Hespos was born in
Emden on 13 March 1938. He had violin lessons from 1946 and made his public concert debut in 1948, at the age of ten. He composed since 1950. After completing school with the
Abitur, Hespos studied pedagogy at the
Pädagogische Hochschule Oldenburg. From 1962 to 1984 he worked in the school service, then as a freelance artist and lived in
Ganderkesee. He was self-taught as a composer. Since he wrote
für Cello solo in 1964, he composed in all genres, including many pieces for unaccompanied solo instruments and theatre works. He remained always outside of the mainstream and was never associated with any of the many movements in postwar European music, though he did attend summer courses at the
Darmstädter Ferienkurse in the 1980s. Even by the standards of the European avant-garde, Hespos' music usually is quite extreme and unconventional. In his many pieces for solo instruments, Hespos pushed instruments to their
timbral limits, employing
extended techniques and other effects to create unusual sounds. He frequently wrote for less-common instruments, such as
cimbalon (1976's
Cang) or
musical saw (used in
Ganifita-Blues, 1984). Hespos' scores often employ
graphic notation, verbal instructions and traditional
music notation, and combinations. Many of his works involve
improvisation, for example,
t a n E K (2013) with improvisational parts by
Kommissar Hjuler and
Mama Baer). He called for extreme stage techniques in his theatre works;
Seiltanz (
"Tightrope Dance", 1982) requires an actor to break his way out of a metal cage by means of a
welding torch. Hespos was the recipient of many awards and honors in his career, including the 1967
Gaudeamus International Composers Award and the Rompreis of the
Villa Massimo in 1972. In 2005, the
Academy of Arts, Berlin, created an archive of Hespos' music. That same year,
Opernwelt magazine selected Hespos'
iOPAL as the new opera of the year. The
Bavarian State Library holds his complete works. == Family ==