Rolf Gehlhaar

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Rolf Gehlhaar (born 30 December 1943 in Breslau [now Wrocław], Poland) is an American composer.

Gehlhaar is the son of a German rocket scientist, who emigrated to the United States in 1953. He took American citizenship in 1958 and studied at Yale University and the University of California, Berkeley before moving to Cologne, Germany in 1967 to become assistant to Karlheinz Stockhausen, and a member of his performing ensemble. In 1969, together with Johannes G. Fritsch and David C. Johnson, he founded the Feedback Studio, Cologne, a new-music performance center and publishing house. He later moved to England, where he became in 1979 a founding member of the Electro-Acoustic Music Association of Great Britain.

His works are for both acoustic and electro-acoustic media, though he is best-known for his work with computer-controlled composition, and for his sound installations using a system which he calls Sound=Space.

[edit] Selected Compositions

Solipse for cello and tape delay (1974)
Five German Dances for 4-track tape (1975)
Resonanzen for 8 orchestral groups (1976)
Polymorph for bass clarinet and tape delay (1978)
Sub Rosa for 4-track tape (1980)
Diagonal Flying for piano and live electronics (1989)
Cusps, Swallowtails, and Butterflies for amplified percussion and tape in a Sound=Space (1992)
Quantum Leap for piano (1994)
Astral Shadows for 6 dancers in a Sound=Space (1997)
Waiting for Rain for soprano, flute, violin, viola da gamba and 2 harpsichords (1998)

[edit] Bibliography

Bachmann, Claus-Henning. 1978. "Die gespielte Mitbestimmung. Komponierte Orchester-Werkstätten. " Schweizerische Musikzeitung/Revue Musicale Suisse 118 (January-February): 20–26.
Gehlhaar, Rolf. 1968. Zur Komposition Ensemble: Kompositionsstudio Karlheinz Stockhausen, International Ferienkurse Darmstadt 1967. Darmstädter Beiträge zur Neuen Musik 11, ed. Ernst Thomas. Mainz: Schott.
———. 1991. "SOUND=SPACE: An Interactive Musical Environment." Contemporary Music Review 6, no. 1:59–72.
———. 1996. "Three-Dimensional Sounds, or, An Acoustic Analogue of a Hologram: The Resolution of Complex Spectra through Spatial Phase-Shifting—A Report on Research Carried Out at IRCAM, 1979-1981" Feedback Papers, no. 41 July): 8–16.
———. 1998. "Leap of Faith: A Personal Biography of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Prozession." Perspectives of New Music 36, no. 2 (Summer): 53-62. (online version)
Lowenstein, Oliver . 2000. "Return to the Body". Musicworks: Explorations in Sound. no. 76 (Spring): 19–24.
Schiffer, Boris. 1978. "Rolf Gehlhaar: Strangeness, Charm and Colour". Schweizerische Musikzeitung/Revue Musicale Suisse 118 (June): 379–80.
Schürmann, Hans G. 1976. Lockerung von Phantasie oder Energieverläufe in der Zeit. Ein Gespräch mit Johannes Fritsch und Rolf Gehlhaar. Musica 30, no. 1:20–25.