Hermann Heiß
- Year of birth, place
- 1897, Darmstadt, Germany
- Year of death, place
- 1966, Darmstadt, Germany
- Biography
29.12.1897 Born in Darmstadt.
First contact with music at home. 1916 drafted into the army. 1919 Returns from American captivity. First contact with jazz there. Autodidactic studies in the following years. 1921 Composition lessons with Bernhard Sekles, piano with Willy Renner Frankfurt/Main. 1922 First performances, Heiß joins the Freie Gesellschaft für Musik 1923–1925 Herman Heiß becomes increasingly involved with twelve-tone music. Acquaintance with Josef Matthias Hauer. Studies with Hauer in Vienna. 1925/1926 Composition E-F#-D for piano, a defining and fundamental work for Heiß. 1926/27 Piano lessons with Alfred Hoehn in Frankfurt/Main. 1928–1933 Music teacher on Spiekeroog 1933–1941 Freelance composer in Berlin, propaganda music. Commissioned work for the 1936 Olympics "Das Jahresrad", performance suppressed, 1937 the fairy-tale opera "Prinzessin Filigran". 1942 Return to Darmstadt. 1944 Air raid on Darmstadt, many works are burnt. Hermann Heiß moves to Vienna and teaches at the Music School, City of Vienna 1946 Darmstadt. Musical and cultural engagement in the Ottenheimer household. Lecturer in composition at the Darmstadt Summer Courses. 1948 Georg Büchner Prize. Teacher of composition at the Städtische Akademie für Tonkunst in Darmstadt. 1951 First interest in electronic sound generation. 1952–1954 Experiments in the (N)WDR studio in Cologne. First electronic works are created: 1953 "Electronic Studies", 1954 "Electronic Discontinuum." 1955 Head of the "Studio for Electronic Composition" at the Kranichstein Music Institute. 1956/57 Development of the Heiß-Vollmer tape recorder for more rational tape editing. 12.07.1957 Foundation of the "Studio for Electronic Composition Hermann Heiß Darmstadt" in the annex of the Städtische Akademie für Tonkunst in Darmstadt. In the following years until his death, numerous electronic compositions and commissioned music for stage, radio, film and television are created in this studio. ab 1957 National and international lectures on electronic music. 1958 Goethe Plaque of the State of Hesse, Johann Heinrich Merck Honour of the City of Darmstadt. 06.12.1966 Hermann Heiß dies in Darmstadt.
