INFOBOX
Genre(s): Contemporary MusicFrom: Vienna, Austria
Management: cgibbs@intermusica.co.uk
Distribution: www.boosey.com/
Website: www.boosey.com/composer/HK+Gruber?site-lang=de&
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BIOGRAPHY
Composing music that translates across the boundaries of generations and social classes is a goal, which HK GRUBER has set for himself. Born in 1943 in Vienna, authorities and elites in both political as well as in artistic terms have always been a thorn in the side of the critical spirit. At an early stage, Gruber got in touch with contemporary music as a double bass player in the ensemble ‘die reihe’ and the Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna. As serial composition techniques and avant-garde innovations formed to a strictly followed movement, he turned back to the already outdated tonality. At the same time he also introduced the modes of composition of the Viennese school and merged serial techniques with major and minor, which he had acquired during his studies with Erwin Ratz, Gottfried von Einem and Hanns Jelinek. In order to be able to perform his ensuing new musical language, he teamed up with Kurt Schwertsik and Otto M. Zykan in 1968 and founded the ensemble “MOB art and tone ART” and set a counterpoint to both the classic traditional canon as well as to latest forms of contemporary music. In combination with socio-critical tones, even the typical black humor of Vienna found its way into the novel compositions – often with the former choirboy Gruber as a chansonnier or conductor of his own works.