Beil also collaborated with director Thierry Bruehl as part of this process.[8][9] Exit to enter (2013) illustrates how Beil zooms in on details of performance in his music. Beil has the musicians in this composition step perpetually in and out of the spotlight, where short sequences of musical actions are recorded. Those recordings are then projected, in countless new combinations, onto a large wall next to the musicians. The actual musical performance remains in the shadows all the while. Beil thus cuts the visible link between cause (the movements of a musician) and effect (the audible sounds), drawing attention all the more strongly to the expected connection between the two.[10] A decade later, Beil pushed the use of live video to further with the composition of works with tape and live video, but for musicians without instruments, such as Key Jack / Jane for pianist without keyboard, soundtrack and live video (2017), and caravan for four musicians without instrument, soundtrack and live video (2017). In Key Jack / Jane, the pianist takes a seat behind a wooden board flanked by two projection screens. On these, live recordings of the performer are projected. While the pianist performs a complex choreography, the music is fully realized as a soundtrack, liberally using quotations.[11] In Hide To Show for ensemble, tape and live video (2021), too, Beil focusses on the contradictions between the tangible real world and virtual reality.[12]

List of works[1][8]

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  • Stops, for piano and tape (1992)
  • Nexus, for two pianos and tape (1995)
  • Klavierquartett, for piano quartet and tape (1997)
  • Und Neun ist Eins, for saxophone, piano, percussion, soprano and tape (1998)
  • Und Acht, for accordion, tape and video (1999)
  • Aus Eins mach Zehn, for orchestra and tape (2000)
  • Mach Sieben, for piano tape and video (2000)
  • Und Sechs, for six instruments and tape (2000)
  • Aus Fünf, for six instruments with tape and video (2001)
  • Die Drei, for six singers (2002)
  • Batterie, for drumset and tape with optional video (2003)
  • Beleuchter, for flute, violin, drumset and tape (2004)
  • Die Zwei, for flute, piano, tape and video (2004)
  • Brangg!, for countertenor, two actors, tape and video (2005)
  • Karaoke Rebranng!, for saxophone/clarinet, violin/viola, percussion, piano, live audio and live video (2006)
  • open source, for soprano, violin, viola, cello, tape and video (2008)
  • Belle Nuit, for flute, violin, viola, cello, tape and video (2009)
  • Doppel, for two pianos, live audio and live video (2009)
  • Blinded, for countertenor, two actors, string quartet and tape (2010)
  • along, for e-guitar, tape and live video (2011/2022)
  • BLACKJACK, for ensemble, live audio and live video (2012)
  • exit to enter, for ensemble, tape and live video (2013)
  • swap, for flutes, oboes, clarinets, tape and live video (2014)
  • Bluff, for ensemble, tape and live video (2015)
  • sugar water, for ensemble, tape and live video (2015)
  • String Jack, for cellist, tape and live video (2016)
  • Key Jack / Key Jane, for pianist, tape and live video (2017)
  • Caravan, for four performers, tape and live video (2017)
  • transit, for six singers, ensemble, tape and live video (2018)
  • mimikry, for four EWIs, live audio and live video (2020)
  • Hide To Show, for ensemble, tape and live video (2021)
  • Deep Blue, for two performers with controllers, live audio and live video (2022)
  • backslash, for ensemble, camera operator, live audio and live video (2022)
[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e f Delaere, Mark (February 2019). "Beil, Michael, BIOGRAPHIE". MGG Online. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  2. ^ "Kulturstiftung Schloss Wiepersdorf - Schloss Wiepersdorf (en). www.schloss-wiepersdorf.de". Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  3. ^ "Musikautor*innenpreis". Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  4. ^ Beil, Michael. "Michael Beil - CV".
  5. ^ "Like in a hamster wheel – Interview with Michael Beil – Youtube". YouTube. 17 March 2014. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  6. ^ Beil, Michael (2012). "Material Shift". In Mahnkopf, Claus-Steffen (ed.). Musical Material Today. Hofheim: Wolke. pp. 9–20. ISBN 978-3-936000-19-1.
  7. ^ P. Gielen and T.R. Moore (2023). Hide to Show: Memefying Live Music, Algorythmizing Social Relationships. pp. 17–20. ISBN 9789464755497.
  8. ^ a b Beil, Michael. "Homepage - overview of compositions". Retrieved 17 February 2024.
  9. ^ Dhooghe, Yarrid (14 January 2017). "Program notes Nadar Ensemble WYSI(N)WYG in De Singel, Antwerp" (PDF). Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  10. ^ Delaere, Mark (2020). "Als horen en zien erbij vergaat: multimedia in de hedendaagse muziek". Een kleine Muziekgeschiedenis van hier en nu. Pelckmans. pp. 163–164. ISBN 9789463372688.
  11. ^ Diependaele, Rebecca (11 March 2018). Program notes Nadar Ensemble Homejacking in Concertgebouw, Brugge (11 March 2018).
  12. ^ P. Gielen and T.R. Moore (2023). Hide to Show: Memefying Live Music, Algorythmizing Social Relationships. pp. 17–20. ISBN 9789464755497.
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