Hans Otte: The Book of Sounds

Hans Otte (1926-2007) was a German composer, pianist, radio promoter, and author of many pieces of musical theatre, sound installations, poems, drawings, and art videos. From 1959 to 1984 he served as music director for Radio Bremen. From the early 1960s onwards, Otte frequently presented contemporary experimental American composers in his Bremen radio festival, Pro Musica Nova, among them John Cage, David Tudor, Terry Riley, and Lamonte Young. His own catalogue of works contains more than 100 works.

Hans Otte was perhaps the first visionary of 'deep listening' music, music whose emotional core is as distant from the surface as it can be, and basically the exact opposite of German Romantic and symphonic music. Indeed, Otte was greatly influenced by Asian philosophy and the exquisite simplicity of Eastern calligraphy.

Some of Otte's works, especially his extended suites for solo piano, are characterized by very minimal means but are nevertheless subtle and sophisticated in their architecture and expression. Das Buch der Klänge (The Book of Sounds, 1979–82) and Stundenbuch (Book of Hours, 1991–98) are his best known works in this vein, and Otte often performed them himself.