KAGEL Mauricio (1931-2008)

An Argentine composer born in 1931 in Buenos Aires who died in 2008.
Mauricio Kagel studied music, literature and philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires. From 1950 he published his first works when he was a film and photography critic and later conductor. In 1957 he settled in Cologne where he founded the Kölner Ensemble für Neue Musik and taught at the Hochschule für Musik. He asserted himself in the early 1960s as a master of instrumental theatre. With a style that blended aleatory techniques with serial organisation, he introduced the dimensions of gesture, criticism and humour, fracturing aural conventions. His highly varied output tackled all genres and formations: compositions for orchestra, voice, chamber music, radiophonic pieces and film music. Works include Anagrama (1957), Sur scène (1959), Hallelujah (1968), Exotica (1971), Dressur (1977), variety (1977), Der Tribun (1979), Vox humana? (1979), the series of Rrrrrrr... (1980-1982), Sankt-Bach-Passion (1985), Quodlibet (1988), Die Stück der Windrose (1989-1994), Doppelsextett (2001), Quasi niente (2007).