thumb|Sidney Corbett 2022 (c) Inge Zimmermann

Sidney Corbett (born April 26, 1960, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American composer based in Germany.

Biography

Sidney Corbett was born in Chicago in 1960, the son of a Jewish mother and a Catholic father, but grew up without a religious upbringing. In 1968, he moved with his family to California, where he played as an electric guitarist in various bands in Los Angeles at the age of fifteen and composed his first works from 1977.

From 1978 to 1982, he studied philosophy and composition at the University of California, San Diego, with Bernard Rands and Pauline Oliveros, among others. In 1985, Corbett continued his composition studies at Yale University, where he taught as a "Teaching Fellow in Composition" and received his doctorate in 1989 with an analysis of the work Hyperprism by the French composer Edgar Varèse. His teachers at Yale University were Jacob Druckman, whose assistant he was, as well as Martin Bresnick, Frederic Rzewski and Morton Subotnick. Corbett was awarded the BMI Student Composer Award in 1985.

From 1985 to 1988, he studied composition with György Ligeti at the Musikhochschule Hamburg and took part in Vladimír Karbusický's doctoral seminar at the University of Hamburg's Institute of Musicology.

As a guitarist Corbett played from 2004–2008 in the avant-garde techno/house band "Vierte Heimat" and continues to play in various improvising formations to this day.

Corbett has authored articles on musical topics for many years and has also been involved in the programming of various concert series, including the College Music Society Europe (CMSE), Cologne and Musica Nova, Stuttgart.

Corbett was elected to the Akademie der Künste, Berlin in 2022.

Corbett's compositions are published and distributed worldwide by Edition Peters, Leipzig – London – New York.

Releases of his works have appeared on Sony Classical, Cybele, Mode Records, CRI, Edition Zeitklang, Kreuzberg Records, Blue Griffen, Edition Kopernikus and Ambitus Records.

Compositional Output

Inspiration, sources

For Corbett, composing is a spiritual act, he concerns himself intensely with spiritual and theological questions and with all forms of mystical experience, including for example also Islamic mysticism. For him, this occupation with the spiritual is a principal source of inspiration; the spiritual is inseparable from the musical.

Corbett often uses holy scriptures as inspiration: he has for example used texts from the Old Testament, for example, Psalm 39 several times, e.g. Psalm 39 for mixed choir (2010), Canticum David for seven voices (2015) and Ein Fremdling, wie alle meine Väter ... for contrabbass clarinet (2010); instrumental variations on prophetic literature such as Three Lamentations [Of the Prophet Micah] for alto saxophone and organ (1998). There are also biblical figures in the operas Noach (2001) and Die Andere (2016).

Corbett uses texts from the Koran, for example in Die Sieben Tore (The Seven Gates) for mezzo-soprano, speaker, flute, harp, piano and percussion (2004) or refers to the Talmud, for example in Bleeding in Babylon for bass clarinet, guitar and double bass (2004).

Literary influences can be found in his compositions for music theatre, which form a focal point of his work, but also in numerous other works. Examples include numerous vocal works such as Portals for tenor and guitar (1998) based on poems by Walt Whitman, Lieder aus der Bettlerschale for soprano and piano (1998) based on poems by Christine Lavant, Nova angeletta for alto and violin (1996) and for soprano and viola (2000) based on a poem by Francesco Petrarca, Kykloi for soprano and chamber ensemble (2009) based on a text fragment by Barbara Köhler and Rasch for soprano, clarinet, viola, violoncello and piano based on texts by Roland Barthes (2010).

Corbett's instrumental music also bears witness to the composer's literary affinity, e.g. in his Third Symphony: ″Breathing the Water″ (2006), in which texts by Denise Levertov are juxtaposed with the poetry of Amal al-Jubouri. Yaël (2004) reflects Corbett's intensive, decades-long study of the work of Franco-Egyptian poet and philosopher Edmond Jabès. Works influenced by philosophical texts also include Aporia for chamber ensemble (2019), inspired by texts by Jacques Derrida and Utopia and Intimacy (Utopie und Nähe) for solo violin and six voices (2020) based on texts by Ernst Bloch.

Style

Corbett is an artist who cannot be easily placed within the new music mainstream.

His musical training did not begin with classical music; he only learned to write music at the age of 17 – before that, as a guitarist, he had done everything by ear, i.e. by memorizing or improvising. He has thus remained very open minded towards different forms and styles of musical expression.

During his study of composition in San Diego, at UCSD, from 1978, Corbett was confronted with the most extreme forms of avant-garde music; in 1982 he began his studies at Yale University and became interested for the first time in so-called traditional music - both of which influenced the musical language of his compositions at this time.

His study in Hamburg with György Ligeti from 1985-1988 was a particularly strong influence. At the time, Ligeti criticized Corbett's style as being too avant-garde. Corbett was encouraged to look at his own compositions more critically and, above all, more closely.

  • Keine Stille außer der Windes (2007): The chamber opera, based on texts by Fernando Pessoa, was premiered at Theater Bremen in 2007. The librettist Simone Homem de Mello created a constellation of six characters that can be understood as the voices of ONE consciousness.
  • Ubu (2012): A Grotesque, the play Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry forms the basis for the libretto by Simone Homem de Mello. The music, with a central role for the children's choir, contains quotes from Jimi Hendrix as well as from the metal and hard rock scene. The world premiere took place in 2012 at the Musiktheater im Revier, in Gelsenkirchen.
  • San Paolo (2018), based on an unrealized screenplay by Pier Paolo Pasolini. In essence, San Paolo is a double portrait of the apostle Paul, transposed the 20th century and also of Pasolini himself, whose life in many way parallels that the apostle. The work premiered in Osnabrück in April 2018 and received the 2018 Palatinate Prize for Music.

Orchestral works (selection)

  • Ghost Reveille (1984) for large orchestra. WP Zagreb 1989

Chamber music (selection)

  • Die Stimmen der Wände (The Voices of the Walls) (1993), with visual artist Brigitte Maria Zarm. WP Mönchengladbach 1993
  • Suspended Disbelief (2023) for string quartet. WP Aldeburgh Festival 2023, performed by Ligeti Quartet

Film music (selection)

  • BRACHLAND | WASTELAND | NO MAN'S LAND. Video by Anna Katharina Scheidegger, 2002. Music: Corbett's Klavierkonzert
  • FRAGMENTS OF DESTRUCTION. Film by Anna Katharina Scheidegger, 2004. Music: original musique concréte score by Sidney Corbett
  • Half the Heart – Hälfte des Herzens. Music film by Andreas Rochholl, 2013. Music: from Corbett’s song cycle Lieder aus der Bettlerschale (1998) for soprano and piano, after a poem by Christine Lavant (1915–1973)

Festivals and performances (selection)

Gaudeamus Amsterdam (1988), Biennale Zagreb (1989), New Orchestra Project – New York (1989), Steirischer Herbst (1989), Eclat Stuttgart (2002), Performing Arts Chicago (1995), Duke Summer Arts Festival (1996), Tacheles Berlin 2004, Tonhalle Düsseldorf 2006, Klangwerktage Hamburg (2007, 2012), Wien Modern (2009), Bregenzer Festspiele (2020, 2021), SinusTon-Festival für elektroakustische Musik (2014), Nordic Piccolo Festival (2023), Baltic Music Days Riga (2023) et al.

Writings

  • Sidney Corbett: Auf der Suche: Zum Tode des amerikanischen Komponisten Jacob Druckman, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik Nr.4, Juli/August 1996, Schott Verlag, Mainz (in German)
  • Sidney Corbett: Die amerikanische Neue-Musik-Szene: Der subjektive Überblick eines Komponisten, Musik und Ästhetik, Klett-Cotta Verlag, Stuttgart (Heft 6/98) (in German)
  • Sidney Corbett: Verzicht ist eine Antwort, zu den Begriffen Fortschritt, Avanciertheit und Avantgarde Musik und Ästhetik, Heft 33, Januar 2005, Klett-Cotta Verlag, Stuttgart (in German)

Further reading

References

  • Edition Peters/Wise Music Group: Works + Biography Sidney Corbett
  • edition ex tempore + edition nova vita
  • Ricordi – Sidney Corbett
  • Biography on the website of the Musikhochschule Mannheim