Were you're parents musical?
– My father was very musical, yes. Under other circumstances,
he would have become a musician. But after the war, other things were important. My father had a good friend, a musician, he took me to him, and he said that I had the talent for music. That´s when it all started. The first 3 years were´t easy for me. I had to be shown how to practice. So he was the one who introduced me to music. – What were the musical genres? Classical… – Surely! Bach, Mozart, Beethoven… I learned the music of all the classical composers, fortunately! It was nice! My musical world was quite small: Classical music, the record collection of my parents, and German "Schlager". I always listened to "Kleine Nachtmusik" by Mozart.
My parents had to put it on all the time. And I had a record from my Brazilian relatives. They brought along a record with samba batucada. So I think I was one of the few in Wuerzburg who listened to samba batucada as a child. I even studied piano. At musical high school I played church organ for 2 years.
Additionally I played cello for 2 years. But never reached above 1st position… And I played the clarinet for more than 2 years what my father also played. Being 13 years old, I discovered The Beatles. That influenced me a lot! I started playing guitar and bass guitar because
Paul played the bass… …sometimes keyboard but mostly bass. For me it was clear: I´m singing now!
I wanted to be like them. It seemed natural to me…(laughing)… not perhaps to others. But it was cool for me. There were 2 important stages of life: My good old childhood friend Andreas, told me when I turned 18 years old – – I was not sure if I should join my father`s business because of loyalty to him – told me in a serious conversation between 18-year-olds I should not do that! I had to become a musician.
He said: "Don´t dare doing anything else!" That was good for me. That reinforced my decision. The next important thing was, to go to the studio. We – a Beatles show band – decided to record in a studio just like The Beatles. We wanted to make the same experiences. We went to the recording studio "Tonstudio Hirschfeld" owned by Juergen Gerner. I made my first studio recordings there. That was a totally new quality of playing music. Much testing, recording, checking, listening, controlling, adding tracks to things we previously recorded.
Juergen always was on hand
with help and advice for us. It was helpful having someone who bolstered us up. That was a very important stage of life! I just had started studying piano. At the same time we went to the studio. My main Instrument was piano. I studied at
Music Conservatory Wuerzburg. My second instrument was the clarinet. But then everything changed when I met Siegfried Fink. I changed my second instrument to percussion. I put the clarinet aside. At the music conservatory, I recognized: Out of every practicing room I heard the same music.
Everyone played the same: Beethoven, Mozart, Bach… I thought: I´m doing the same now. What will I do afterwards? It offered me no vision (as a piano player). For me percussion was a completely new world. My friend Achim von Bassen told me about his major studies with Siegfried Fink. That was very interesting to me! I got to know Fink as a musician, detached from percussion. For him it was the same: He got to know me as a keyboard and bass player (during recordings). The recordings went well. After some time he let me know that I should think about studying percussion; not as a second instrument but as a main instrument. So I thought about it for 2 days and made my choice. As soon as I knew I would do that, I practiced 8 hours every day. But on the other hand that offered an enticement. When a fellow student who was 3 years ahead of me practiced 4 hours, I had to practice 8 to reach that level.
That´s how it was. But it was lots of fun! I had a big advantage: Fink supported me. He knew that I could not be as technically advanced as the others, logically. He knew me from studio recordings and knew about my musical background. That always mattered. Therefore I felt at home and accepted as a musician. I tried to improve my technique to be able to express what I brought with me musically.
But that offered an enticement! I fully concentrated on my percussion studies but i still had enough energy to think creatively. Some said to me: "You don´t know what you want!" or "Make up your mind!" Fink wanted me to decide for percussion only. I also studied "Applied Composition". I told him: I can not do one thing only. I can not play percussion only.
As a soloist I would have to set other priorities. I did not want to be a soloist. The whole thing as a music world or environment was interesting to me, as a new experience that I could include like other instruments. It was always like that. Then I went with Christoph to the recording studio, as always: "Tonstudio Hirschfeld" We met at the studio and said: "Let´s try out "Neue Deutsche Welle"
("New German Wave") but we had no clue at all what we should do. – Was that the band "Neuland" ("New Land")? – Yes. It had a double meaning. "Neue Deutsche Welle" and producing it was both new for us. The name was obvious for us. And we had an American producer whose first production was in the style of "Neue Deutsche Welle": Todd Canedy! His dad was co-founder of the P.A.S.
(Percussive Arts Society) Todd was a very sensitive person.
He always thougt positive in your sense. He took somebody as one finds somebody and looked at everyone in a positive way. He always imagined he would be the other person with it´s history which defines this person, or because the person has a history the person is like that. It was always obvious: He was open for everyone. That was mind-blowing! During most stressful situations he kept cool … – cool is wrong! He stayed quiet, calm and stoic. The situation is like it is. It´s ok. That´s what he exuded. Fantastic! He was 4 years older than me. And he had a kind of maturity…
I needed decades to reach that… … I don´t know if I have it today (laughing). He was ahead of his time. Mind-blowing! Yes… Here we see: Thomas Keemss Axel Fries Adel Shalaby Peter Sadlo Martin Amthor Ney Rosauro Achim von Bassen Rainer Römer Günther Peppel Thomas Hupp Andreas Kohlmann Many, who made a career over the years after studying with Fink. This is also a nice photograph: It was made in 1983 at the back porch of Fink´s house. Paul Mootz, Professor in Luxembourg for percussion Eckhard Kopetzki Achim von Bassen Günter Kamp and Siegfried Fink. In retrospect you find that it was an enormous serendipity. I think for the others it was the same. We influenced each other immensely. For me a very important time, I have to say. Peter came one year after me to the "Hochschule" (university). I started in spring semester in the year 1980 and I think he started in the fall semester. He lived near Nuernberg, in Zirndorf. He always drove to Wuerzburg. After some time, when he was in Wuerzburg he stayed at my place. I gave him the key to the apartment.
It was a very intense period. We had discussions deep into the night. We philosophized and talked about everything and anything, … especially about girls… but also about music and marimba of course. I profited from that very much. He had a new perception of the instrument. He gave many thoughts about the marimba, about mallets, about sounds… I remember how we discussed tremolo on the marimba. He said that tremolo has not to be always like that. Tremolos have to be exactly notated so the player knows what every mallet does how and when. It has to be notated much more precisely. We exchanged many ideas. These are things I still profit from, I have to say. So, a very intense time… – So he was intent on details?
– Absolutely! Absolutely! He was indeed a perfectionist, in a positive sense. He always subordinated everything to perfection. His goal was always to "come across", putting it colloquially. But in the end he wanted to touch people emotionally.
One could feel that intention very clearly. He knew he was able doing just that. But he knew that he could only do that, if he was above things. It had to be playful! He worked on that constantly. And he had that stage presence….Fantastic! Unbelievable! He had that impact not just on some but on all people. Everyone in the audience looked like:"What is happening here?!" I remember a concert in Wuerzburg at the "Festung" (castle) in a beautiful hall…
I heard from him for the first time in a concert Bach´s suite for cello. Back then – I think – it was compulsory piece at the Luxembourg Marimba Competition. He played the Suite in C Major. It was so moving, I had to cry… "Farewell" dedicated to Peter Sadlo (literal translation)
You lived on the edge like noone else. Everyone who saw you was fascinated. For you no aim was to high. You never had regrets about your game/playing. I could read you like in a book. So often we shared flying thoughts. Thinking about that time it lightens my heart. Farewell is a cold wind wafting through my soul. Everything what connected us will stay and never go away. What we experienced during our time gave me this certain spin. Living, sharing, laughing, crying
searching for the sense… How close we were, I sense after so many years That was so intense…
Two friends, clear as daylight You gave me so much power.
You´ll stay a part of my life! What would I give to see you again Farewell is a cold wind wafting through my soul.
Everything what connected us will stay for sure. That time made me who I am today. Sharing love, caressing souls That´s the meaning of it all. I´m interested in different instruments and different styles. I´m fascinated by Blues Lately I devoted myself to guitar and electric guitar. I absolutely wanted to do that because I want to relate to the music on the instrument itself. For me it´s not enough to write a piece for congas, I want to be able to play it! Even if it is not 100 percent authentically played how a professional conga or djembe player would play it. That´s impossible with so many percussion instruments but I want to have the feel for the instrument. Only then I can write for the instrument. The best example is the marimba: When I heard my former duo partner Evgeniya – who recorded with me in the studio – during a solo performance, I thought: It makes no sense playing duo repertoire with her. I´m too bad as a player. I´m able to come up with extremely complicated music.
Then I realized: I don´t have to be able to play everything. (Evgeniya) recorded a LP with my compositions in the year 2006. Tho se are absolute fantastic recordings! Evgeniya advised me in so many cases concerning marimba. I could always ask her.
As I said before: My instrumental skills are limited and I´m aiming high. Sometimes I asked her: "Would you play it like this? Would you accept that as a marimba soloist?" She always helped me and gave me good advices, like with my composition "Agnus Dei". We worked closely together even when I composed the piece. We checked different things. I played the choir on the keyboard, she played marimba and gave me constant feedback. For me it was always important to get her expert opinion because then I knew: It´s ok. I appreciate that very much. She helped me a lot.
I often sang in choirs: In high school, conservatory, Musikhochschule, different amateur choirs. I had always fun singing. That was the reason because I could compose for choir, because I had the feel on how I had to do it. I´m singing much choir parts in the studio all the time. Therefore it´s important for me to have a feel for the instrument and the topic not only from the top view but from my own insight view. Simply putted: How does a instrument feel? Ho does it vibrate? What do I have to do? That is important for me! Playing Mozart the right way – meaning artistically right – or playing AC/DC the right way makes a difference concerning the genre but not concerning the approach: I can play both good or bad.
Doing what I do in a good way is crucial.
For that people come to me and my music school. I´m here for that. I´m practicing for that.
I´m also practicing for my students so they get what they need in an authentic way. So my music school is a driving factor for me. My goal is to present music as a mutual experience. I can do that on every level and with nearly every instrument. It´s important to me that I´m playing together with the student if possible. Especially with drums that is easily done, with guitar also. One can transfer that to many instruments. Sometimes the student has to play for himself especially when solving technical problems.
At the end of the day I try to give the students what they want to do according to their individual level of skills. A short while ago, three girls discovered a hit and wanted to play it. I said: Let´s do it. We turned on Bluetooth, checked the chords and the lyrics and simply started right away. For me that´s lively teaching. It´s not important that I push my music through. Important is that people who come to me with their imaginations can play their music! The most important thing is that they can live out their musical fantasies in one or the other way. That´s only possible in my own music school. I could not do that at a public music school. There my job would be drum teacher! Over and done! Someone else would teach piano.
It would´t be possible. At my own school I can to that! And that´s the beauty of it. I can do what I want. That´s nice! (Song "Tears In Heaven") I really started composing when I developed in the direction of pop music. Then it really started for me. For me the first highlight was "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel. When I first heard that song I was blown away. Before that I played classical music.
"Bridge Over Troubled Water" starts with this nice gospel inspired piano. I remember when I heard that for the first time:I wanted to play that! I liked that very much. After that I started to write songs on the piano. The lyrics weren´t perfect but those were the first steps towards songwriting.
– When did you start to compose for percussion? – That started during my percussion studies. The first piece I wrote was … "Cabo Frio"… if I remember correctly. It was published later. The first published piece was "Rêve Curieux". I remember it like this: My colleague Thomas Hupp and me had lessons at Fink´s house like it was sometimes the case. It was before Christmas and Fink asked me if I could write a piece for percussion ensemble. The result was "Cabo Frio". It was like that. After some time Fink got it published. The publishing house was Zimmermann. With "Rêve Curieux" it was quite similar. I created that vibraphone piece for myself.
At the same time or a little later, Mark Glentworth visited me at my small apartment. It mas a 10 square meter apartment filled with a Fender Rhodes, a vibraphone, a bed and a cupboard. It was incredible! (laughing). One evening – it was wintertime – he visited me and played his "Blues For Gilbert" for me. He told me the story that he dedicated it to his deceased teacher. And I played "Rêve Curieux" for him. We never planned to publish the pieces in the same book. That was organized by Fink. In retrospect it was music history if you really think about it.
Back then it was normal: We played the pieces for each other … Really fantastic. – It´s the 20th anniversary of your piece "Ghanaia" this year…. – Unbelievable that it was 20 years ago… – There are many versions of it on YouTube… The interesting thing is, that Edgar Guggeis – to whom I dedicated the piece – said to me – right after he played the first performance: "You know, you should write an ensemble version of it." I said to him: "Yes, I understand it and I can imagine that very well, but the original version is too near to me now".
"I can not distance myself from it right now to write an ensemble version. It would not become a good thing. I need some distance!" After some time more and more other people thought out versions of "Ghanaia". And a good thing, too. I think it´s great that so many people did their own versions. Most of them don´t change the marimba part or just a little, adding a djembe or percussion. Some play it as a jazz tune – so very different versions are done by people. Peter Sadlo arranged a very good percussion version and also recorded it with "Peter Sadlo And Friends". I like it very much that so many people are able to make use of it.
It´s a gift if you like. I know pretty exactly how it came about: It was the early 80ies. I twice visited drumming courses with the fantastic Brazilian conga player Dudu Tucci. With me 15 to 20 drummers visited the course and he played that bell rhythm: In Cuba they call this rhythm formula "Bembe". It´s also known as "Afro 6/8". He played that rhythm formula with a conga. I had also booked a dance seminar – although I´m not a dancer. I´m rather "moving". So the dance seminar was held by Ismael Ivo in the evening. Dudu thought drumming in the morning and accompanied the dancers in the evening.
So I danced – or moved – to this rhythm he interpreted on the conga with variations. I moved to that rhythm for 2 or 3 days for 2 or 3 hours per day. So we danced to the rhythm. That rhythm burned into my mind. It lodged oneself into my brain. I woke up in the middle of the night. I heard it permanently. One day I could write it down because I knew how to notate it – that took a while. Then I noodled around with it. Shortly afterwards a student came back from Ghana after a sabbatical and he played the same rhythm and other similar rhythms in 6/8. So I heard that same kind of rhythm again and I started to play it on a drum. I tried other instruments too: Piano, keyboard, drum kit.
I experimented with it again and again. Actually the incubation time for Ghanaia was 10 years. I tried again and again, but without the intention to write a piece of music. I experimented with that 6/8 thing which is kind of ambiguous. I know how it all started with "Ghanaia": At my music school, between lessons I sat down, choose the "Marimba" sound on the keyboard and played: (singing) It came just like that. I thought: "Ok, that´s not too bad" After that I started to develop the idea. I played it on the marimba. That´s how "Ghanaia" emerged. – So actually "30 years of Ghanaia"..!? – … if you will, actually yes. – In the year 2000 I came in contact with the piece for the first time. Different versions of the piece accompanied me over the years. Since the year 2004 I´m his music engraver. I engraved all of his music he published over the years.
I´m working from the handwritten script which is not always easy to read because he uses a thick pencil. It is important for him that the music is readable very well. I´m giving my best. As he writes it I´m engraving it! – So this is the original "Ghanaia" manuscript. – It´s hand written? -Yes, handwritten. That´s how it looks. – It´s already written like it was later engraved and printed. – Exactly! At that time the ending was different. When I worked with Edgar we decided for a new ending so the piece would end big. That is a copy of the fax with the new ending I sent Edgar. That is the original page where my then very young son Max drew on. But in the end it worked. There were the ones coming from the drum kit and who were more into rhythm and gave priority to that.
The ones coming from the piano were more interested in marimbaphone or vibraphone I thought: There has to be a possibility to write a piece that is appealing to the rhythmists and the ones who love harmonies and beautiful sounds. That was also a thought while writing it. The nucleus was the idea of dancing, motion and groove. Additionally I wanted to serve both target audiences. That was my thought at that time. From a technical oint of view it´s easy! But that´s the same with classical pieces. First when reading it you think it´s easy. But when you start playing you recognize it is not easy to get the groove right: (singing) Making the "2" and "4" always hearable in every part of the piece is not easy, also keeping the tension from start to end. Katarzyna Myćka recorded it for the first time on her first CD. That was absolutely thrilling. Peter Sadlo made the connection. He trusted me and passed the information without knowing what I had written. "Go to Matthias! For shure he will have a good piece." That´s really crazy! It was the same with Katarzyna Myćka playing the piece! He did many things in the background.
I owe him very much. So we´re talking about Peter again… In fact it looks simple. But it´s not easy keeping the tension up the whole time and not loosing the groove. That´s what was always important to Matthias: Don´t take it too easy, take it seriously and devote yourself to it. Also the idea of a drum circle and developing a kind of hypnotic relationship to music and letting the groove drive yourself. If you want to play it as a virtuosic piece you probably have neglected the idea completely. I think, as a young player you want to play a new piece of music really fast and really loud and you want to show everything you got.
In retrospective: You need a certain portion of maturity to – like everything else – deliver it in a good way at some point and do justice to the piece. The only bars where you probably go gray are those quite before the ending. It´s the chromatic sequence which is turning itself around with this strange fourth "F – B flat"in the right hand to "F sharp – B". That is very uncomfortably for the player. I worked very hard on that sequence to bring out the soprano voice. (Peter) Sadlo said at some point: "Leave it alone" But I think that if you get your teeth into it you can accomplish it. You have to find a solution. As interpreters and players we grow with these kind of little spots. It was interesting to me: After competitions I was invited to many festivals and events on different continents. I remember the invitation to PASIC – a big thing for percussionists. It took place in Los Angeles in 1997. I played "Merlin" because I thought I should bring something serious with me what the American players could play better than me anyway…
And I should bring something new. So I choose "Ghanaia". When I played it… you can not imagine how many people came after me and asked me about the piece. "Do you have the music? Can you give it to me?" At that point Matthias published "Ghanaia" by himself. I said: "I don´t give out copies!"
Instead I gave everyone Matthias`contact informations. I think that led to the point where Matthias went almost crazy because so many people contacted him. Matthias said: You know, we have to do something! I´m running out of steam here!" Since the Luxembourg competition in 1995 I was in contact with the Norwegian publishing house "NORSK Musikforlag", Oslo.
I was in their former head´s (Leif Dramstad) confidence. He said that if I worked with composers who I would find interesting and who I would recommend I could give them the pieces. I immediately did that with "Ghanaia". They said they would like to publish it. So after that Matthias was off the hook and things went better. Yeah, that´s the history of "Ghanaia". – … and there were other percussionists who were influenced by your music and grew up with it. – Yes, I know that from Marianna Bednarska for example. I first saw her playing when she was 15 years old at Katarzyna Myćka´s Academy I was totally impressed on how she played marimba being only 15 years old.
Marianna told me that ("6 Miniaturen") was one of her first pieces she played on marimba. I was moved by that. And she said that she liked the piece very much… You know…
That one can affect others emotionally with one´s petty thinking and music – – complete strangers you`ve never seen before and who suddenly have a connection to what you came up with… … it´s fantastic!… … somewhat supernal… I can not classify it…
It´s so transcendental. That´s how I feel about it.
Music in general… When music reaches a level from one subconsciousness to another and suddenly a connection is created… … and suddenly you reach the same level of sentiment you can not describe and it´s just there… That´s unbelievable… … and to create and achieving that is always my aim. I´m not successful all the time but that is what I like about making music…imagining music I have to say. I don´t see myself as an interpreter like Peter Sadlo or as a solo artist on stage. That´s not me. I´m seeing myself in the background writing and imagining music. That´s me. Sometimes people give me feedback and tell me for example on Facebook – young people I don´t know at all: Small messages like "Nice music!" whatever…
Totally crazy! It´s simply fabulous. That makes my day once more! Marianna wished for a composition by you? Yes. Shortly after I met her in Frankfurt at Katarzyna Myćka´s academy… … one or two years later she contacted me and asked me if I could see the possibility writing a piece for her.
Then I remembered what Leif Dramstad (former head of NORSK publishing house) told me: "Try to use Bach choral preludes as a subject for variations". I didn´t use Bach choral preludes. I took a Bach choral and wrote variations. I dedicated it to her and she played the world premiere in Stuttgart, Germany last year. It was very successful and the played fantastic. I knew that Matthias Schmitt dedicated the piece ("6 Miniaturen") to marimba virtuoso Katarzyna Myćka. I played it and knew that it was a gift from the composer´s heart.
I dreamed about that Matthias could write something for me someday. I like it very much that I can show every character of music in different variations like in "6 Miniaturen". The piece is near to my heart. Playing for him when he sits down in the audience was a big pleasure and honor. I´m very happy that I such a possibility and I think such moments stay forever in your heart. It´s the greatest prize that a musician can get during his musical life. "Bach Variations" (Dedicated to Marianna Bednarska) World premiere in Stuttgart, Germany (2017/12/02) – Looking back on your life, are you happy? The first half of my life lies behind me being nearly 60 years old (laughing). Yes! On the whole I´m very happy on how it all went. In retrospect I developed in … – like (Rudolf) Steiner said – …
In segments of 7 years. How did he say? How did Steiner call it? Epochs, he calls it! They were´t always epochs of exactly 7 years – sometimes 6 or 9 or 10 but there were always phases which I underwent very fundamentally and consciously. Phases were I dedicated myself to the band "Relax" or my percussion studies… were I really dedicated myself to something. Then it was the main part of my life. At one point I went through it and experienced it and there was space for something new. It was always like that. And I hope it goes on like that.
I can not determine that by myself. It´s not on me. But I would like to stay in those changing phases where I discover something new and to write something new what I`ve never wrote before like "Agnus Dei" or "Ghanaia" – both completely new! I would like to continue like that.
When I´m able to manage that in the future, I´m happy. – Thank you very much.
– You´re welcome. 20 Years Of Ghanaia – The Composer Matthias Schmitt A film by Nicolas Unger Thanks to….