Artist Detailed Info: Hermann Meier

(29. 05. 1906 - 19. 08. 2002)
Hermann Meier, dodecophonist, serialist and avant-gardist, was born in Selzach in the canton of Solothurn. He initially trained as a primary school teacher, teaching in Zulwil, also in canton Soluthurn, for the whole of his career. Additionally, between 1935 and 1949, he took lessons in piano under the tutelage of Frau Leisinger and lessons in organ playing and composition under Ernst Müller at the Musikakademie Basel. He also gave piano lessons and led many choirs. He was a student in Vladimir Vogel's private class for composition in Orselina in the canton of Ticino in the years 1948 and 1949. In 1950 he travelled to Pairs to study for a short period under René Leibowitz. Meier initially wrote in the dodecophonic style until around 1952 (Klaviersonate) and changed to using the serial technique at the same time as the Darmstadt composers (the Klaviervariationen and Stücke 1956 and 1957). He never participated in the "Darmstädter Ferienkursen", but he was most certainly known about.
He concentrated on getting his works performed and recorded in and around 1950. There exist two recordings of reading rehearsals (1949 in the Tonhalle Zürich with Volkmar Andreae and 1951 with the Beromünster Radioorchester under Erich Schmid, with whom he was also befriended) but these were never performed. He was also rejected by the Südwestfunk in 1952, which marked the end of his concern for publicity. He created works for orchestra (a total of 10), chamber music formations, one or more pianos and Hammond organ. At the beginning of the 60's he began working with cluster fields, which he brought together in collage form (Klavierstück 1968). He also used graphics (approx. 200 remain) as a basis for composition – these graphics allude to concrete art in their appearance. In 1968 he visited Hermann Heiss in is electronic studio in Darmstadt. In 1975 he was introduced by Hans-Peter Haller to the technology at the Südwestfunk's experimental studio (Heinrich Strobel Foundation) in Freiburg i. Br., where he realised his electronic study for two-channel tape recorder in 1976, which brought him the canton of Solothurn's project sponsorship award on the 10th of December. He continued composing until the end of the eighties (Klavierstück 1987 and Bläserquintett 1989) and completed graphics until the early nineties, when age forced him to cease. His sketches, visions, commentaries and diaries were all recorded in shorthand.

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