Wednesday, 28 October 2026
Stefan Heckel’s dissertation on Harry Pepl now available as a PDF
Stefan Heckel’s dissertation “Instant Composing” on Harry Pepl’s late work (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria, 2024) can now be downloaded in full, by kind permission of the author.
Anyone researching Harry Pepl’s late music will need this study: the dissertation “Instant Composing. Das Spätwerk des Jazzgitarristen und Komponisten Harry Pepl” (Instant Composing: the late work of the jazz guitarist and composer Harry Pepl) by the Austrian pianist and composer Stefan Heckel is available in the archive as a PDF from today. Heckel has agreed to its publication.
285 pages on the late work
Heckel traces Pepl’s Instant Composing from 1987/88 onwards, from “Cracked Mirrors” and “Schönberg Improvations” to the string quartets and the Lonely Single Swinger Band. It draws on case studies, transcriptions and 22 conversations with contemporary witnesses and musicians. The study was written as a doctoral thesis in musicology at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw), supervised by Harald Huber. The dissertation itself is in German; only the abstract (p. 6) is also available in English.
How to cite it
Heckel, Stefan (2024): Instant Composing. Das Spätwerk des Jazzgitarristen und Komponisten Harry Pepl. Doctoral dissertation, Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien.