Rainer Riehn

Rainer Riehn (12 November 1941 – 9 June 2015^[1]) was a German composer and conductor, and a co-editor of music theory magazines.

Riehn was born in Danzig, Germany (modern Gdańsk, Poland) studied music theory in Mainz, Zürich, and Berlin and composition with Gottfried Michael Koenig in Utrecht.^[2] He met the music theorist Heinz-Klaus Metzger at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse in the summer of 1965.^[1] In 1968 he founded the Ensemble Musica Negativa,^[3] in 1977 the series Musik-Konzepte, which he published until 2003 (together with Heinz-Klaus Metzger).^[4] In 1984 Metzger and Riehn received the Deutscher Kritikerpreis as editors of the Musik-Konzepte.^[1] In 1987 he was chief dramaturge at the Oper Frankfurt together with Heinz-Klaus Metzger,^[4] and initiated the first commission for an opera composition for John Cage (Europeras 1 & 2).^[2]

Works

• Les Chants de Maldoror,^[2][5] electronic composition, realized in Utrecht about a poetic novel Les Chants de Maldoror by the Comte de Lautréamont
• Das Lied von der Erde,^[6] a work of six songs by Gustav Mahler, arrangement for chamber ensemble by Arnold Schoenberg, finished by Rainer Riehn (premiere by Ensemble Musica Negativa, Toblach 1983)
• nichts – als das Kinderspiel eines Erwachsenen,^[2] string trio (premiere by trio recherche, Konstanz 2002)