Sidney Corbett

Sidney Corbett (born April 26, 1960, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American composer based in Germany.

Biography

Sidney Corbett was born in Chicago in 1960, the son of a Jewish mother and a Catholic father, but grew up without a religious upbringing. In 1968, he moved with his family to California, where he played as an electric guitarist in various bands in Los Angeles at the age of fifteen and composed his first works from 1977.^[1][2]

From 1978 to 1982, he studied philosophy and composition at the University of California, San Diego, with Bernard Rands and Pauline Oliveros, among others. In 1985, Corbett continued his composition studies at Yale University, where he taught as a "Teaching Fellow in Composition" and received his doctorate in 1989 with an analysis of the work Hyperprism by the French composer Edgar Varèse. His teachers at Yale University were Jacob Druckman, whose assistant he was, as well as Martin Bresnick, Frederic Rzewski and Morton Subotnick. Corbett was awarded the BMI Student Composer Award in 1985.^[3][4]

From 1985 to 1988, he studied composition with György Ligeti at the Musikhochschule Hamburg and took part in Vladimír Karbusický's doctoral seminar at the University of Hamburg's Institute of Musicology.^[3]

Corbett has lived mainly in Europe since 1985, in Hamburg, Stuttgart and Berlin. Since 1991 he has regularly given guest lectures and master classes in Europe and North America. From 1994–1995 he was a visiting professor for composition and analysis of contemporary music at Duke University in Durham (North Carolina).^[2]

In 2006, Corbett was appointed Professor of Composition at the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts. There he also directs the Forum Neue Musik, which he founded, as well as the concert series of the Gesellschaft für Neue Musik Mannheim (Society for New Music Mannheim). Corbett has lived with his family in Schwetzingen since 2014.^[5][6]

As a guitarist Corbett played from 2004–2008 in the avant-garde techno/house band "Vierte Heimat" and continues to play in various improvising formations to this day.^[3][7]

Corbett has authored articles on musical topics for many years and has also been involved in the programming of various concert series, including the College Music Society Europe (CMSE), Cologne and Musica Nova, Stuttgart.^[8]

Corbett was elected to the Akademie der Künste, Berlin in 2022.^[9]

Corbett's compositions are published and distributed worldwide by Edition Peters, Leipzig – London – New York.^[6][10]

Releases of his works have appeared on Sony Classical, Cybele, Mode Records, CRI, Edition Zeitklang, Kreuzberg Records, Blue Griffen, Edition Kopernikus and Ambitus Records.^[11][12]

Compositional Output

Inspiration, sources

For Corbett, composing is a spiritual act, he concerns himself intensely with spiritual and theological questions and with all forms of mystical experience, including for example also Islamic mysticism. For him, this occupation with the spiritual is a principal source of inspiration; the spiritual is inseparable from the musical. ^[13][14]

Corbett often uses holy scriptures as inspiration: he has for example used texts from the Old Testament, for example, Psalm 39 several times, e.g. Psalm 39 for mixed choir (2010), Canticum David for seven voices (2015) and Ein Fremdling, wie alle meine Väter ... for contrabbass clarinet (2010); instrumental variations on prophetic literature such as Three Lamentations [Of the Prophet Micah] for alto saxophone and organ (1998). There are also biblical figures in the operas Noach (2001) and Die Andere (2016).^[15]

Corbett uses texts from the Koran, for example in Die Sieben Tore (The Seven Gates) for mezzo-soprano, speaker, flute, harp, piano and percussion (2004) or refers to the Talmud, for example in Bleeding in Babylon for bass clarinet, guitar and double bass (2004).^[15]

Corbett has also been inspired by mystical works, including texts by Meister Eckhart for Des Engels Licht for soprano, accordion, harp and string trio (2005) and Vom inneren und äußeren Menschen. Ein Narrenspiel in 13 Inseln for soprano, baritone, speaker/actor and bible shelf (2010) and Mechthild von Magdeburg on Unsér Súnde for five voices (2007).^[15]

Corbett's interest in architecture is reflected, for example, in the title of his Symphony No. 1 "Tympan" for large orchestra (1991–1992), where the tympanum, an arched decorative surface above the lintel of the portal of a cathedral, is referred to in the title. The architectural floor plans and proportions of the 11th century cathedral in Mönchengladbach form reference points for the project Die Stimmen der Wände (The Voices of the Walls) for alto flute, saxophone, trombone, electric guitar, violin and violoncello (1993), created with the artist Brigitte Zarm. ^{[16] [17]}

Literary influences can be found in his compositions for music theatre, which form a focal point of his work, but also in numerous other works. Examples include numerous vocal works such as Portals for tenor and guitar (1998) based on poems by Walt Whitman, Lieder aus der Bettlerschale for soprano and piano (1998) based on poems by Christine Lavant, Nova angeletta for alto and violin (1996) and for soprano and viola (2000) based on a poem by Francesco Petrarca, Kykloi for soprano and chamber ensemble (2009) based on a text fragment by Barbara Köhler and Rasch for soprano, clarinet, viola, violoncello and piano based on texts by Roland Barthes (2010).^[18]

Corbett's instrumental music also bears witness to the composer's literary affinity, e.g. in his Third Symphony: ″Breathing the Water″ (2006), in which texts by Denise Levertov are juxtaposed with the poetry of Amal al-Jubouri. Yaël (2004) reflects Corbett's intensive, decades-long study of the work of Franco-Egyptian poet and philosopher Edmond Jabès. Works influenced by philosophical texts also include Aporia for chamber ensemble (2019), inspired by texts by Jacques Derrida and Utopia and Intimacy (Utopie und Nähe) for solo violin and six voices (2020) based on texts by Ernst Bloch.^[19]

Style

Corbett is an artist who cannot be easily placed within the new music mainstream.^[19] He is an active guitarist with considerable experience as an improvising musician in various contexts, for example with the avant-garde techno house band "Vierte Heimat", with the ensemble "Letzte Dernière" with two double basses, cello and electric guitar, in which, for example, works by Giacinto Scelsi or Rebecca Saunders were used as the basis for improvisation, and with the Lebanese musician Mazen Kerbaj.^[20]

His musical training did not begin with classical music; he only learned to write music at the age of 17 – before that, as a guitarist, he had done everything by ear, i.e. by memorizing or improvising. He has thus remained very open minded towards different forms and styles of musical expression.^[21]

During his study of composition in San Diego, at UCSD, from 1978, Corbett was confronted with the most extreme forms of avant-garde music; in 1982 he began his studies at Yale University and became interested for the first time in so-called traditional music - both of which influenced the musical language of his compositions at this time.^[22]

His study in Hamburg with György Ligeti from 1985-1988 was a particularly strong influence. At the time, Ligeti criticized Corbett's style as being too avant-garde. Corbett was encouraged to look at his own compositions more critically and, above all, more closely.^[22]

Corbett developed his own independent musical language, one primarily characterized by strictly linear and vocally oriented melodic writing. The melodic lines are often shifted against each other at half or whole tone intervals, leading to a dissonance-rich and tonally ambiguous harmony. His music is characterized by complex, superimposed rhythmic pulsations; metrical focal points are negated, giving Corbett's music a flowing character that oscillates in large phrases while still retaining formal unity. By incorporating extended playing techniques and the often unconventional combination of instruments, a rich spectrum of timbral colors is achieved.^[8][19]

Works

• Stage
  • Noach (Opera, 1995) (based on the libretto by Christoph Hein), first performed in 2001
  • X Und Y (Chamber Opera, 2001), first performed during the Eclat Festival Stuttgart in 2002
  • Paradiso, for Speaker and String Quartet (based on Dante), first performed in Basel in 2002
  • Keine Stille Ausser Der Des Windes (Chamber Opera, 2007) (based on texts by Fernando Pessoa) (commissioned by the Bremer Theater), first performed in 2007
• Orchestral
  • Tympan (Symphony No.1, 1992)
  • Posaunenkonzert (Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra, 1994)
  • The Immaculate Sands (Symphony No.2, 2004), first performed in 2004
  • Yeal, for Violin and Orchestra (2005), first performed by Kolja Lessing and the Concertino Basel in 2005
  • Exits, for Electric Guitar and Chamber Orchestra (composed for Seth Josel and the Ensemble MusikFabrik NRW) first performed in 2005
  • Breathing the Water (Symphony No.3, 2006)
• Vocal
• Chamber
  • Die Stimmen der Wände (1993)
  • Caverna (1994)
  • Kammersinfonie (Chamber Symphony, 1995)
  • Gesänge Der Unruhe (2003)
  • String Quartet "Fractured Eden" (commissioned by the Düsseldorfer Tonhalle, composed for the Auryn Quartett), first performed on 28 May 2006
  • Valse Triste

Literature

• Sidney Corbett: Auf der Suche: Zum Tode des amerikanischen Komponisten Jacob Druckman, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik Nr.4, Juli/August 1996, Schott Verlag, Mainz (in German)
• Sidney Corbett: Die amerikanische Neue-Musik-Szene: Der subjektive Überblick eines Komponisten, Musik und Ästhetik, Klett-Cotta Verlag, Stuttgart (Heft 6/98) (in German)
• Sidney Corbett: Verzicht ist eine Antwort, zu den Begriffen Fortschritt, Avanciertheit und Avantgarde Musik und Ästhetik, Heft 33, Januar 2005, Klett-Cotta Verlag, Stuttgart (in German)

References

External links

• Official website
• Biography on the website of the Musikhochschule Mannheim (in German)

This page was last edited on 10 April 2024, at 19:14