In his youth Erwin Walther experienced first success as composer as well as conductor. Next to this he worked out in self-studies any modern piano work that was accessible to him, as scarce as they were available. By his intensive work with the music of the composers Strawinsky, Ravel, Debussy, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, and Hindemith he scandalized in those years. He, who was according to that time’s views a “degenerated” composer, especially loved the music of Mahler and Schoenberg.
To characterize his musical language was difficult for him. However, this is understandable after recognizing the dazzling versatility of his way of working.
As a composer as well as a teacher he always treated any kind of music with complete openness and freedom. H. E. Erwin Walther was an avant-gardist, though in discussions he always labelled the world ‘avant-garde’ as unsuitable and reacted with parrying scepticism when it was mentioned in connection with his work. But after all he was an avant-gardist, because after the sentence “Somehow, as a composer I am a ‘colourful bird’” he continued: ”Many of you might know some feathers of my coat, the colour scale however varies from late romanticism over excursions into impressionism and expressionism to dodecaphonism, from artistic song to chanson and to children song, from music for documentary films to music for great movies, from Bavarian folklore to seemingly chaos. But whatever I have composed: I always had fun doing it.”
More information regrarding his oeuvre at www.erwin-walther.de
Additionally, Walther began soon to note his compositions not only in classical but also in a graphical form:
“The graphical notation … was and is for me an opportunity for noting musical and other processes more obvious, compared to using conventional music notation. The performer is required to deal with musical modernity on a wide base, further needed is his gift to improvise, and his gift to translate graphical courses with the coordinates horizontal – vertical, i.e. tone pitch – time, and within its infrastructures, into acoustical courses. An essential part forms the process of ‘reading’, of grasping and then the contribution of own ideas within the given graphic chart, the chart practically forming the ‘playing field’ while the ‘match’ of the performer is running within its boundaries. The performer is - to a great extent – ‘co-editor’”.
(H.E. Erwin Walther, ca. 1975)
More regarding graphical notation at www.erwin-walther.de
Futhermore, by notarized deed dated Nov. 18, 2024 the complete artistic legacy of the composer was endowed to the Archive of the City of Amberg (Stadtarchiv Amberg). The endowment consists of musical compositions (handwritten scores) in classical and graphical (optical music) notation, and - as far as available - in printed and/or digitalized version. This safeguards the composer's complete oeuvre being permanently presented to the public.
