Subject: Mauricio Kagel--avant-garde composer dies at 76

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/tomserviceblog/2008/sep/19/maurico.kagel.tribute

Mauricio Kagel's death yesterday, at the age of 76, is a huge blow for contemporary music. First of all, there's the shock of the news – Kagel was hugely active as composer, teacher, and inspirational figurehead for generations of musicians, and he was due to take part in a major retrospective of his music in Frankfurt this weekend – and the knowledge that music has lost one of its most important and ironic consciences.

Kagel was born 12/24/31 int Buenos Aires to Jewish parents who fled Russia in the 1920s.  He was largely self-taught on organ, piano, and cello and studied philosphy and literature at the University of Buenos Aires.  Kagel migrated back to Europe where his composing career emphasized the integration of theatre and contemporary music. 

He often used unconvential instruments, such as bicycles or toilets.  Music theatre works, such as Phonophonie, retain the power of their strange compositional techniques, but lose some context without the visual parts key to the performance.  Another great one is Con Voce (With Voice), where a masked trio silently mimes playing instruments and Match a tennis game for cellists with a percussionist as umpire. (wiki)

I am now listening to his string quartets as performed by the Arditti Quartet.

The press hasn't mentioned the cause, but it was probably cancer or heart disease.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauricio_Kagel