Friedrich Jaecker was born in 1950 in Soest (Germany). He studied at the Musikhochschule Detmold (1969-1975), and then he continued the study of composition with György Ligeti at the Musikhochschule Hamburg (1975-1977). Since 1977 he has worked at the Musikhochschule Cologne, first as an assistent professor and since 1980 as a professor of composition.
His piece in excelsis was selected for the International Gaudeamus Music Week in 1978, and his piece Dir, immer nur Dir… was in the selection of the International Biennale for contemporary music in Zagreb (1983). He won First prize for composition at the Vianna da Motta International Music Competition (with the piece Fragment, 1980/81), the promotion prize of the Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart for young composers of serious music in 1985 (for his piece Turmalin) and Gerhard Maasz Prize and Theodor Berger audience prize in 1993 (for his Bläserquintett).
His chamber music was released on two CDs (in 1998 on TalkingMusic label, Regensburg, and in 2000 on Cybele label, Düsseldorf).
7 Bagatellen, for piano (2007)
- Sentimentale Erinnerung – Sentimental remembrance
- soft as possible – Mood marking in many piano pieces of Morton Feldman
- ohne Worte – Song without words
- Das Schöne bewundern – First verse of a poem of Rudolf Steiner (“To wonder at Beauty/To watch over Truth/To esteem what is noble/To resolve on the Good”)
- Hôtel de la Paix – Luxury hotel in Lausanne where Giacinto Scelsi played only one note on the piano all the time and listened to it’s fading
- Il signor Fibonacci e la sezione aurea – Fibonacci numbers and golden ratio – fetishs of the musical constructivism
- Ich ruf zu Dir – First line of the choral I call to you, Lord Jesus Christ
Unintentionally, these puzzle pieces became a form of self-portrait of the composer.