Winnipeg, January 30, 2015
Kicking off the first a six part video interview series for Musical Toronto called Ultimate Maverick, Canadian composer, Vincent Ho sits down for an exclusive interview with the internationally renowned Austrian composer, Georg Friedrich Haas.
Georg Friedrich Haas (b. 1953, Austria) is a composer often characterized as a leading exponent of spectral music. His aesthetic is guided by the idea that music is able “to articulate a human being’s emotions and states of the soul in such a way that other human beings can embrace these emotions and states of the soul as their own”.
Haas was in Winnipeg this week to participate in the 24th annual Winnipeg New Music Festival, where three of his works are being performed by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and the Arditti Quartet.
The in-depth interview touches upon Haas’ three works, Traum in des Sommers Nacht (2009), Open Spaces II (2007), and String Quartet No. 6 (2010). They also discuss his composition process, views on Mendelssohn, musical quotations, romanticism, and his love of composer, James Tenney. It concludes with some very valuable advice for young composers looking to find their own distinct compositional voice.
