Michael Pinkas, born in Prague, is a composer, music theorist, lecturer, and choirmaster. In 2023, he graduated from the mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in Composition and Music Theory, Major in Music Theory (Mag. art.), studying under the guidance of Prof. Martin Lichtfuss in Composition, Prof. Gesine Schröder, and Prof. Annegret Huber in Music Theory. For his excellent achievements in the master's degree, he received the Prize of Honour 2023. He is a lecturer at mdw in the Department of Composition Studies and Music Production and is currently working on his doctoral dissertation in music theory at mdw, focusing on material construction and performativity in contemporary music. Since 2025, he is the project leader within the IN.TUNE University Alliance, working on the development of new educational formats. His compositions are published by Universal Edition.
Works
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Sewing Machine Music (2020)
Duration: 3’17’’
Premiere:
This composition was written in response to the introduction of mandatory face masks in 2020. As masks were initially unavailable, many people began sewing them at home. The mechanical sound of the sewing machine thus became a symbol of that time.
Virtues and Vices (2023), bars 7-8
Concerts
Publications & Conferences
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ABSTRACT
Riemann's function theory aroused the interest of Czech music theorists very soon after his first publications on that subject. This was reflected in mainly critical contributions to the dualistic theory or those in which the functional theory was explicitly rejected; they came from by František Z. Skuherský (1885), Otakar Hostinský (1887), Karel Stecker (1889), and Leoš Janáček (1912). After entering the Prague Conservatory, Otakar Šín (1881–1943), who was a student of Stecker (and at the same time a critic of his pedagogy), published Nauka o harmonii na základě melodie a rytmu [Harmony Based on Melody and Rhythm] (1922), which was conceived as the first Czech harmony book based on functional theory and which was intended to replace the all too schematic Nauka o harmonii [Theory of Harmony] (1887) based on figured bass by his predecessor Josef Foerster. Although Šín's textbook is intended for practical pedagogical work and thus focuses on the standard curriculum, it also contains novel ideas with which its author attempts to apply Riemann's functional theory to contemporary music. In the second edition of his Úplná harmonie na základě melodie a rytmu [Complete harmony based on melody and rhythm] (1933), Šín replaces the Riemannian symbols for secondary triads with combinations of symbols for major functions, extended further by symbols for chord combinations, which were intended to explain the modern music of his time. However, to this day, Šín's textbook has not been included in the European theoretical landscape. Šín's textbook is hardly known in the German-speaking area, although it is an important testimony to the connection between modern German-language and Czech music theory. This connection can be traced in the harmony textbooks by Hugo Riemann (1887), Rudolf Louis/Ludwig Thuille (1907), Ernst Kurth (1920) or by the Riemann's Student Hermann Erpf (1927).
SCHLAGWORTE/KEYWORDS: Ernst Kurth; Funktionstheorie; Hermann Erpf; Hugo Riemann; Music Theory of the 1920s and 1930s; Musiktheorie der 1920er und 1930er Jahre; Otakar Šín; Theory of Functions
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ABSTRACT
The article deals with the temptation of speech in the teaching of music, as highlighted in Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus. Within the framework of the teacher-pupil, pupil-narrator and narrator-reader dialogue in Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus, a new perspective on the perception of music is formed without a single note being played. Words are meant to take us to imagery. Correspondingly, is it possible to talk about the music that exists, to construct ideas logically, but to be distant from the identity of what is heard? Such questions are the basis of the hermeneutic spiral of analysis-interpretation and the subject of teacher-pupil dialogue, where true insight can be born.
Conferences
2026, Dublin (IRELAND), »Birds as latent microphones: Corporeality and Acoustic Territories in Isabel Mundry’s Vogelperspektiven«, Dublin Music Analysis Conference of the Society for Music Analysis, Trinity College Dublin & the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
2026, The Hague (THE NETHERLANDS), »Re-reading de la Motte’s Harmonielehre through 19th-Century Women Composers as an Educational Experiment«, Dutch-Flemish Society for Music Theory Conference »Music Theory and Education Through the Ages«, Royal Conservatoire The Hague.
2023, Freiburg (SWITZERLAND), »Der Schaffensprozess des musikalischen Analysierens und Komponierens anhand hörbiographischer und autoethnographischer Methoden – dargestellt am Beispiel Isabel Mundrys Noli me tangere«, 23th Congress of the Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie, The Freiburg Music University.
2022, Salzburg (AUSTRIA), »Ein Gegenmodell zu Schönbergs Konzept der entwickelnden Variation: Implikationen der Aufführungsgeschichte von Johannes Brahms‘ Streichquartetten op. 51«, 22th Congress of the Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie, Mozarteum University Salzburg.
2022, St. Moritz (SWITZERLAND), Salonorchester der Alpen, »Traditionsreiche Engadiner Musikquellen neu arrangiert: Fantasie über alte rätoromanische Tänze und Prager Straßenmusik«, The University of Basel.
2022, Leipzig (GERMANY), »Jahren in Algerien: Suche des Fremden bei Émile Jaques-Dalcroze und Béla Bartók«, Weimarer Tagung, The University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig.
2021, Basel (SWITZERLAND), »Riemann-Rezeption in Tschechien: Zu Otakar Šíns Harmonielehre«, 21th Congress of the Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie »Tonsysteme und Stimmungen«, Musik-Akademie Basel/Hochschule für Musik (FHNW).
NOVEMBER 2020
I am pleased to announce the premiere performance of my piece Capriccio (2020), performed by the violinist Magdalena Kołcz-Wrzesień. The premiere took place on November 14, 2020, at the KLAVIERgallerie in Vienna, Austria.
Capriccio is an imaginative, free and lively solo piece with two themes that arbitrarily seek their validity. The first theme is rooted in an energetic gesture, the second theme is lyrical with large intervallic leaps. When the solitary gesture finds a way into continuous movement and the lyrical theme is transferred into irregular dance, both thoughts are unpredictably abandoned to open a long coda that attempts to mimic a process of previous development without precise application or suggestion of the main themes.
Cadenza (2019)
performed by Jaqueline Kopacinski (viola)
Premiere: May 31, 2019, Atelier Theater, Wien, AT
Dance (2019)
performed by Aleksandra Juszczak, Magdalena Kołcz-Wrzesien (violin)
Premiere: May 27, 2019, Joseph Haydn-Saal, Wien, AT
The introduction is based on the timbre of the notes, with the same note played on different strings. The two violins react to each other indirectly through the echo and touch each other from a distance in a heartfelt interplay. At first, the developing dialogue of two voices is an inner dance that gradually opens up and is expressed through increasingly lively movement. The dance is first light and agile, then energetic and wild. The scenes are changing, and two voices are constantly looking for ways to express their common movement.
Allegro giocoso
for orchestra (2018)
peformed by North Czech Philharmonic, Petr Vronský (conductor)
Premiere: May 25, 2018, Teplice, CZ
This work is based on the rhythmic reflections of the various instrumental groups, which playfully vary. In terms of style, the Sinfonietta takes its cue from the work of the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů, especially his balancing of the fantastic, even surrealistic, while at the same time maintaining the rationality of the form.
The Wedding Mass (2017)
The Wedding Mass for women's choir and string quartet was written for the occasion of a wedding and premiered in the Piarist Church in Litomyšl. The mass consists of three parts: "Kyrie", "Sanctus" and "Agnus Dei". The guidance of the melody is influenced by Gregorian chant. The final cadenzas always culminate in a triad g-b-c, which is meant to be united with the tuning of the church bells. The last part, "Agnus Dei", was influenced by the early Renaissance setting technique of the Canon of Proportion.
Codex Franus (2016)
This piece is inspired by the old chorales from the Codex Franus of 1505. The chorales chosen were those sung before sunrise during Advent, the so-called rorats: "In hoc festo Domino", "Rorate coeli", "Unde gaudent angeli" and "Ave hierarchia". The instrumental sound is a mixture of marimba, xylophone, and wood block so that the morning songs can be presented as extended minimalist figures.
Contact
michaelpinkas@gmail.com
(00420) 608 159 480