Frank Michael Beyer

Frank Michael Beyer, born in Berlin in 1928, studied composition with Ernst Pepping and organ with Joseph Ahrens. As a composer, he was significantly influenced by the Viennese School, particularly by the work of Anton Webern. After completing his studies, he began a varied concert career and supplemented his studies in Florence and Paris. From 1968, he held a professorship in composition at the Berlin University of the Arts. His works mainly comprise orchestral and chamber music. Beyer was the initiator of the "musica nova sacra" series and a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts and the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. He died in 2008.
The volume revolves around Beyer's music as "a multi-layered language that expands from an interval-determined interior space, a language for which the term 'sound polyphony' might be appropriate."
With contributions by Peter Becker, Elmar Budde, Heinrich Poos, Frank Schneider, Peter Schwarz, Claudia Stahl, Habakuk Traber, and Gert Witte, a conversation between Werner Grünzweig and Heribert Henrich with Beyer, dedicatory compositions by Orm Finnendahl, Georg Katzer, and André Werner, and an inventory of the music materials in the Frank Michael Beyer Archive.

contents