Hildegard Westerkamp

Hildegard Westerkamp (born April 8 1946, in Osnabrück, Germany) is a German and Canadian composer of contemporary music, and a professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.

Many of her compositions deal with the acoustic environment. Particular themes include soundscapes of urban or rural areas, including voices, noise, silence, music and media, and so on. In several of these compositions, she incorporates the poetry of her then-partner, Canadian writer Norbert Ruebsaat. She has also composed for film soundtracks, including the two Gus Van Sant movies "Elephant" (2003) and "Last Days" (2005).

Biography

Hildegard Westerkamp was born on April 8 1946, in Osnabrück, Germany.

In 1965, during a family trip to Canada, she met her future partner in life and work, Norbert Ruebsaat.

From 1966 to 1968, she attended the Conservatory of Music in Freiburg, where she studied flute and piano.

In 1968, she emigrated to Canada in Vancouver. From 1968 to 1972, she studied music at the University of British Columbia, receiving her Bachelor of Music degree in 1972.

In 1977, Westerkamp and Ruebsaat had a daughter, Sonja Ruebsaat.

Discography

Recordings featuring Westerkamp's compositions, chronologically:

* (1989) "Kits Beach Soundwalk"
* (1990) "Anthology of Canadian Music:Electroacoustic music"
* (1990) "The Aerial 2"
* (1990) "Électro clips" (empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 9004, rereleased 1996 as IMED 9604)
* (1994) "Radio Rethink - art and sound transmission"
* (1995) "Der Verlust der Stille"
* (1995) "Klang Wege"
* (1995) "Transmissions From Broadcast Artists, Radius #4"
* (1996) "The Vancouver Soundscape"
* (1996) "Transformations" (empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 9631)
* (1997) "1977-1997, 20 Jahre Osnabrücker Komponisten"
* (1998) "Harangue I" (Earsay, ES 98001)
* (1998) "Harangue II" (Earsay, ES 98005)
* (1999) "The Dreams of Gaia"
* (2000) "Radiant Dissonance"
* (2002) "Into India" (Earsay, ES 02002)
* (2003) "Musique inpirée et tirée du film Elephant"
* (2003) "S:on"

List of works

Individual Westerkamp compositions, alphabetically:

* "Attending to Sacred Matters" (2002)
* "A Walk Through the City" (1981)
* "Beneath the Forest Floor" (1992)
* "Breaking News" (2002)
* "Breathing Room" (1990)
* "Convergence Radio" (1989)
* "Cricket Voice" (1987)
* "École polytechnique" (1990) - churchbells, mixed choir, bass clarinet, trumpet, percussion, and tape
* "Fantasie for Horns II" (1979) - French horn and tape
* "Für Dich-For You" (2005)
* "Gently Penetrating" (1997)
* "Gently Penetrating beneath the sounding surfaces of another place"
* "Into the Labyrinth" (2000)
* "Kits Beach Soundwalk" (1989) - spoken voice and tape
* "Talking Rain" (1998)
* "Türen der Wahrnehmungen (Doors of Perception)" (1989)
* "Whisper Study" (1975-79)

References

; Sources consulted

* McCartney, Andra. "Sounding Places with Hildegard Westerkamp." Electronic Music Foundation Institute site, November 2000: http://www.emf.org/guidetotheworld/artists/mccartney00/ (developed from a PhD dissertation submitted to York University Graduate Programme in Music, including a biography in chapter 4)

; Endnotes

External links

* [http://www.sfu.ca/~westerka/ SFU.ca/~westerka/] - personal site at Simon Fraser University, including: [http://www.sfu.ca/~westerka/bio.html Biography] - [http://www.sfu.ca/~westerka/discography/discography.html Discography]
* [http://media.hyperreal.org/zines/est/intervs/westerk.html "Hildegard Westerkamp Interview"] (1993) by Ios Smolders for "Vital" magazine