Martin Lichtfuss
*3 May 1959
Works by Martin Lichtfuss
Biography
After wide-ranging studies at the University of Vienna (German and English philology) and at the University of Music in Vienna (composition, conducting), Martin Lichtfuss acquired extensive practical experience during 10 years as a conductor at German and Austrian theatres. From 1995-2005 he was head of Department I for music theory/musical directing, at the same time instructing a class in composition at the Tyrolean State Conservatory. In 2005, he followed a call from the University of Music in Vienna, where he was given a professorship in compositional techniques.
In his compositions – for which he has been awarded several prizes – Martin Lichtfuss attempts to combine the diverging trends of New Music in a personal manner so as to use the variety of contemporary languages without committing to any specific ideology.
About the music
Does contemporary music really always have to be "new"? – “Yes, indeed,” opines Martin Lichtfuss, whose music, at first glance, sometimes appears to be more bound to tradition than one would term “experimental.” New, however, in his eyes, does not mean exclusively the search for an expansion of sound stages, such as through extended techniques; for him, this search is certainly not incompatible with the ways of thinking and achievements of traditional art. Therefore, Lichtfuss feels no fear of contact with forms and creative means of the past. “There should be no taboos today — apart from one: that of falsehood.”
New, for him, implies rather the subjective search for the unexplored, for still undiscovered spaces of one’s own world of thoughts, and also the repeated and deepening examination of certain compositional questions. Martin Lichtfuss is convinced that “the inexhaustible possibilities of combining different elements and materials again and again, even if they seem to have already been exploited, constantly confront composers with new tasks and challenges."
Wide range of expression
Martin Lichtfuss does not feel bound by any particular ideology. On the contrary, his music is based on a wealth of musical languages, forms of expression and the wide field of current composition techniques.
In his works he explores a broadly diversified spectrum of expression by incorporating diversified musical trends of our time, thus achieving the most varied possible profile. Yet, despite the heterogeneity of the means employed, he succeeds in creating a distinctive, individual musical idiom. This language is often determined by dance rhythms contrasted with ametric fields of sound. And though the harmony is mostly tonal, it glides into atonality time and time again.
Synthesis of different elements and currents
Lichtfuss’ compositions explore the field of sonic possibilities between simple triads and sharp dissonances or clusters, between monodical melodies and complex polyrhythms, between traditional sound concepts and experimental instrumental techniques, all the way through to the use of electronic sounds. For him the new and exciting perspective of contemporary art lies in the infinite variety of possible syntheses powered by different elements and currents.
“between the cracks"…
Lichtfuss is aware that, in his attempt to capture the inexhaustible spectrum of musical possibility in all its diversity and far removed from ideologically petrified positions, and in his endeavor to conciliate between contradictory, mutually exclusive musical points of view, he inevitably risks missing specific target groups and falling "between the cracks".
But: “This is precisely the situation that interests me.”