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Irmin Schmidt

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Irmin Schmidt
Irmin Schmidt (2022)
Born (1937-05-29) 29 May 1937 (age 87)
Berlin, Germany
Occupations
  • Composer
  • Keyboardist
Spouse
Hildegard Schmidt
​
(m. 1963)​
Websiteirminschmidt.com

Irmin Schmidt (born 29 May 1937)[1] is a German keyboardist and composer, best known as a founding member of the band Can and composer of numerous film scores.

Biography

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Early life and composer career

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Irmin Schmidt was born on 29 May 1937 in Berlin, Germany, to Kurt and Margot Schmidt. Schmidt's father was an architect and engineer, and both his parents played piano. His board school teacher in modern history has been "Schulungsleiter" (teacher of ideology) in the Reichsarbeitsdienst during the rule of the Third Reich. Schmidt wrote wrote about it in his school newspaper, and the teacher was fired.[2]

Schmidt began his studies in music at the conservatorium in Dortmund, and expanded his education in conducting at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, studying under Heinz Dressel. Additionally, he took a piano lessons from Detlef Kraus and studied composition under the Hungarian avant-garde composer György Ligeti. Schmidt started work mainly as a conductor and performed in concerts with the Bochum Symphony, the Vienna Symphony, and the Dortmund Ensemble for New Music, which he founded in 1962. During this time, Schmidt conducted the West German premiere of John Cage's "Atlas Eclipticalis" with Bochum Symphony Orchestra and performed Cage's piano piece "Winter Music".[3]

Schmidt attended the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria to further develop his conducting skills under István Kertész. In 1964-1965, Schmidt attended up for the Cologne Courses for New Music at the Rheinische Musikschule [de] in Cologne, taught by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, Henri Pousseur, and Earle Brown, the course which was also attended by his future band-mates, Holger Schüring and David C. Johnson.[4][5] By 1966 Schmidt got a position as Kapellmeister at the Theater Aachen, hired as docent for musical theatre and chanson, and worked at the Schauspielschule Bochum (drama school) teaching vocal technique.[6]

In January 1966, Schmidt made his first-time travel to the United States, flying to New York City to compete in the "Dimitri Mitropoulos Conducting Competition". He got into the city's flourishing underground arts scene: watched Andy Warhol's movies, and spent time with several young progenitors of avant-garde and minimalist music, including La Monte Young, Dick Higgins, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley. Schmidt played piano in a session with Terry Riley.[7]

Schmidt's spouse Hildegard introduced him to Russian-American composer Serge Tcherepnin, and Irmin played the saxophone part at the 1966 premiere of Tcherepnin's Morning After Piece.[8]

In 1967, Irmin performed several Fluxus-style diagrammatic scores, and published them as Album für Mogli, pet name for his spouse Hildegard. Album für Mogli has been organized as a set of thirteen-sheet manuscript, supposed to be stacked in any order by any number of musicians. The score's composition "Hexapussy" premiered in Frankfurt, played on metallic sound-sculptures created by the Baschet Brothers. Other titles included" "Oiml(g): Nightmares", "Gagaku", "Für Jackson MacLow", "Erinnerung", "Dieter's Lullaby", "Nada", "Prinzipien", and other. "Hexapussy" remained as an only survived recording, appearing on the soundtrack composed by Can for 1969 film Agilok & Blubbo.[9]

On a number of occasions, Irmin was asked to give talks or perform avant-garde music at gallery openings organized by Albert Schulze-Vellinghausen [de]. Schulze-Vellinghausen, in turn, acquainted Schmidt with interior designer and up-in-coming gallerist Hans Mayer.[10]

Can and film scores

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In the autumn of 1967, Irmin wrote a letter to his friend composer, Holger Czukay, inviting him to Cologne and suggesting they should form a band.[11] In 1968, in the midst of the West German student movement, Schmidt co-formed the Inner Space band (later known as Can) with Holger Czukay, Michael Karoli, Jaki Liebezeit, and David C. Johnson. Schmidt took part in the band's recording sessions playing keyboard until the group's disbandment in 1979. He participated in the band's reunions in 1986, 1991, and 1999. He later commented on their relation to the political movement of 1968, saying the band weren't involved in the movement, "physically or even theoretically, but was a reflection of the ongoing tumult that rejected any overt political affiliations".[11]

Early in 1968, Irmin received a commission to provide music for 1969 film Agilok & Blubbo at the recommendation of Hans Wewerka who the worked as the film's producer and previously published Irmin's Album für Mogli score. Around May, Irmin had made a loose sketch of the soundtrack, aided by David C. Johnson, and eventually decided to invite his new band on the project, which became the band's first released recording.[12] When searching for a base for the new group, Irmin had "put the word out among his art world friends", and German literary scholar Hans Mayer responded, redirecting him to the art collector and their joined acquaintance, Christoph Vohwinkel [de]. Vohwinkel recently leased a historic castle, Schloss Nörvenich, on the outskirts of Cologne and planned to repurpose it as an artistic commune. He invited the band to stay at the castle rent-free for a year.[13]

Schmidt has scored more than forty films and television programs, including Knife in the Head (1978) and Palermo Shooting (2008). He has recorded a few solo albums and written an opera, Gormenghast, based on Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy. Gormenghast premiered at the Opernhaus Wuppertal in 1998. Excerpts from the work were released on Spoon Records in 1999.[14]

As of 2008, Schmidt lived in Southern France. His interests outside music include cooking.[15] In 2015, he received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Chevalier).[16]

In 2018, Schmidt and British writer and editor Rob Young published a book on Can entitled All Gates Open: The Story of Can.[17]

Following the death of Can's second lead vocalist Damo Suzuki in February 2024, Schmidt is one of the last surviving members of the band's classic lineups, alongside original vocalist Malcolm Mooney.

Personal life

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Irmin Schmidt began a relationship with Hildegard Reittenberger after performing at the East German music festival in 1957. The couple got married six years later in 1963.[18] They have a daughter, Sandra, born in April 1970.[19][20] Sandra married Jono Podmore in 2001. The couple has a daughter Lara Podmore.[21]

Hildegard became Can's manager in 1972, after they fired their previous manager, Abi Ofarim.[19] In 1979, she established record label, Spoon Records, taking hold of the rights for Can discography.[22]

Discography

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Solo

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  • Filmmusik (1980)
  • Filmmusik, Vol. 2 (1981)
  • Toy Planet (1981) with Bruno Spoerri
  • Filmmusik, Vols. 3 & 4 (1983)
  • Rote Erde (1983) soundtrack
  • Musk at Dusk (1987)
  • Filmmusik Vol. 5 (1989)
  • Impossible Holidays (1991)
  • Soundtracks 1978–1993 (1994)
  • Gormenghast (2000)
  • Masters of Confusion (2001) with Kumo
  • Flies, Guys and Choirs (2008) DVD with Kumo
  • Axolotl Eyes (2008) with Kumo
  • Palermo Shooting (2008) soundtrack
  • Filmmusik Anthology, Volume 4 & 5 (2009)
  • Villa Wunderbar (2013), 2-CD compilation, sleeve notes by Wim Wenders[23]
  • Filmmusik Anthology Volume 6 (2015)
  • 5 Klavierstücke (2018)
  • Nocturne (Live at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival) (2020)

With Can

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Main article: Can discography

Bibliography

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  • Young, Rob; Schmidt, Irmin (2018). All Gates Open: The Story of Can. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0571311491.

Videography

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References

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  1. ^ Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 2203. ISBN 0-85112-939-0.
  2. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, p. 37.
  3. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, p. 19.
  4. ^ Karlheinz Stockhausen. Dieter Schnebel (ed.). Texte zur Musik 3: 1963–1970. DuMont Dokumente (Cologne: M. DuMont Schauberg). pp. 196–211. ISBN 978-3-7701-0493-2.
  5. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, pp. 23–24.
  6. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, p. 28.
  7. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, p. 30.
  8. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, p. 66.
  9. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, pp. 34–35.
  10. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, pp. 21–22.
  11. ^ a b Young & Schmidt 2018, pp. 39.
  12. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, p. 54.
  13. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, pp. 55–56.
  14. ^ "Gormenghast - A fantasy opera by Irmin Schmidt". Spoon Records. Retrieved 17 July 2013.
  15. ^ "Features | Things I Have Learned | Irmin Schmidt of Can on Food And Cooking (Plus A Recipe Tip)". The Quietus. 2 December 2008.
  16. ^ Severin Mevissen (3 February 2015). "Can: Irmin Schmidt erhält Ritterschlag". Rolling Stone (Germany) (in German).
  17. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018.
  18. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, pp. 18–19.
  19. ^ a b Young & Schmidt 2018, p. 150.
  20. ^ Podmore, Jono, ed. (2020). Jaki Liebezeit the life, theory and practice of a master drummer. UNBOUND. ISBN 9781783527823.
  21. ^ "Irmin Schmidt & Kumo article". spoonrecords.com.
  22. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, pp. 287–289.
  23. ^ Villa Wunderbar at AllMusic
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