Introduction

Part 1

1. Modernism Underestimated


2. Biography and Context: Spahlinger and Twentieth-Century Germany

Part 2

Conclusion

Mathias Spahlinger: List of Works

The first book-length study in English of composer Mathias Spahlinger, one of Germany's leading practitioners of contemporary music

One of the most stimulating and provocative figures of the new music scene, Mathias Spahlinger (b. 1944) has long been a touchstone for leftist, "critical" composition in Germany, yet his work has received very little attention in Anglophone scholarship until now. 

Spahlinger's practice offers a unique negotiation of the modernist legacy, as well as passionate political and philosophical engagement. Today, his position as one of the most venerable exponents of post-WWII modernism in his homeland is undeniable: his music is regularly performed, he has received commissions from many of the major orchestras and new music groups in Germany, and in 2014 he received the Berliner Kunstpreis, Berlin's top art prize. 

Bringing a critical perspective to Spahlinger's life and work, this new study provides an essential reference for scholars of new music and twentieth-century modernism. 

Neil Thomas Smith is a researcher and composer based in Edinburgh. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Maastricht Centre for the Innovation of Classical Music.

Martin Iddon is a musicologist and composer. He studied musicology and composition at the University of Durham and University of Cambridge with John Butt and Ian Cross (musicology), as well as Robin Holloway and Fabrice Fitch (composition), and has studied composition privately with Chaya Czernowin, Steven Kazuo Takasugi, Ole Lützow-Holm and Steve Martland. His articles have been published in journals such as Musical Quarterly, Twentieth-Century Music and Contemporary Music Review. His music has been performed in Great Britain, Germany, Canada, Spain, Italy and the USA, and has been shortlisted by Sound and Music. He currently lectures at the University of Leeds.