Tilo Medek

Müller-Medek was born in Jena, the son of the composer and musician Willy Müller-Medek (1897–1965) and his wife Rosa (1902–1976).^[2] He received musical training at the Jenaer Musikschule in violin, piano, improvisation and music theory.^[3] In 1957 he attended the 12th Darmstädter Ferienkurse in the western part of Germany^[4] where he took classes with Alexander Jemnitz, Luigi Nono, Hermann Scherchen and Karlheinz Stockhausen.^[5]

From 1959 to 1962, he studied piano with Kurt Johnen in Quedlinburg. He received his Abitur in 1959, and studied then at the Humboldt University of Berlin, musicology with Walther Vetter, Ernst Hermann Meyer and Georg Knepler.^[3] He also took courses in psychology with Kurt Gottschaldt [de], in art history with Karl-Heinz Clasen, in theology with Lieselotte Richter and in garden architecture with Willy Kurth. He studied at the same time composition with Rudolf Wagner-Régeny at the Deutsche Hochschule für Musik in East Berlin.^[3]

From 1962, Medek worked as a répétiteur for the ensemble of the Berliner Arbeiterjugend, and as a composer of radio plays and incidental music. In 1964 he wrote his thesis in musicology: Die Vertonungen von Goethes Prometheus-Gedicht.^[3] In 1968, his work was first restricted, because of his compositions Das Dekret über den Frieden after Lenin's Decree on Peace, and "Battaglia alla turca" (later No. 1 from Lesarten an zwei Klavieren).^[2] Lenin's text, slightly shortened, is set for speaker and percussion (Schlag-Idiophone, Schlagtrommeln), with the speaker in the middle of the audience, while the percussionists are positioned in the back of the audience in four corners, playing with growing intensity which in the end drowns the voice.^[6] In 1977, Medek criticized the Darmstadt School and its influence in the GDR.^[7] When Wolf Biermann had to leave the country on 15 July 1977, Medek protested and then also moved to the West.^[2][4] From 1982, he ran the music publishing house Musikverlag Edition Tilo Medek.^[2] In 1984 he composed the opera Katharina Blum to a libretto by his wife, Dorothea Medek, based on Heinrich Böll's novel Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum (The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum).^[8] Revised in 1986, it premiered at the Theater Bielefeld on 20 April 1991.^[8] Medek died in Duderstadt in 2006.^[9]

Medek's works included chamber music and piano pieces, and settings of poetry by Bertolt Brecht which were performed by singers such as Sonja Kehler. He composed many works for choir and orchestra, receiving international recognition for Die Todesfuge after Paul Celan's poem "Todesfuge". Medek composed two radio plays broadcast by Radio DDR 1. He wrote extended stage works, such as the opera Katharina Blum. He composed three symphonies: Die Eisenblätter, Die Rheinische, Die Sorbische, and several concertos for solo instrument and orchestra. He wrote many works for organ. He received awards for his Die betrunkene Sonne (The drunk sun) for speaker and orchestra, a melodrama for children on a text by Sarah Kirsch,^[10] and for Kindermesse (Children's Mass), written in memory of the children murdered by the Nazis.^[11]

• 1967: Internationaler Kompositionswettbewerb der Stiftung Gaudeamus, Niederlande (for Todesfuge)
• 1968: State University of New York (for Das Dekret über den Frieden)
• 1969: Opernwettbewerb DDR (for the opera Einzug)
• 1970: Friedrich-Kuhlau-Wettbewerb der Stadt Uelzen (for Kühl, nicht lau, No. 2 of the Lesarten an zwei Klavieren)
• 1975: 22 Tribune internationale des Composits of the UNESCO Paris (for the Kindermesse)
• 1975: Prix Folklorique de Radio Bratislava (for Der schwere Traum)
• 1977: Prix Danube [de] in Bratislava for the KRO-Niederlande recording of the Kindermesse
• 1982: Ernst Reuter Prize, with Dorothea Medek for their feature Westöstliche Wechsel, ausgestellt in der Ankunftszeit

• Die betrunkene Sonne. Ein Melodram für Kinder für Sprecher und Orchester.
  • Nova 8 85 019, 1971 (A-Seite)
  • LP: Deutsche Grammophon DG-Junior 2546054, 1981
  • MC: Deutsche Grammophon DG-Junior, 3346054, 1981
  • CD: 26–27 June 1996 Schwerte SonArte, P 1997 2987610002, 1997
• CD: Musik für Kinder (3-CD set) Deutsche Grammophon, 459 606, 1998
• CD: El sol borracho, AgrupArte (Spain) ISBN 84-95423-04-9 (with illustrated booklet) 2000
• CD: Musik in Deutschland 1950–2000 (Box 3: Angewandte Musik, Disk 9) Deutscher Musikrat RCA RedSeal, 74321 73527 2 2001
• Tilo Medek: Orgelwerke. (Wandlungs-Passacaglia (2001), B-A-C-H, Vier Töne für Orgel (1973), Verschüttete Bauernflöte (1969), Quatemberfeste (1989), Gebrochene Flügel (1975), Rückläufige Passacaglia (1979)). Cybele Records, SACD 060.801 (2008)
• Triops-Botschaft – Das Gitarrenwerk von Tilo Medek. (A: Rosenlied – Pergola – Rautenkranz (1967/69), Albumblatt mit Randbemerkungen (1967/68), Venezianisches Naxos (1981); B: Erdrauch (1979), Triops - Botschaft (1985)). Ricophon LP 01030 ETM
• Tilo Medek: Cello Concerto. (Cello Concerto No. 1 (1978/82), Eine Stele für Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1976), Schattenspiele(1973). classic production osnabrück, cpo 777 520-2, 2010
• Kindermesse (Zum Gedenken der im Dritten Reich ermordeten Kinder) (1974) for children's choir
  • TV version: 4 May 1979, Niederländisches Fernsehen, II. Programm, KRO Hilversum
  • LP: Kindermesse und Struwwelpeter - Mannheimer Kinderchor, Edition Tilo Medek, 01012 1986
• CD: Musik in Deutschland 1950-2000 (Box 16: Musik für Chöre, Disk 1) Deutscher Musikrat, RCA RedSeal, 74321 73660 2 1998
• So ein Struwwelpeter / Musikalischer Bilderbogen für Sopransolo, Kinderchor und Solostimmen, Flöte, Fagott, Marimbaphon und andere Schlaginstrumente (1975), text: Hansgeorg Stengel [de]
• CD: Landesmusikakademie NRW, audite!nova, LC 18939 2010

• 1969: Bertolt Brecht Der Ozeanflug (radio play), also direction, with Kurt Veht, Radio DDR 1
• 1972: Agnieszka Osiecka: Appetit auf Frühkirschen (radio play) – direction: Albrecht Surkau, Radio DDR 1)
• 1973: Jiri Kafka: Vom Wasser, das zu singen aufhörte (radio play for children) – direction: Albrecht Surkau, Berliner Rundfunk