Helmut May archive
Helmut W. May was born on 28.05.1929 in Wiesbaden (Germany). His mother was a professionally trained soprano but she did not support his musical ambitions. Therefore Helmut May made his first steps into writing novels, and self-taught learned piano and composing not before the final year of his schooldays. A friend of the family who was a musician finally advised Helmut May to get into the music profession.
Helmut May studied violin with Richard Lerch and composition with Franz Flößner in Wiesbaden (Germany). He was a founding member of the "Wiesbadener Kammerorchester" and for five decades its concertmaster.
Helmut May made his living as an editor at the famous music publishing house Schott and later as a music pedagogue at the "Gymnasium am Mosbacher Berg" in Wiesbaden.
He made several arrangements of popular orchestral music for student orchestras which were published by Schott. His own compositions remained unpublished, only his violin concerto "I want to die easy" was commercially released in 1980 by Schott.
In his late years Helmut May also came back to writing novels and published several stories like "Der Herr aus Leipzig", "Die Burg", "Heimlich, mit dem Nachtzug..." or "Cziupke träumt".
Helmut May died on 27.05.2013 in Wiesbaden.
archive
| year | composition | documents in the archive |
|
1948 |
Präludium, for string orchestra and timpani |
- fair copy in handwriting - orchestral parts in handwriting |
|
1949 |
Musik, for alto recorder and piano |
fair copy in handwriting |
|
1950 |
Sonata in D, for violin and piano |
fair copy in handwriting |
|
1951 |
Serenade, for violin and piano |
fair copy in handwriting |
|
1951 |
Sonata, for violin and piano |
fair copy in handwriting |
|
1958 |
Sieben Geigenduette mit 12 Tönen, for 2 violins |
fair copy in handwriting
|
|
1966 |
Concerto „I want to die easy“, for trombone, percussion and string orchestra |
copy of score |
|
1966 |
Impromptu, for violin and string orchestra |
- fair copy in handwriting - orchestral parts in handwriting |
|
1967 |
Lamentationen, for baritone and orchestra |
- fair copy in handwriting - copies of orchestral parts |
|
1979 |
Concertino „I want to die easy“, for violin and string orchestra |
fair copy in handwriting |
|
1981 |
Concerto „Festival“, for 2 violins and string orchestra |
- sketches in handwriting - fair copy in handwriting
|
|
1982 |
Maqam-Concerto for violin and orchestra |
- sketches in handwriting - fair copy in handwriting |
|
1983 |
Postkartengrüße, for narrator and 2 violins |
copy of score |
|
1984 |
Concerto for cello and orchestra |
- sketches in handwriting - fair copy in handwriting |
|
1985 |
Fantasie, for string sextet |
- sketches in handwriting - fair copy in handwriting |
|
1985 |
Symphony „Wanderungen“, for orchestra |
- sketches in handwriting - draft score in handwriting - fair copy in handwriting |
|
1986 |
Adagio, for violin and string orchestra |
- sketches in handwriting - fair copy in handwriting |
|
1989 |
Pastorale, for violin and string orchestra |
fair copy in handwriting |
|
1991 |
Divertimento giocoso, for string orchestra |
copy of score (incomplete) |
|
1999 |
Der geigende Eremit, arrangement for string orchestra of the composition op.128 No.1 by Max Reger |
- draft score in handwriting - fair copy in handwriting - orchestral parts in handwriting - copy of score |
| ? |
Concerto „Scene de ballet“, for viola and orchestra |
sketches in handwriting |
| ? |
Maienzeit bannet Leid, for chorus, 2 violins and piano |
fair copy in handwriting |
| ? |
Trio, for flute, viola and cello |
fair copy in handwriting (incomplete) |
| ? |
Concerto for flute and string orchestra |
fair copy in handwriting (incomplete) |
| ? |
Konzertante Musik, for violin and string orchestra |
whitecopies of the parts in handwriting
|
| ? |
Suite lyrique, for violin and string orchestra (unfinished) |
- sketches in handwriting - fair copy of the first two movements (of four) in handwriting |
| ? |
Sonatine, arrangement for 2 violins and piano of op.100 by Antonin Dvorak |
fair copy in handwriting |
plus additional sketches to further compositions which range from a few ideas scribbled on a single sheet of paper to nearly complete compositions:
- Variationen, for piano
- Sonatine, for piano
- Musik für Klavier, for piano
- Triumphmarsch aus „Aida“, arrangement for flute, clarinet, trumpet, violin and piano on the work by Giuseppe Verdi
- Über den Wolken, arrangement for soprano recorder on the song by Reinhard Mey
- Graphiken, for orchestra
- Concertino
- Ganztonleiterstück, for string orchestra
- Stradivari-Adagio
- West-East-concerto
- Geigen-Zirkus, for 2 violins
- Sonata for violin and piano
- Capricen for violin and string orchestra
- Symphony No.2 (2004)
- opera „Der Klosterjäger“, „Ekkehard“ and „Pole Poppenspäler“
and the first pages of a novel called „Fridolin Kasperl“ (from 1946)
Below you can find some of the music of Helmut May set into a scorewriting program. Feel free to study the music. But please have in mind that looking at the music does not allow you to perform the work without paying fees to the German Author's Rights Society (GEMA). It is also forbidden to publish or sell this score or parts neither in printed or electronical format.
I tried to find the actual copyright holders of the music of Helmut May, but failed. If you are a copyright holder of the music below and feel this violates your rights, please let me know. It is no problem to remove the scores, I just want to support the compositions of Helmut May the best I can.
The "7 Violin duets" (7 Geigenduette) are little pieces for the violin student introducing the formal principles of the 12-tone-technique. The first four duets introduce a Prime row, than the Inversion, Retrograde and the Retrograde-Inversion of this Prime row. The final three duets combine several of these transformations.
The score contains a small preface and some short annotations, hence you can find the original German version and an English version with my translation below.
PDF-Dokument [273.9 KB]
PDF-Dokument [274.9 KB]
PDF-Dokument [2.0 MB]
PDF-Dokument [238.9 KB]
PDF-Dokument [318.0 KB]
PDF-Dokument [958.2 KB]
PDF-Dokument [379.8 KB]
Druckversion 