Personal history
These
photos give a
very small insight
in what happened
in my life. Most
composer's lives
begin on a little
pot. Only Beethoven
kept this pot
during his entire
life, mostly
under his grand'
Piano. Can you
imagine the disgusting
smell during
his performance
of the 'Hammerklavier
Sonate'? After
I had jumped
out of this chamber
pot, it took
me a while to
understand what
I wanted to do.
The next photos show me as a mature pubertarian, during the Darmstadt Courses of 1959 (together with Heinz Klaus Metzger and Sylvano Bussotti).
On
special request
of Stockhausen,
I attended his
composition course
of that year. Somebody
took a photo
outside Darmstadt.
I must have been
in deep thoughts,
working on my first
Orchestral piece "Variation" then. No
theme, no variations:
the piece is
its own permanent
variation. An
attempt to make
'serial' procedures
more flexible.
1961 was a crazy year. After having conducted Ferdinand Kriwet's theatre piece "Offen" at the Ulm Theatre, (under the wise guidance of its director Ulrich Brecht) some of the 'experimental' poets met in an Ulm Gallery.
From left to right: Gerhard Rühm (under the shower), Claus Bremer (under the water crane), Ferdinand Kriwet and Konrad Boehmer (keeping the tap of that 'camp painting' under strict control).
I
met Ferdinand
Kriwet about
1960. We collaborated
on several pieces
(amongst which
our dirty cantata "Jugend",
1968). 
The photo
shows us in Düsseldorf,
working on one
of Kriwet's 'Hörtexte')
What a pleausre to meet my good old friend Luigi Nono in Innsbruck (in 1968, the year!). We both did our decent lectures and composition courses, but outside of the official rules, we had a lot of fun (and discussions about the world revolution, which is still on the agenda). During some years Nono had been composition teacher at the "Cursos Latinoamericanos de Musica contemporañea".
Latin
America has inspired
him for some
of his majors
compositions.
When he wanted
to quit the job,
he proposed me.
The photo shows
the newly-fledged
teacher among
the students
(1972, in Piriapolis,
Uruguay). Half
of the discussions
were about music,
the other half
on politics:
believe me!
In
1978 my very
respected colleague
Helmuth Lachenmann
joined me at
the Latin-American
Summer courses.
I remember some
very exciting
discussions with
him. During a
beautiful summer
day somebody
made this photo
in Tiradentes
(Brasil).
In April 1979 I went to North-Korea (on invitation of one of their cultural institutions). I was received as an “official" (red carpet and girl with flowers when stepping out of the plane; even the "Pyongyang Time” mentioned my presence!) I had talks with the Ministers of Culture, Education and Foreign Affairs (you will find my talk with the Minster of Foreign Affairs in my Collected writings, Volume 2). This photo shows me with the Presidential Board of the North-Korean Composer's Union.
After
we understood,
that we are equal
human beings,
the ice melted
down very quickly.
See them laughing...