Günter Bialas

Biography

1907Born in Bielschowitz, Upper Silesia, on 19 July
1922-1925Studied piano and music theory with Fritz Lubrich in Kattowitz
1926-1928Studied musicology and German language and literate in Breslau
1928-1931Studied music education in Berlin, then composition in Max Trapp’s master class at the Berlin Academy of the Arts
Member of “Kreis der Zwölf”, a group of composers led by Fritz Jöde
1933Music teacher in Breslau
1939-1941Lecturer in music theory at the Institute of Music Education, Breslau University
1945Moved to Munich and Glonn, Upper Bavaria
1946Choir director of the Munich Bach Society
1947Theory teacher at the Weimar Musikhochschule
composition teacher at Northwest German Music Academy in Detmold
1950Professorship
1954First prize in music from state of North Rhine-Westphalia
1959Professorship in composition at the Munich Musikhochschule
1962Munich Music Award
1964Johann Wenzel Stamitz Award from Esslingen Artists’ Guild
1967Music award from the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts
1969Member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts
1971Premier award from the Upper Silesian Cultural Award Committee
1975Member of the Berlin Academy of the Arts
1980Silesian Art Award from state of Lower Saxony
1982Gold Medal “München leuchtet” from city of Munich
1987Cultural prize from city of Munich
1988Paul Hindemith Award from Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival
1989Cultural prize from Bavarian State Foundation
1992“Kultur aktuell” Prize
1992Gold medallion from city of Munich
1995died on 8 July in Glonn/Upper Bavaria.

  • Quotation

    “Whether the music I write is simple or complex depends entirely on what I want to express. Simplicity must be permissible even today: it has just become more difficult to attain since we stumble all too quickly upon depleted material. I have become more sensitive to extraneous notes. The content of my work is purely musical in nature, and I want to project it as openly as possible – not disguised, not encrypted, not hidden behind an excess of artifice. I want to express myself clearly and not try to say many things at once. I would be happiest if I could reduce the compositional pro-cess, as Verdi did, to ‘melody and accompaniment’…
    A selection of pitches seems to me to give greater character and variety than the continuous presence of all twelve. Much the same can be said of rhythm: when it becomes too complex, it cancels itself out… My music cannot get along without large-scale tonal relations.”
    Günter Bialas (1993) 

  • Writings

    Book

    Kein Ton zuviel. Günter Bialas in Selbstzeugnissen und im Spiegel seiner Zeit
    Im Auftrag der GEMA-Stiftung herausgegeben von Gabriele E. Meyer (1997). 186 Seiten mit 8 Abbildungen; kartoniert. ISBN 3-7618-1396-1

    Essays (Selection)

    „Neue Musik und Theorieunterricht“. In: Zeitschrift für Musik 111, 1950, S. 237f.

    „Kompositionsunterricht heute. Handwerkslehre oder Spezialstudium?“. In: Musikalische Jugend XIV, Juni/Juli 1965, S. 7

    „Rund um den Fechterbrunnen“. In: „Meine schlesischen Jahre“, herausgegeben von Herbert Hupka, München o.J., S. 211-221

    „Meine Musik für 11 Streicher“. In: „Schloßkonzerte Ahaus. Kleine Festschrift zum 100. Konzert“, Ahaus 1970

    „Theorie-Beifachunterricht unverändert?“. In: Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Erich Doflein. Mainz 1971

    „Orff erschließt neue Klangräume. Zum 75. Geburtstag von Carl Orff“. In: Blätter der Bayerischen Staatsoper 1970/1971

    „Ist Komponieren lehrbar?“. In: Musica 35, 1981, S. 327f.

    Kurze Autobiographie in „Zeitgenössische schlesische Komponisten“. Eine Dokumentation, herausgegeben von G. Pankalla und G. Speer, Dülmen

  • Bibliography

    Gabriele E. Meyer: Günter Bialas Werkverzeichnis (2003). 178 Seiten; gebunden. ISBN 978-3-7618-1565-6

    Günter Bialas. In: Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Band 1, Kassel 1949-1951, Sp. 1827

    Günter Bialas. In: Riemann Musiklexikon, Mainz 1959, S. 162

    Günter Bialas. In: Riemann Musiklexikon, Ergänzungsband, Mainz 1972, S. 110

    Günter Bialas. In: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Band 2, London 1980, S. 671

    Siegfried Mauser: Günter Bialas. In: Komponisten der Gegenwart, Edition Text & Kritik, München 1992 ff.

    Günter Bialas. In: Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart,

    Wolf-Eberhard von Lewinski: Konsequenz im Wandel. Der Komponist Günter Bialas. In: Musica 21, 1967, S. 101-104

    Nicolaus A. Huber: Der Komponist Günter Bialas. In: Musica 26, 1972, S. 333-337

    Karl-Robert Danler: Günter Bialas 70. In: Das Orchester 25, 1977, S. 514f.

    Karl Schumann: Günter Bialas wird 70. In: Musica 31, 1977, S. 346f.

    Gotthard Speer et al. (Hrsg.): Meilensteine eines Komponistenlebens. Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag, Kassel  1977

    Karl-Robert Danler: Günter Bialas wird 75. In: Das Orchester 30, 1982, S. 655-656

    Günther Engelmann: Der Orchestermusiker und die zeitgenössische Musik. Gespräch mit Günter Bialas. In: Das Orchester 31, 1983, S. 894-896

    Günter Bialas. Komponisten in Bayern. Dokumente musikalischen Schaffens im 20. Jahrhundert. Band 5, Tutzing 1984

    Günter Bialas zum 80. Geburtstag. Herausgegeben von der Direktion der Münchner Philharmoniker, München 1987

    Hans Werner Henze: Laudatio für Günter Bialas, gehalten anläßlich der Verleihung des Kulturellen Ehrenpreises 1987 der Landeshauptstadt München

    Dieter Rexroth: Zur Verleihung des Plöner Hindemith-Preises 1988 an Günter Bialas. Laudatio. In: Musica, 1988, S. 568f.

    Michael Töpel: Intensität, anteilnehmende Einfachheit, gestalterische Eleganz. Zu den jüngsten Werken von Günter Bialas anläßlich seines 85. Geburtstages. In: Takte 1/92, Bärenreiter, S. 7f.

    Ulrich Dibelius: Heines Sterben in Spottlust. »Aus der Matratzengruft« von Günter Bialas uraufgeführt. Neue Musikzeitung 4, Regensburg 1992, S. 7

    Andreas K. W. Meyer: Der Deutschen Einigkeit. Günter Bialas’ »Aus der Matratzengruft« in Kiel uraufgeführt. In: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 153, 1992, S. 39f.

    Wort und Musik. Ausstellung zum 85. Geburtstag von Günter Bialas. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, 15. Juli – 4. September 1992, Katalog 59

    Lutz Lesle: Ein Liederspiel. Bialas’ ›Aus der Matratzengruft‹ in Kiel. In: Musica 46, 1992, S. 306-307

    Ulrich Dibelius: Seiner selbst gewiß. Rückblick auf den Komponisten Günter Bialas. In: MusikTexte 61, Oktober 1995, S. 24-27

    Ulrich Dibelius: Einig mit sich selbst: Günter Bialas. Zum Tod des Komponisten. In: Neue Musikzeitung 4, Regensburg 1995, S. 7

  • Discography

    Introitus – Exodus für Orchester und Orgel
    in: Zeitgenössische Musik in der BundesrepublikDeutschland
    Harmonia mundi HM/DMR 1027

    Aus der Matratzengruft (Gesamtaufnahme)
    cpo 2 CD 999 204-2

    Herbstzeit / Lamento, vier Intermezzi und Marsch+ Streichquartett Nr. 4 (Assonanzen)
    WER CD 6164-2

    Im Anfang + Meditationen 1-7
    Harmonia mundi HM 0830

    Rhythmische Miniatur
    Marszalek MRS 50 7801 Y

    Romanze
    Bayer Records BAY 200 036

    Streichquartett Nr. 2
    Dabringhaus & Grimm MDG A 3455

    Musik für Klavier und Orchester, Concerto lirico, Trois moments für Klavier
    cpo CD 999 157-2

  • About Günter Bialas

    “A composer’s path to self-discovery depends not least of all on whether he can mediate successfully between an orientation on historical styles and a fixation on a personal idiom. The solutions to this problem are many and varied, ranging from hermetically isolated eccentricity to a ready willingness to conform. These extremes have never posed difficulties to Günter Bialas. The worth and validity of his far-ranging musical output since the Thirties has been the result of a specific mediation between the stylistic trends current at any given time and the values of his own musical language. Bialas has always been an inquisitive and open-minded composer, but without precipitously adapting to fashionable techniques. Notwithstanding his necessary orientation on current styles, composing has always been for him a deeply individual matter, a subjective act which only becomes fully manifest when set down in his personal idiom. This critical open-mindedness is no less pervasive in Bialas’s music than are his activities as a teacher, which place him among the most significant musical mentors of our time. Bialas’s work also takes on an individual character through the various stylistic transformations it has undergone in the course of his career… His music gradually evolved from a primarily texture-oriented craftsmanship to a distinctive principle of freely formed Klangsatz, or ‘composition in sonorities’. This fitting term was coined by the composer himself to denote a specific technique of sound-spaces and sound-surfaces, a technique which transcends the vicissitudes of stylistic fashion as an emblem of his personal style.”
    Siegfried Mauser

Performances

Works

Journey of the soul and mystery

Journey of the soul and mystery

Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini adds “Enigma” to his cycle of works on Gustav Mahler’s symphonies.

425 425 Bärenreiter Verlag
The positive power of individuals

The positive power of individuals

First German performance of Miroslav Srnka’s “Superorganisms” in Berlin

552 552 Bärenreiter Verlag
Of wood and angels of lizards. Beat Furrer’s opera “Das grosse Feuer” for Zurich

Of wood and angels of lizards. Beat Furrer’s opera “Das grosse Feuer” for Zurich

From a radically different world: the layers in Beat Furrer’s opera “Das grosse Feuer” (“The Great Fire”), based on the novel “Eisejuaz” by Sara Gallardo, are many and diverse. The world premiere takes place in Zurich in March 2025.

2000 1336 Bärenreiter Verlag
“Most agreeable”. A peasant’s son is the hero in Handel’s “Giustino”

“Most agreeable”. A peasant’s son is the hero in Handel’s “Giustino”

A strong plot, and fabulously imaginative music: but until now Handel’s “Giustino” has not been one of his most frequently-performed operas. With the new edition this could all change.

481 481 Bärenreiter Verlag
Dramatically effective. Franz Schubert’s works for music theatre

Dramatically effective. Franz Schubert’s works for music theatre

Franz Schubert’s stage works have never become firmly established in the repertoire. And yet they contain interesting examples of Romantic opera aesthetics. And with the 2028 Schubert anniversary year in mind, they offer a variety of opportunities for productions.

2126 2142 Bärenreiter Verlag
Competition in Telemann’s birthplace

Competition in Telemann’s birthplace

Bärenreiter Urtext prizes also awarded at the 13th International Telemann Competition

988 988 Bärenreiter Verlag
21 music vouchers for young pianists

21 music vouchers for young pianists

Bärenreiter donates special prizes at the International Piano Competition in Kronberg

988 988 Bärenreiter Verlag
Impressive Bach Competition winner

Impressive Bach Competition winner

Jan Čmejla, first prize recipient of this year’s Bach Competition receives the Bärenreiter Urtext Prize.

425 425 Bärenreiter Verlag
History of alienation and colonial violence

History of alienation and colonial violence

Beat Furrer’s opera “DAS GROSSE FEUER” based on Sara Gallardo’s novel “Eisejuaz” will premiere at Zurich Opera House on March 23, 2025

600 600 Bärenreiter Verlag
Interpreting and editing

Interpreting and editing

Siegbert Rampe, protagonist of Early Music, died on February 2, 2025

600 600 Bärenreiter Verlag
Journey of the soul and mystery

Journey of the soul and mystery

Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini adds “Enigma” to his cycle of works on Gustav Mahler’s symphonies.

425 425 Bärenreiter Verlag
The positive power of individuals

The positive power of individuals

First German performance of Miroslav Srnka’s “Superorganisms” in Berlin

552 552 Bärenreiter Verlag
Of wood and angels of lizards. Beat Furrer’s opera “Das grosse Feuer” for Zurich

Of wood and angels of lizards. Beat Furrer’s opera “Das grosse Feuer” for Zurich

From a radically different world: the layers in Beat Furrer’s opera “Das grosse Feuer” (“The Great Fire”), based on the novel “Eisejuaz” by Sara Gallardo, are many and diverse. The world premiere takes place in Zurich in March 2025.

2000 1336 Bärenreiter Verlag
“Most agreeable”. A peasant’s son is the hero in Handel’s “Giustino”

“Most agreeable”. A peasant’s son is the hero in Handel’s “Giustino”

A strong plot, and fabulously imaginative music: but until now Handel’s “Giustino” has not been one of his most frequently-performed operas. With the new edition this could all change.

481 481 Bärenreiter Verlag
Dramatically effective. Franz Schubert’s works for music theatre

Dramatically effective. Franz Schubert’s works for music theatre

Franz Schubert’s stage works have never become firmly established in the repertoire. And yet they contain interesting examples of Romantic opera aesthetics. And with the 2028 Schubert anniversary year in mind, they offer a variety of opportunities for productions.

2126 2142 Bärenreiter Verlag
Competition in Telemann’s birthplace

Competition in Telemann’s birthplace

Bärenreiter Urtext prizes also awarded at the 13th International Telemann Competition

988 988 Bärenreiter Verlag
21 music vouchers for young pianists

21 music vouchers for young pianists

Bärenreiter donates special prizes at the International Piano Competition in Kronberg

988 988 Bärenreiter Verlag
Impressive Bach Competition winner

Impressive Bach Competition winner

Jan Čmejla, first prize recipient of this year’s Bach Competition receives the Bärenreiter Urtext Prize.

425 425 Bärenreiter Verlag
History of alienation and colonial violence

History of alienation and colonial violence

Beat Furrer’s opera “DAS GROSSE FEUER” based on Sara Gallardo’s novel “Eisejuaz” will premiere at Zurich Opera House on March 23, 2025

600 600 Bärenreiter Verlag
Interpreting and editing

Interpreting and editing

Siegbert Rampe, protagonist of Early Music, died on February 2, 2025

600 600 Bärenreiter Verlag
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