Iris ter Schiphorst
Iris ter Schiphorst is a German composer and musician.
Early life
Iris ter Schiphorst was born in Hamburg into a middle-class family, her father a Dutch technician and her mother a German pianist. She describes music as her "second mother tongue". She began taking piano lessons, initially from her mother, after her early hopes of becoming a dancer were thwarted by injury.She continued her piano studies at the Bremen Musikhochschule from 1973 to 1978, and embarked on a busy schedule of concert performances. She then spent two years travelling in Europe and Africa, an experience that transformed her social and musical outlook. On returning to Germany she began playing in rock bands, including Bremen's all-female Seven Kick the Can. She remained active in rock music from 1980 to 1986, as keyboardist, bassist, drummer, and sound engineer.
ter Schiphorst moved to Berlin in 1984 and from 1986 studied humanities at the Freie Universität Berlin, later transferring to Humboldt-Universität. She also attended seminars with composers Dieter Schnebel and Luigi Nono and musicologist Helga de la Motte-Haber, but is otherwise self-taught in composition.
Composing career
ter Schiphorst's experience as a practising musician has been an important influence on her approach to composition. Her music is also informed by her abiding interest in dance.She began experimenting with classical composition in the 1980s while still playing in rock bands. Early works include Terrible and Postludium aus Vergessenem.
Later in the decade she co-founded the zeit-Musik collective of composers and musicologists, and concentrated on music exploring the relationship between text and sound. Works from this period include the radio pieces Inside-outside II and Und was, wenn die Schlange ein Schwein gewesen wäre?.
Her interest in electronic music and sampling techniques led her to form the electro-acoustic ensemble Intrors in 1990, with whom she won the Blaue Brücke composition competition in 1997 for Silence Moves and made two recordings, Liebesgeschwüre im Schneckenhaus and Silence Moves und Anna's Wake. She performed with Intrors on keyboards, synthesiser, and sampler through the 1990s, as well as continuing to give piano concerts.
At the same time, ter Schiphorst was developing an interest in writing for stage and multimedia performance. 1055, die Welt ist noch in Ordnung is an early example, but it was only in the nineties that this became a large part of her output, beginning with Strings, Anna's Wake, and Z.B. Herz.
In 1996 she formed a composing partnership with her sometime companion Helmut Oehring, which lasted until 2001: "Their joint creative activities were inaugurated in 1996 when Oehring asked to use melodic material by Schiphorst in his dance-opera The D’Amato System, premiered at the Munich Biennale. They then experimented with wholesale co-composition in the highly successful Polaroids, which was given its first performance by Ensemble Modern the same year." ter Schiphorst wrote little music under her own name during this period as she focused on collaborative composition and caring for her son. If frequency of performance is any guide, Live: aus Androgyn is proving to be the most durable of the couple's collaborations.
One work ter Schiphorst did produce independently in the late 1990s, and a significant milestone, was her first composition for full orchestra, Hundert Komma Null. It was commissioned by Musica Viva München and shortlisted for the 2001 Prix Italia. This was followed by Gestures, and a succession of compositions that demonstrate her increasing assurance and maturity.
Recent works such as Die Gänsemagd, Klangrätsel, Grüffelo, and S.O.S. Odysseus reflect ter Schiphorst's interest in bringing the language of contemporary music to young performers and listeners. In 2016, her orchestral piece Gravitational Waves is premiered by the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain under the baton of Edward Gardner at Snape Maltings Concert Hall, with further performances at the Birmingham Symphony Hall and the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall.
Performances
ter Schiphorst's music is performed regularly in her native Germany and elsewhere. Her music has been championed by renowned artists such as Martyn Brabbins, the Arditti Quartet, Salome Kammer, Peter Rundel, Roland Kluttig and Evan Christ. Performance listings can be found at under News and at under Performances.Awards and grants
ter Schiphorst has written and lectured occasionally since the mid-1990s, particularly on the relationship between music and text. In 2011 and 2013 she was Visiting Professor of Experimental Composition at the Berlin University of the Arts, Since 2015 she is professor for Media Composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In May 2013 she was elected to the Academy of Arts, Berlin.Her other awards and distinctions include: first prize in the Third Composition Competition for Synthesized and Computerized Music in 1992; her tenure in 2004 as artist-in-residence at Künstlerinnenhof Die Höge, a centre for female artists at Bassum near Bremen; the selection of Zerstören as an official German entry for the 2007 World Music Days in Hong Kong; the special jury prize at the Internationaler Komponistinnen Wettbewerb in 2008 for Zehn Miniaturen für Cello und Akkordeon ; and her selection as one of four prizewinners in the 2011 ad libitum Composition Competition for Klangrätsel. In the summer of 2013, ter Schiphorst was selected for the 2015 Heidelberger Künstlerinnenpreis. The prize, for female composers, is presented at a concert featuring the winner's work in January or February of the prize year; the early notice of selection gives the winner the opportunity to produce a new piece for the occasion, although this is not a requirement. She has also received many grants, scholarships, and commissions.
Compositions
1980s
- Terrible, for voice, three trumpets, electric guitar, electric bass, and drums.
- 1055, die Welt ist noch in Ordnung, for three spotlights, two female dancers, and two male dancers.
- Postludium aus Vergessenem, for mixed choir and percussion.
- Geschlossene Welt, for prepared piano.
- Inside-outside, sound installation, for Walkmen and four-track tape.
- Inside-outside II, radio piece after a text by Gertrude Stein.
- Und was, wenn die Schlange ein Schwein gewesen wäre?, radio piece after a text by Karin Spielhofer.
- Minimal Stringz, for three violins, cello, and systhesiser/keyboard.
1990s
- Ballade für einen Bulldozer, for violin and synthesiser/sampler.
- Ergo sum-pf-maschinerie, for violin and synthesiser/sampler.
- In meinem Herzen wächst ein Hühnerauge, sound installation, for sixteen small loudspeakers and four auto-reverse tape recorders.
- Zerstören sagt sie, for violin and synthesiser/sampler.
- Drowned, for violin and synthesiser/sampler.
- Liebesgeschwüre, for voice, flute, two violins, and synthesiser/sampler.
- Strings, for tape and solo dancer.
- Eis, for flute and synthesiser/sampler.
- Z.B. Herz, for dancer and synthesiser/sampler.
- Anna's Song, for voice, violin, viola, cello, and synthesiser/sampler.
- Anna's Wake, 3-D opera, for soprano, tape, and 16-mm film.
- Nightdances, for voice, two violins, electric bass, and synthesiser/sampler.
- Engeltropfen, radio piece after a text by Karin Spielhofer.
- Eiszeit, for two voices, two flutes, violin, viola, and synthesiser/sampler.
- Der Blick des Ohrs, for five actors, bass clarinet, and eight-track tape; text after Karin Spielhofer.
- Eden Cinema, for prepared piano and sampler.
- Eden Cinema II, for prepared piano and CD player ad libitum.
- Ballade für Orchester: Hundert Komma Null, for orchestra and sampler.
2000s
- Gestures, for five male voices, prepared piano, sampler, and CD player.
- Broken , for small orchestra and sampler.
- Euridice: Szenen aus der Unterwelt, chamber opera, for voice, chorus, dancers, seven instruments, and electronics; text by Karin Spielhofer.
- My Sweet Latin Lover, for amplified flute with effects, five electric guitars, two percussionists, and sampler.
- My Sweet Latin Lover, version for amplified flute with effects and electric guitar.
- My Sweet Latin Lover II, for amplified flute with effects, electric guitar, and live electronics.
- Wie einen Wasserfisch, for voice and eight instruments.
- Für Akkordeon, for accordion solo.
- Und Pommernland ist abgebrannt: deutsches Schreiben, for cor anglais, bass flute, amplified bass clarinet, CD player, and effects machine ad libitum.
- Changeant, for solo voice and CD player ad libitum.
- Erlaube, Fremdling, dass ich dich berühre, for one mime, two ensembles, video projections, and tapes.
- Erlaube, Fremdling, dass ich dich berühre, version for one mime, one female actor, two ensembles, and tapes.
- La Coquille et le Clergyman, music for the film by Germaine Dulac, for twelve instruments and CD soundtrack.
- Aus Kindertagen: Verloren, for prepared piano, violin, cello, string quartet, electric guitar, and two CD players; text by Iris ter Schiphorst and from Karin Spielhofer's novel Emilia gerät in die Kriegswirren, oder O der neue Tag.
- Vielleicht Gestern, for bass clarinet.
- Hi Bill, for bass clarinet.
- A Little Madness in the Spring, for eighteen instruments, electronics, and three videos; visuals by Daniel Kötter.
- Zerstören, for seventeen instruments, sampler, and tape.
- Zerstören II, for large orchestra and sampler.
- No Sir, for flute and Paetzold recorder.
- Vergeben: Bruchstücke zu Edgar Varèse, for winds, percussion, and piano.
- Miniaturen für Klarinette und Akkordeon.
- Miniaturen für Cello und Akkordeon.
- Dislokationen, for amplified piano, sampler, and large orchestra.
- Die Gänsemagd, opera for children, for child soprano, two mezzo-sopranos, bass, actor/dancer, bass clarinet, accordion, cello, and sampler; libretto by Helga Utz after The Goose Girl, a fairytale collected by the Brothers Grimm.
- Le Chien Andalou, music for the film by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, for piccolo trumpet, trombone, cello, electric guitar, piano, and two percussionists.
2010s
- Dislokationen II, for violin, viola, cello, piano, and sampler.
- Passion 13: Melodram, for female singer and orchestra.
- Klangrätsel, for youth string orchestra.
- Dead Wire, for piano and electronics.
- Aung, for singer/performer, percussion, harp, piano, live electronics, and strings; text by Helga Utz.
- Grüffelo, theatre music, for clarinet, horn, piano, violin, cello, and double bass; text after Julia Donaldson's story for children The Gruffalo.
- Miniaturen für Streichquartett und Klarinette.
- Studien zu Figuren, for seven amplified voices and sampler.
- Breaking, for ensemble; after Lars van Trier's film Breaking the Waves.
- Vergiss Salome, scene for coloratura soprano and tape.
- S.O.S. Odysseus , for children's choir, two actors, and orchestra; libretto by Helga Utz.
- Klang-Erzählungen, for ensemble.
- Aus Liebe..., for string quartet.
- ... meine-keine lieder / die aufgabe von musik, for voice and ensemble.
- Welcome to the pleasures: TISA VISA WiTiO ZETA NAFTA TiTiAiPi, for voice and ensemble.
- The Fall of the House of Usher, musik for the silent film by James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber, for ensemble.
- An den Stränden der Ruhe..., for voices and chamber orchestra.
- ZEICHENKASKADEN, for singer with drum and two doublebass clarinets.
- La tristesse durera..., for chamber orchestra and sampler.
- Sometimes, for orchestra, sampler and solo piano.
- Aus Liebe... II, for violin and string orchestra.
- Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights, music for the play by Gertrude Stein.
- Gravitational Waves, for orchestra and electronics.
Undated
- Marriage Proposal, for mixed ensemble.
Collaborations with Helmut Oehring
- Polaroids: Melodram, for female deaf soloist, male soprano/counter-tenor, twelve instruments, and live electronics.
- Live: aus Androgyn, eighteen songs, for voice, violin, cello, prepared piano, sampler, and live electronics; text after Anne Sexton's poem "Live" from Live or Die.
- Live: aus Androgyn, eighteen songs, version for counter-tenor, violin, cello, prepared piano, sampler, and live electronics.
- Silence Moves, soundtrack for an imaginary film, for voice, violin, cello, electric bass, prepared piano, sampler, live electronics, prerecorded performance CD, and video installation.
- Silence Moves II, for voice, violin, prepared piano, sampler, electric guitar, bass guitar, percussion, live electronics, and tapes.
- Prae-Senz , for violin, cello and prepared piano, and sampler.
- Im Vormonat, for oboe, bass clarinet, bassoon, percussion, piano, violin, cello, and double bass.
- A.N. , for two voices, eight instruments, and live electronics.
- Requiem, for three counter-tenors, twelve instruments, and live electronics; text after Anne Sexton's psalm sequence "O Ye Tongues" from The Death Notebooks.
- Mischwesen , for female deaf soloist, three trumpets, and keyboard sampler; text after Anne Sexton's poem "The Silence" from The Book of Folly, with additional words by Oehring and ter Schiphorst; visuals by Daniel Kötter.
- Mischwesen , version for female deaf soloist, oboe, flute, bassoon, and keyboard.
- Mischwesen , version for female deaf soloist, flute, clarinet, bassoon, and keyboard.
- Mischwesen , version for female deaf soloist, trumpet, trombone, tuba, and keyboard.
- Mischwesen , version for female deaf soloist, trumpet, bass clarinet, cello, and keyboard.
- Bernada Albas Haus, dance-theatre music, for female deaf soloist, male soprano/counter-tenor, seven dancers, electric guitar, double bass, and live electronics; after Federico García Lorca's play La casa de Bernarda Alba.
- Der Ort ist nicht der Ort, music-theatre action, for female deaf soloist, soprano, male soprano/counter-tenor, ensemble, live electronics, light, and graphics; libretto by ter Schiphorst and Oehring; graphics by Hagen Klennert.
- Als ob: Suite, music and dance project, for dancer, sub-bass recorder, bass clarinet, electric guitar, piano/keyboard, accordion, and two percussionists.
- Effi Briest, music theatre psychogram in four acts, for female deaf soloist, voice, male soprano/counter-tenor, female speaker, ensemble, and live electronics; libretto by Oehring and ter Schiphorst after Theodor Fontane's novel Effi Briest.
- Etius, ensemble version of Als ob: Suite, for sub-bass recorder, bass clarinet, electric guitar, piano, sampler, accordion, and two percussionists.
- Rumgammeln und warten, for solo voice, female deaf soloist, ensemble, and prerecorded performance CD; text by Oehring and ter Schiphorst.
- Berlin: Sinfonie einer Großstadt, music for the film by Thomas Schadt, for large orchestra.
Discography
Works by ter Schiphorst
- Ballade für einen Bulldozer, Ergo sum-pf-maschinerie, Drowned, and Liebesgeschwüre appear on Liebesgeschwüre im Schneckenhaus: Electroacoustic Compositions, performed by Ensemble Intrors .
- Anna's Wake appears on Silence Moves und Anna's Wake, performed by Ensemble Intrors.
- La Coquille et le Clergyman appears on Germaine Dulac: Drei Filme der französischen Stummfilm-Pionierin 1922-1928, performed by the Asko Ensemble and Peter Rundel.
- Hi Bill appears on Bass Clarinet, performed by Volker Hemken.
- Zerstören appears on Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik 2006, performed by the Asko Ensemble and Hans Leenders.
- No Sir appears on Neue Flötentöne Live, performed by Dörte Nienstedt and Anne Horstmann.
- Studien zu Figuren appears on Donaueschinger Musiktage 2011, performed by Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart.
Works by ter Schiphorst and Oehring
- Polaroids: Melodram appears on Donaueschinger Musiktage 1996, performed by Christina Schönfeld, Arno Raunig, Ensemble Modern, and Jürg Wyttenbach ; an excerpt from the same performance appears on Musik in Deutschland 1950-2000: Musiktheater > Experimentelles Musiktheater > Visible Music.
- Silence Moves appears on Silence Moves und Anna's Wake, performed by Ensemble Intrors.
- Prae-Senz appears on Chamber Music, performed by Ensemble Ictus.
- Live: aus Androgyn appears on Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik 1997, performed by Salome Kammer, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, and Roland Kluttig.
- Live: aus Androgyn and Im Vormonat appear on Kammermusik, performed by Salome Kammer and Ensemble Aventure.
- Requiem appears on Donaueschinger Musiktage 1998, performed by Arno Raunig, David Newman, Jean Nirouët, Helmut Oehring, Ensemble Ictus, and Georges Octors.
- Bernada Albas Haus appears on Musik in Deutschland 1950–2000: Musiktheater > Tanztheater > Motive der Weltliteratur, performed by Arno Raunig, Christina Schönfeld, Jörg Wilkendorf, Peter Kowald, Markus Reschtnewki, and Torsten Ottersberg.
- Berlin: Sinfonie einer Großstadt appears on Berlin: Sinfonie einer Großstadt, performed by the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Sinfonieorchester des Südwestrundfunks, and Roland Kluttig.
Texts
Essays
- "Texte ohne Spuren? Vom Verhältnis von Stimme und Frau", , No. 26, October–December 1994, and No. 27, January–March 1995.
- "Helmut Oehring: Dokumentaroper ", text for the CD booklet.
- "Ohrsinn / Unsinn / Eigensinn: eine kurze Abhandlung über Schrift", , No. 101, June 1998.
- "Berühren", , No. 44, August 2000.
- "Mutterpartituren", , No. 58, February 2004.
- "Komponieren heute? Einige Anmerkungen zum Verhältnis von Schrift und Musik, Moderne/Postmoderne, Neue Medien", , No. 25/26, 2004.
- "Schönheit? Antworten von jungen Komponistinnen und Komponisten", , No. 64, August 2005.
Lectures
- "Vom Ohrsinn und Unsinn / Der Blick in der Musik", West-Berliner Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1994.
- "Musikwissenschaft als Geisterwissenschaft, oder: Das Ver-Sprechen von Sound", Female Music Rush-Hour: Ninth International Congress on Women in Music, Vienna, 1995.
- "Einige Anmerkungen zum Verhältnis von Stimme und Schrift", Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, 1997.
- "Die stillschweigende Verschaltung von Stimme und Schrift", Galerie Waszkowiak, Berlin, 2000.
- "Warum ein Stipendium für Künstlerinnen?" Künstlerinnenhof Die Höge, Bassum, 2004.
Program notes
- "Expert in the In-between – Ballade für Orchester: Hundert Komma Null", Musica Viva, February 2000.
- "Zerstören", Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, May 2006.
- "Vergeben: Bruchstücke zu Edgar Varèse", Festivals Musik der Zeit, November 2007.
Interviews
- "Gespräch mit Iris ter Schiphorst", in Karl-Heinz Blomann and Frank Sielecki, Hören: eine vernachlässigte Kunst.
- , , No. 10, 2001.
- "Dimensionen des Handwerks heute: ein Gespräch", , No. 53, November 2002.
- "Interview mit Iris ter Schiphorst ", in Susanne Binas, Erfolgreiche Künstlerinnen: Arbeiten zwischen Eigensinn und Kulturbetrieb ; in association with the
- "Eurydike, oder der Topos des Verschwindens, die Komponistin Iris ter Schiphorst im Gespräch mit Frank Kämpfer", , No. 5, 2003.