Dieter Schnebel may well be the only composer today who is also an active preacher: he continues to exercise his vocation as a Lutheran theologian on a regular basis at the Johann-Sebastian-Bach Church at Berlin-Lichterfelde. His studies of theology went side by side with those of philosophy and musicology (at Tübingen), and he graduated from the Music Academy at Freiburg im Breisgau in 1952.

It was natural for the young composer to visit Darmstadt and to address himself to experiments with serial music. As he says in his contribution to this book, it was thanks to an encounter with John Cage that he turned in another direction and explored new possibilities inherent in the human voice, texts, and the stage. His works in the field of experimental music theater (which he also taught as a professor at the Berlin Academy of Arts between 1976 and 1995) have established him as a leading figure in German musical life. Foremost among them is Glossolalie (1959/60). I saw a performance of it some time in the 1990s at the Witten Festival and was much impressed by the total unpredictability, originality, and madness of it. After the performance, Schnebel appeared on stage, stocky and priest-like, with a jovial smile on his face, as if to say “Wasn’t it fun? Glad you enjoyed it.”

He is also known as a writer on music, with books on Schubert, Verdi, Wagner, and Webern.

I.

The encounter with Cage’s piano concerto around 1958 and acquaintance with his ideas led, in my case as well, to fundamental changes in my thinking. I owe similar impulses to Luigi Nono (Variazioni canoniche) and Stockhausen (Piano Pieces I–V). And, of course, to Webern, Varèse, and Ives.

II.

Sounds of the environment play a role in several of my compositions (Choralvorspiele I/II 1966/69, Hörfunk/Radiophonium I–V 1969/70). The same is true of nonmusical, “concrete” sounds, in works like Thanatos-Eros (1979/82) for orchestra and human voices or Jowaegerli (1982/83), Alemannian words and pictures after Johann Peter Hebel,57 for vocal and instrumental sounds and percussion. I believe that the sounds of our world—the friendly ones just as much as the hostile ones—constantly affect our music, including my own ___________________ compositional work. In my view, composers are always open to whatever they may be hearing day by day—to sounds around them.