DER DAMON

Autore: Paul Huber

Altre informazioni:

Paul Huber (born in 1918) began to compose music while still a high-school student at the Collegium St. Fidelis in Stans - Swiss. From 1940 to 1947 he studied at the Zurich Conservatory; in 1947 and 1948 at Paris, with Nadia Boulanger. In 1948 he was then to replace J.B. Hilber, official composer for the Swiss Music Festival. Of course he accepted. The premiere of Huber’s piece (“Frau Musica”) made his name known throughout Switzerland overnight. After then he composed over 400 works, including chamber music, organ pieces, music for wind ensembles, an opera, as well as over 200 choral works, both sacred and secular. Huber has received numerous prizes and honors for his compositions, e.g. the Culture Award of the City of St. Gallen in 1982.

In addition to his activities as a conductor (choirs, wind ensembles and orchestras), Paul Huber has been active as a voice and piano teacher in St. Gallen.

He died in St. Gallen on February 25 2001

Huber’s compositions employ a late post-romantic style as well as elements from Swiss folk music. It is a graphic, dramatic musical language that can be understood by a wide audience.

Der Damon, one of his most famous works, is dated 1966 and is a symphonic study on the ancient "Dies Irae" of the Catholic Tradition. The atmosphere is dark but lyric, most important parts are played by brass instruments (shadows) with sudden breaks of woodwinds (lights). Darfo Boario Terme Banda Cittadina performed this composition first in 1989 when it was not published yet in Italy (it was bought in Swiss indeed).