The Austrian composer Heinz Karl Gruber (who styles himself professionally as HK Gruber) attains four-score years today.

Gruber is a veteran of the Vienna Boys’ Choir, with which he sang in the 1950s. It was then that he acquired his nickname, Nali, he says, because he snored.

He is perhaps the foremost representative of the so-called Third Viennese School. A graduate of the Vienna Hochschule für Musik, he studied with, among others, Gottfried von Einem. In 1961, he joined the ensemble die reihe (“the row”, or “the series”) as a double-bassist. The group was founded by Kurt Schwertsik and Friedrich Cerha (the composer who would complete Alban Berg’s “Lulu”). Gruber also became principal bass of the Vienna Tonkünstler Orchestra.

In 1968, with composers Schwertsik and Otto Zykan, and violinist Ernst Kovacic, he established the ensemble MOB art and Tone ART, as a means of performing their own music. His “Bossa nova,” written for the group, became something of a hit tune.

He attained perhaps his greatest notoriety with his cabaret piece for chansonnier and orchestra (or “pan-demonium,” as he describes it) “Frankenstein!!” in 1978. The work, a freewheeling collection of song settings of absurdist poems by his friend H.C. Artmann, about James Bond, Batman and Robin, etc., employs an array of unusual instruments and children’s toys.

Interestingly, Gruber claims descent from Franz Xaver Gruber, composer of “Silent Night.” “Frankenstein!!” is a very long way from “heavenly peace.”

Happy 80th birthday, HK Gruber!

Gruber performs “Herr Superman” from “Frankenstein!!”

Performance of the complete piece with illustrations

“Charivari”

“3 MOB Pieces” for trumpet and orchestra

Yo-Yo Ma introduces Gruber’s Cello Concerto

HK Gruber on HK Gruber