The great unknown

Despite his immense compositional output, the Grisons composer Gion Antoni Derungs (1935-2012) is one of the great unknowns in the Swiss musical landscape. His oeuvre comprises several hundred compositions, including ten autobiographical symphonies and several full-length operas. And yet, with the exception of a few choral compositions, Derungs' work is little appreciated outside Graubünden. Graubünden musicologist Laura Decurtins has now made a significant contribution towards adequate recognition with a biography of the composer. This also contains a well-structured list of his works, compiled by Thomas Järmann and revised by Decurtins. Decurtins, who grew up in Chur, is no stranger to researching the music of her home canton. With this biography of Derungs, she is following up her dissertation published in 2019 Chantai rumantsch! has published another book on the music of Graubünden within a very short space of time.

In this 220-page biography, Laura Decurtins not only traces the stages of Derungs' life - from his origins in Sursevla and his education in Zurich to his places of work in Lichtensteig and Chur - but also places the composer in a colorful cultural and historical panorama, which makes reading the book a great pleasure. The book tells us about everyday school life at the monastery school in Disentis, the musical milieu in Zurich in the 1950s with its affinity to popular music, and the cultivation of music at the teacher training college in Chur.

Decurtins often skillfully departs from the chronological narrative and illuminates various topics in a productive way, for example with a look into Derungs' composer's workshop or the classification of his work as an instrumental teacher, choir conductor and cathedral organist.

Within the biography, which is divided into eight chapters, Decurtins weaves in illuminating analyses of the works, which she weights subjectively. Derungs was interested in the new musical paths taken at the Darmstadt Summer Courses. He went through the school of the avant-garde, but never left Romantic culture behind. This resulted in compositions in a style all of his own, which are fed by his engagement with his homeland.

His four-part a cappella piece composed in 1959 Sut steilas already enjoys cult status in the choral scene. With Il cerchel magic In turn, the first ever Romanesque opera was staged in the mid-1980s. Derung's oeuvre covers a wide range, from very accessible pieces to advanced sounds. The brilliantly written biography by Laura Decurtins invites you to rediscover him.

Laura Decurtins: The Grisons composer Gion Antoni Derungs (1935-2012). A musical biography, 416 pp. (of which approx. 200 pp. index and list of works), Fr. 48.00, Chronos, Zurich 2022, ISBN 978-3-0340-1666-7