Boris Blacher

Blacher spent his early years in China, studying music in Irkutsk, Siberia and Harbin, China. He later went to Berlin to study with Koch and musicology at the Berlin University. Blacher was among the "degenerate" group of artists censured by the Nazis because of the modern nature of his work. This situation forced him to support himself as a teacher at both the Dresden Conservatory and at the Hochschule für Musik in West Berlin. Blacher's music is distinguished by original rhythmic energy, precise instrumentation and control of color and highly organized texture. He utilizes an unconstrained counterpoint that is dissonant. His compositions develop rhythmically, and he has devised a system of "variable meters" which are organized according to mathematical progressions. This characteristic has made his ballets his most successful compositions. His works often contain a feeling of irony and satire and a reaction against the effusive quality of 19th-century works. Blacher has been compared to Stravinsky, an obvious inspiration for him. He has written several texts for his own, as well as other composers' work. ~ Lynn Vought