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Harry Pepl * 1945  † 2005
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Literature and research

Writings on Harry Pepl and his music. We welcome pointers to further publications, theses and broadcasts.

Dissertations

  • Stefan Heckel (2024): Instant Composing. Das Spätwerk des Jazzgitarristen und Komponisten Harry Pepl. dissertation (PhD), musicology (theory and history of popular music), University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna; supervisor Harald Huber, Vienna. Examines Pepl’s works of the Instant Composing phase from 1987/88 onwards, including Cracked Mirrors, Schönberg Improvations, the string quartets and the Lonely Single Swinger Band.
  • Thomas Albert Zlabinger (2013): Free from Jazz: The Jazz and Improvised Music Scene in Vienna after Ossiach (1971-2011). dissertation, City University of New York, New York. Online online, CUNY Academic Works Dissertation on the Viennese jazz and improvised music scene since 1971 (advisor Peter Manuel). Pepl appears in Table 1 of the most important musicians and bands (p. 87), in Table 2 among the musicians around the Vienna Art Orchestra (p. 91), in the index of musicians (“guitar, piano. Vienna Art Orchestra”, p. 166), in the bibliography (New York Times on the festival “Beyond the Sound of Music”, 18 May 1985, p. 212) and in the discography (pp. 253 to 270). Recordings by Clemens Salesny and Franz Hautzinger, who today play with Pepl’s original tracks, are discussed in detail (pp. 130 to 138).
  • Silvia Elisabetta Pagano (2009): Experimentieren – improvisieren – zuhören: Ursprung, Entwicklung und Theorien der heutigen experimentellen elektronischen Musik sowie Beweggründe und Gedanken in Wien tätiger Musikschaffender. dissertation, University of Vienna (supervisor Christoph Reuter), Vienna. Online online, Hochschulschriftenserver der Universität Wien Names Pepl as a member of the Ars Electronica Workshop Ensemble of 1982 with Adelhard Roidinger (p. 23). In an interview of 19 April 2004 the guitarist Martin Siewert says he studied jazz guitar with Harry Pepl at the Graz music university (p. 195).

Master's theses

  • Martin Schaberl (2004): Wolfgang Muthspiel – einer der vielseitigsten Musiker Österreichs und Preisträger des European Jazz Prize 2003. Magisterarbeit, Institut für Jazzforschung, University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (supervisor Franz Krieger), Graz. Exemplar im Archiv At the Graz jazz department Wolfgang Muthspiel studied only with Pepl (pp. 13, 155). In the interview he calls him “the authority on time” (p. 165); in a reprinted conversation with Guitar & Bass, Pepl stands for “rhythm, time and swing” (p. 201). Also covers the project “Muthspiel & Muthspiel play Pepl-Pirchner” (pp. 293 to 295).
  • Christian Haudej (1999): Harry Pepl. Aspekte seiner musikalischen Entwicklung. Unveröffentlichte Magisterarbeit, Institut für Jazzforschung, University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, Graz. Thesis by the guitarist Christian Haudej, written during Pepl’s lifetime and including an interview with him: short biography (pp. 5 to 6), Pepl on composing and the MIDI guitar (pp. 19 to 21), a stylistic analysis of “Alone Is A Golden Stone” with a handwritten transcription (pp. 23 to 27) and a score of the piece for the Artis Quartet. Cited in Heckel 2024, pp. 56, 65 to 68, 86, 113 to 116 and 123; Heckel lists it as a Diplomarbeit in his bibliography.

Diploma theses

  • Nikolaus Kohler (2006): Harry Pepl. Ein Porträt des Musikers und Komponisten. diploma thesis for the degree of Magister der Philosophie, musicology programme, University of Vienna, submitted in September 2006; supervisor Regine Allgayer-Kaufmann, Vienna. The first detailed academic study of Pepl. It draws on three conversations with Pepl before his death and contains a discography, an overview of works and a chronology.

Encyclopaedias and reference works

  • Peter Stachel (2004): Pepl, Harry. Österreichisches Musiklexikon online, founded by Rudolf Flotzinger, edited by Barbara Boisits; last content update 28 July 2004, Vienna. Online freely available online (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 AT) DOI 10.1553/0x0001dca6; literature references in the article: Kunzler, Jazz-Lexikon 2002, and Melhardt, Swing that Music! 2002. Print edition: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon, vol. 4, Vienna 2005, p. 1742 (as cited by Bruckner-Haring 2013).
  • Kunzler (2002): Jazz-Lexikon. vol. 2, p. 906 f. (entry Pepl). First name and publisher are not given in the sources available; cited in Kohler 2006 and in the Österreichisches Musiklexikon.
  • Günther (1997): Eintrag zu Harry Pepl, S. 824 bis 826. Encyclopaedia, title not given in the available sources. Kohler cites the work partly as “Günther 1997”, partly as “Bernhard 1997”. Contains Pepl’s statements about himself from 1996, including on art as the „letztem Ort der Transzendenz“ [“the last place of transcendence”]. Bibliographic details to be clarified.
  • Moschner und Teufert (1996): Eintrag zu Harry Pepl, S. 229 bis 230. title not given in the available sources. Cited in Kohler 2006 in connection with the sentence from Le Monde and with Pepl’s works. Bibliographic details to be clarified.

Articles and essays

  • Christa Bruckner-Haring (2017): The Development of the Austrian Jazz Scene and Its Identity 1960–1980. European Journal of Musicology 16/1 (2017), p. 136 to 157, DOI 10.5450/ejm.2017.16.5784, Bern. Online freely available online Article from the research project Rhythm Changes on festivals, venues, broadcasting and education as foundations of an independent Austrian jazz scene. Pepl was a guest on Walter Richard Langer’s ORF television show “Bourbon Street” (35 episodes, 1975 to 1979), as were Barney Kessel, Albert Mangelsdorff, Art Farmer and Werner Pirchner (p. 151). In the ORF Big Band, founded by Erich Kleinschuster in 1971 and including Art Farmer and Jimmy Woode, he formed the rhythm section with Fritz Pauer, Woode and Erich Bachträgl (p. 153).
  • Christa Bruckner-Haring (2013): Historical Overview of the Development of Jazz in Austria. Rhythm Changes, „Historical Overviews of five partner countries“ (Projektbericht), Kap. II, ab p. 29; zuerst deutsch: „Ein historischer Überblick der Jazzentwicklung in Österreich“, Jazzforschung / Jazz Research 44 (2012), p. 53 to 74. Exemplar im Archiv Overview of Austrian jazz history from the European research project Rhythm Changes. Pepl appears as a Viennese guitarist with internationally acclaimed recordings, above all from 1975 in the duo Jazzzwio with Werner Pirchner, often with Adelhard Roidinger and Jack DeJohnette; at the end of the 1970s he played in the ORF Big Band and the Vienna Art Orchestra, in the 1980s with his band Air Mail. In the 1990s he concentrated on “instant” or “real-time composing” (p. 37, after Stachel 2005). The report calls the album “Schönberg Improvations” “Schoenberg Improvisations” and dates it to 1989, the year it was recorded.
  • Thomas Hein (2009): Jazzzwio – ein markanter Name – bis heute. Concerto, 2/2009, p. 44. Report on the release of “Live in Concerts” with statements by Daniel Pepl.
  • Martin Schuster (1998): Man könnte Klavierspielen müssen (Interview mit Harry Pepl). Concerto, no. 2, April/May 1998, p. 44 f.. Interview in connection with the solo piano CD “Flow”; listed in the archive under the file name “Concerto-Interview-1996”, the dating follows Kohler (notes 314 and 363).
  • Wolfgang Kralicek (1988): Saitensprünge. Wochenpresse, no. 49, 9 December 1988, p. 54 f., Vienna. Portrait with interview around the Austrian tour in December 1988.
  • (1983): Erster Blick über die Mauer (Interview mit Harry Pepl). Jazzlive, no. 1, July 1983, p. 7. Interview about the ECM record with Werner Pirchner and Jack DeJohnette; author not named in the sources available, cited in Kohler 2006, p. 82.
  • Michael Kahr: Jazz in Graz von 1965 bis heute. Geschichte und Identität einer Jazz(haupt)stadt. Aufsatz, p. 435 to 451 (Sammelband nach 2018, Angaben zu klären); aus dem FWF-Projekt „Jazz & the City“ (2011 to 2013), Graz. Exemplar im Archiv From 1983 Pepl’s teaching post for jazz guitar in Graz was raised to a full professorship (p. 440). Kahr counts him among the musicians who shaped jazz life in Graz over a long period as soloists and leaders of successful projects (p. 447).

Radio

  • Christian Bakonyi (2025): Zum 80. Geburtstag von Gitarrist Harry Pepl (Die Ö1 Jazznacht). Ö1, 6 September 2025, 23:03 to 24:00, Vienna. Online programme page online With Daniel Pepl, Clemens Salesny and Martin Bayer.
  • Andreas Felber (2025): Österreichischer Jazzpreis 2025, live aus dem Casino Velden (On stage Spezial). Ö1, 26 November 2025, 19:30, Vienna. Online programme page online The playlist includes “Hernstein Blues” from the album “Live”.
  • Johann Kneihs im Gespräch mit Stefan Heckel (2023): Jazztime: Stefan Heckel. Ö1, live aus dem RadioCafe des ORF RadioKulturhauses, Freitag, 15 December 2023, Vienna. Online Ankündigung online Heckel presents his solo piano album and talks about his research on Harry Pepl’s method of “instant composing”.
  • Christian Bakonyi (2015): Erinnerungen an Harry Pepl (Die Ö1 Jazznacht). Ö1, 19 September 2015, 23:03 to 24:00, Vienna. Online programme page online For the 70th birthday; with Daniel Pepl, Agnes Heginger and Clemens Salesny.
  • (2007): Milestones, Harry Pepl (Klassiker der Jazzgeschichte). Deutschlandfunk, Nachtradio, 13 March 2007, 01:05, Cologne. Playlist in the archive; no programme page can be found on the web.

Film and television

  • Martin Bayer (Kanal): Harry Pepl (tape) & The (Lonely) Single Swinger Band, Short Documentary (with English subtitles). YouTube, video ID MWylwQqSMEA. Online freely available online Short documentary about the live project, embedded on the former harrypepl.com website; the year of publication is not documented.

Online

  • mica music austria (2025): Harry Pepl. mica music database, Node 70644, updated 28 October 2025, Vienna. Online freely available online Biography, awards, commissions and a works list covering 64 works.
  • Wulf Müller (2024): European Jazz Masters Of The Past # 2 – Harry Pepl. Blog, 5 February 2024. Online online Extensive biographical essay by the former PolyGram Austria producer and co-founder of the magazine Jazzlive, with photographs from the family collection. Müller produced “Schönberg Improvations” and describes its making first-hand; he remembers Pepl as “a very humble, charismatic and private person with a great sense of humour”.
  • Montreux Jazz Festival Database (EPFL): Konzert 677: Harry Pepl and Werner Pirchner, 12.07.1981, Casino Montreux. mjf-database.epfl.ch, Person 16239, Montreux. Online freely available online Evidence of the performance with programme; the database gives Pepl’s first name as “Harald”.

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