Lars Fetzek is an amateur composer in the finest sense of “amateur”, which is one who composes for love of the intrinsic. Thus, Lars invites chamber, symphonic, and choral ensembles to perform compositions without any burden of commission. This is in the spirit of human freedom and the socialist understanding that the sincerest motivation for creative human endeavor is not dependent upon economic incentive and can even be contrary to it. The only requirements are artistic and practical, which are that a project matches Lars’ interests and that resources such as time, instrumentation, time, logistics, and time are adequate. Lars began playing percussion at the age of 10, began composition at the age of 14, and began choral singing at the age of 18. Initially inspired to compose for percussion ensembles and soon gravitating toward Wagnerian operatic ideals, by the college years, Lars became obsessed with learning orchestration and thematic polyphony, the former of which no normal university is equipped to effectively teach and toward the latter of which Lars received excellent preliminary instruction in the form of non-thematic species counterpoint from Dr. Stephen Miles at New College (Florida, USA). Except for academic instruction in counterpoint and harmonic theory, Lars has learned composition auto-didactically with a consequent proclivity for canons, canons, and canons… and a formally demanding aesthetic far removed from the romantic notions of operatic composition that propelled Lars’ early study of music theory. Lars’ aesthetic prioritizes idea over style, with style manifested as best serves and least distracts from the idea. In the second decade of the 21st century, Lars sought the challenge of creating finite musical expressions of infinite progressions that converge by divergence, that can loop as if zooming-in upon a fractal, which function on multiple levels, and which do so with sufficient variety and evolution of expression to sustain aesthetic interest. Lars’ non-musical interests include electrical, structural, and mechanical engineering, as well as informal mathematics and metaphysics. In engineering, Lars has become a deriver and teacher of theory, and in music composition, Lars does the same by the derivation and artful sonic demonstration of patterns. One of Lars’ great hopes is to have ideas be understood, for in the process of understanding is a type of humane experience.
email: Lfet2002@yahoo.com
Catalogue of Select Compositions for Symphony Orchestra (as of March 2020):
Symphonic Movement on a Variously Fragmented Theme (abstractly composed in 2015, orchestrated in 2019)
Cycle of Eleven Canons on a Twenty-Two Note Melody (abstractly composed in 2011, orchestrated in 2019)
One Minute Duo #1 (flute and trombone with F-trigger - 2017; flute and English horn - 2019; these two versions are separated by a tri-tone)
Palindrome Quartet #1 (flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon - 2018)
Quartet for Flute and Strings #1 (flute, violin, viola, and cello - 2019)
Two Minute Duo #1 (flute and bass clarinet - 2019)
The Chicken Or The Egg??? (alto flute and alto saxophone - 2020)
Passacaglia and Canon (“I Sing!”) (SATB chorus or SATB chamber singers and either handbells, tubular chimes, marimba, glockenspiel, or plucked stringed instrument; lyrics by the composer - 2017)
Short bio
Lars Fetzek is an amateur composer in the finest sense of “amateur”, which is one who composes for love of the intrinsic and not for acquisition or consumption of the extrinsic. Accordingly, Lars invites chamber and symphonic ensembles to perform the compositions with neither a requirement for remuneration for the composition nor a willingness to compose differently for the sake of what remuneration might happen (if ever) to be provided. Although remuneration would not be categorically rejected, the performance of the music is the truest, most valuable, and only necessary reward. This is in the spirit of human freedom and is a validation of Lars’ socialist belief that the sincerest motivation for creative human achievement is not dependent upon economic incentive and can even be contrary to it. The only requirements are artistic and practical, which are that a project matches Lars’ interests and that resources such as time, instrumentation, time, logistics, and time are adequate. Time… the signature resource that is needed without measure for a detail-obsessed artist.
Lars began playing percussion at the age of 10, began composition at the age of 14, and began choral singing at the age of 18. Initially inspired to compose for percussion ensembles and soon gravitating toward Wagnerian operatic ideals, by the college years, Lars became obsessed with learning orchestration and thematic polyphony, the former of which no normal university is equipped to effectively teach and toward the latter of which Lars received excellent (albeit merely preliminary) instruction in the form of non-thematic species counterpoint from Dr. Stephen Miles at New College (Florida, USA). Other than academic instruction in counterpoint and harmonic theory, Lars has learned composition mostly auto-didactically with the result of a peculiar proclivity for canons, canons, and canons… and a formal aesthetic far removed from the romantic notions of operatic composition that propelled Lars’ early study of music theory. Lars’ aesthetic prioritizes idea over style; style is arbitrarily manifested as best serves and least distracts from the idea.