de Hans Otte: In Memoriam

German composer and concert organisor Hans Otte died of a long illness on December 25th aged 81 years. His former employer, Radio Bremen, honoured him with a two-hour long special, summarising his life and work. Radio Bremen-Program Director Dirk Hansen praised Hans Otte as an outstanding innovative mind, who decisively built the good reputation of the broadcaster. Otte had worked at Radio Bremen between 1959 and 1984, a time in which he brought new American composers such as his friend John Cage to Germay and built two of the country’s most widely recognised music series, :“Pro Musica Antiqua” and “Pro Musica Nova”. His death follows a mere year after the completion of “»Hans Otte ­ Klang der Klänge / Sound of Sounds«, a bilingual biography on Schott Music, which includes a CD and DVD and attempted to spread the word about Hans Otte’s unique and inspiring work as a composer – which had always remained in the shadows of his other achievements.

Things might have been different, if Hans Otte’s ego had been bigger. He was something of a prodigal child, allegedly composing his first sonata at the age of nine and his first symphony at 14. His fees at Yale were paid by a string of prizes and awards for his early pieces – almost exactly one for each of his years at Yale. At 32, though, he was offered the job of chief of Radio Bremen’s music department and accepted. From then on, his own work was only one of several important parts in a portfolio of activities, which would build his employer into the leading German station for new music and himself into a figure head of the scene.

Of course, Hans Otte made use of the opportunities at Radio Bremen to perform his work, but he always did so with great care and self-effacement. After he quit his position in the mid-80s, things got even more quiet, until Herbert Henck recorded “The Book of Sounds” for ECM and landed a surprise hit. Suddenly, the music of Hans Otte was up to date and timeless at once and paved the way for what possibly constitutes his magnum opus, “The Book of Hours”.

It would not bring Hans Otte a full-blown breakthrough. The last of his works to be published was ““orient : occident/minimum : maximum” on Pogus. Whether or not more will be extracted from the vaults remains to be seen.

Homepage: Radio Bremen
Homepage: Pogus Records
By Tobias Fischer, published 2007-12-31

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