CONTEMPORARY
DA NISH MUSIC 1950 - 20 0 0
Royal Danish Minist ry of Foreign Affa i rs · Danish Music Information Centre
1
DA NISH MUSIC 1950-2000 C O N T E M PO R A RY
Editor:
Anette Faaborg Danish Music Information Centre Graabroedre Torv 16 DK-1154 Copenhagen K, Denmark Tel +45 33 11 20 66 Fax +45 33 32 20 16 E-mail:
[email protected] MIC homepage: www.mic.dk
Text:
Jens Brincker
Translation:
James Manley
Booklet body-text editor: Klaus Lynbech In charge of illustrations and captions: Svend Ravnkilde All illustrations in this booklet are copyrighted and are reproduced by kind permission of copyright owne rs, credited on pages 2-25 and/or page 26 Quotation from the text of this booklet is permitted, preferably with source identification and credit
This booklet is published by Danish MIC in co-operation with the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Asiatisk Plads 2 DK-1448 Copenhagen K, Denmark Design:
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Printed by
Arne Olsen Offset, Copenhagen
Printed in Denmark, December 2000
The cover shows Per Nørgård's Infinity Series Spiral, a polychrome drawing made by the composer in 1973 and reproduced by kind permission. Beginning with the note G, in the centre of the spiral, the first 96 notes of the infinity series are played out (also see pages 6 and 17 below). In a vertical line straight down from the first note of the series, the notes are also those of the unfolding infinity series. With the second and third notes of the series as points of departure, the notes of the series will appear in their inverted order, whereas descending from the fourth note will produce the series in its original order again. Any one of the first 16 notes of the innermost spiral offers an encounter with the infinity series; each of the four coloured lines traces unisons or
ISBN 87-986907-6-0
major thirds
1945 – 1959
I N TH E SH A D O W O F T HE T RA DI T IO N
Each generation creates its own history, and out of this history each
This affec ted not only Wagner’s music, whi ch was directly associ-
generation chooses the figures that serve as models and tradition-
ated with Nazism and antisemitism, but also composers like Mahler
founders. Tradition is not something predetermined but an expres-
and Bruckner, who were regarded as followers of Wagner. And it af-
sion of a choice – often unconscious – that is influenced by many
fected Schoenberg, Berg and Webern and twelve-tone music, whose
factors.
dissonances and atonality were regarded as symptoms of decline.
This is worth keeping in mind when one is dealing with Danish
This aesthetic tendency lay latent in Danish musical life even before
music in the years a fter World War II. Occupation and resistance,
World War II, when Classicist and Romantic schools struggled for
the escape of the Jews to Sweden in 1943, “alsang rallies” whe re
the upper hand. Composers like Carl Ni elsen (1865-1931) and – in
Danes gathered and sang patriotic community
sacred music – Thomas Laub (1852-1927), and
songs to manifest national solidarity against the
their successors perhaps even more so than them-
German occupation forces, had created a Danish
selves, f ought for their aesthetic views and domi-
nationalism which, after the Liberation and the Jud-
nated o ver the Late Romantic school th at was r e-
icial Purge of Nazi collaborators in 1945, was to
presented by among others P.E. Lange-Müller
show its viability in peacetime as the unifying ideo-
(1850-1926), Louis Glass (1864-1936) and Rued
logy. This nationalism also coloured the develop-
Langgaard (1893-1952). How that struggle would
ment of Danish music at the end of the 1940s and in
have ended if the war had not come is impossible to
the 1950s.
say. But there is no doubt that the war and its strengthening of a Danish nationalism helped the
It was a combative nationalism that stood guard over the soul of the nation and the mental health of
Nielsen-Laub supporters to a definitive victory, and Copyright © Mogens Zielers Fond
ensured that Carl Nielsen above all others was
the country. It was aggressively oriented against influences that
established as the composer of “Danishness” and the positive
might weaken the Danish sense of identity that had been built up
example to whom Danish composers could relate – or perhaps even
during the war – that is, influences associated with the recently de-
should relate.
feated Nazism, or which could be regarded as a sign of cultural decline. In the case of music the nationalism was expressed in a
The spirit of Carl Nielsen and Thomas Laub weighed heavy on the
strengthening of the tendency towards folkelighed or popular sensi-
Danish instit utions of musical educ ation (the Royal Danish Acad-
bility (sometimes in the form of populism) and isolation (someti-
emy of Music in Copenhagen and the musicological degree courses
mes in the form of provincialism), which had already been charac-
of the universities) in the years after the war, and the aesthetics of
teristics of Danish music in the 1930s. As was the case in general in
these two composers became a kind of common denominator for
Europe and the USA, in the 1930s many Danish composers dissoci-
the composers who were to carry on the tradition in the years after
ated themselves f rom r adical expe riments and instead culti vated
the war in the two most important genres: the national song tradi-
classical models – often with a national tone – without evincing any
tion of church and home, and the symphonic music of the concert
responsiveness to the innovations that had typified the new music
hall. This does not mean, however, that there was no room for indi-
of the 1920s. The anti-German feelings left by the war reinforced
vidualism. A number of composers who had been born around
this tendency and had the result that Danish musical life in the post-
1900 or in the first decade of the century and became pace-setters,
war years took a critical attitude to the Central European influen-
combined the national tradition with influenc es from the o utside.
ces that represented a “Romantic” or “Modernist” aesthetic as op-
Knudåge Riisager (1897-1974) was influenced by French Neoclassi-
posed to a Classicism that perpetuated the Beethoven-Brahms
cism in many of his works, among which the music for the Harald
tradition.
Lander ballets Etudes (1947)and Qarrtsiluni (1938) woninternation3
al recognition. Herman D. Koppel (1908-1998) combined inspirati-
Nørgård at the end of the 1950s called “the universe of the
ons as diverse as Jewish synagogue singing and jazz. Vagn Holmboe
Northern mind” in conscious isolation – with no fear of exaggerated
(1909-1996) combined his composing activity with ethnomusico-
self-sufficiency.
logical studies of among other things Romanian folk music. What was common to these influences was that they were all com-
1994. Left to right: P er Nørgård, Finn Høffding (1899-1997, holding a photograph
chamber music and choral music, songs accompanied by piano)
of Carl N ielsen) and Karsten Fundal. The success of the Danish approach to educa-
which in the spirit of Carl Nielsen and Thomas Laub were the start-
ting composers is be st illustrated by the fact that, at the turn of the 20th century,
ing-point for the art. Denmark turned a deaf ear to the rediscovery of the twelve-tone technique and the experiments with serialism,
every single day of the year saw the world premiere of a newly-written Danish serious-music composition, and the fact that many of these new works had bee n written on demand
·
The illustration on page 5 is a p hotograph from the Ler-
indeterminacy or electrophony that were on the agenda in the in-
chenborg Archi ve, sh owing v eteran composer Vagn H olmboe (f oreground, right)
ternational music centres like Darmstadt, Cologne, Paris or New
and the young Wilanów Quartet (Poland) at the Lerchenborg Workshop 1974; the
York. Danes cultivated their distinctiveness and explored what Per
first page of the score being discussed is shown in the illustration on page 6 (bottom)
Copyright © Marianne Grøndahl
4
Four generations of Danish composers, photographed by Marianne Grøndahl in May
patible with the tonal tradition and the classical genres (symphony,
T HE MA ST E R A ND T HE M E TA MO R PH OSIS born
when Holmboe – inspired for e x-
around and after the turn of the
Among the composers
ample by Niels Bohr’s comple-
century, Herman D. Koppel and
mentarity theory and the idea of
Vagn Holmboe set the pace for
the dual nature of light as particle
the years just after the end of
and wave – developed his meta-
World War II. In a sense one might
morphosis technique. With this
even say that the experience of
technique, which de rives all the-
the war directly formed Herman
matic elements in a work from a
D. Koppel’s artistic temperament
given body of basic material,
and development as a composer.
Holmboe approaches the “permanent variation” which forms
The child of Polish-Jewish immi-
the basis of Schoenberg’s twelve-
grants, he began his career as a pi-
tone technique, but without ac-
anist and studied piano at the
cepting its atonal foundation. On
Royal Danish Academy of Music in
the contrary, Holmboe stuck to
Copenhagen, where without ac tually being a pupil of Carl Nielsen
tonality as a condition of melodic recognizability, which for him was
he came under his influence and later became one of the leading in-
essential if music is to function as a medium of human commu-
terpreters of Nielsen’s piano music. The influence of Carl Nielsen
nication.
can also be traced in Koppel’s compositions, but in this case supplemented by inspiration from the inter-war period’s German neue
In Symphoni es N os. 5 (1944), 6 (1947) and 7 (1950) and the first
Sachlichkeit, Prokofiev’s and Bartók’s rhythmically marked piano
string quartets Holmboe developed the metamorphosis technique
music and elements of jazz. The German occupation of Denmark,
into a unifying element that ensur es coherence in the individual
which forced Herman D. Koppel – like most of the Danish Jews – to
works and expressive contrast and dynamics in the formal develop-
flee to Sweden in 1943, brought a darker tone and a consciousness
ment, without making metamorphosis a formal principle that pre-
of Jewish roots into his music, in which vocal works with among
vents the individual shaping of each work. At the same time he in-
other things Biblical texts became an important element, from the
corporated the lyr ical expressive qualities (manifested in the early
Three Psalms of David for solo, choir and orchestra (1949) to the mo-
works especially in the vocal music) in the instrumental works,
numental works of the 1960s: the oratorio Moses (1963-64) and the
enabling him to express himself fully and strongly in the classical
Requiem (1965-66) as well as the opera Macbeth (1967-68).
genres symphony and string quartet.
Vagn Holmboe was quickly recognized as one of the leading talents
From the 1950s until Holmboe’s death in 1996 the metamorphosis
and his generation’s bearer of Carl Nielsen’s symphonic tradition
technique remained a consistent stylistic feature of his output: so-
with works like Symphony No. 2 (1938-39), which won the Royal
metimes strongly stressed as in Symphony No. 9 (1967-68, rev.
Danish Orchestra’s Anniversary Competition (1939), and Sym-
1969) and the four one-movement orchestral works (1956-72) that
phony No. 4 Sinfonia sacra (1941, rev. 1945), which had its first per-
bear the common designation “symphonic metamorphoses”; in
formance at the inauguration of the Danish Radio Concert Hall in
other cases more in the background as a stylistic foundation that
1945.
does not preclude the use of unmediated elements of contrast or occasional approaches to more avant-garde-oriented forms of ex-
The influences on the ear ly works, from among others Bartók and
pression – for example in the great Requiem for Nietzsche (1963-64)
Stravinsky, receded into the background, however, ar ound 1950,
to texts by Thorkild Bjørnvig (b. 1918). With the string quartet and 5
the symphony as the bearing genres, but also with a substantial output of chamber music and choral m usic, this became the point of departure for a wealth of important works that placed Vagn Holmboe among the leading symphonists in Scandinavia and drew attention to his music outside the Nordic countries too – for example in the USA, where the Detroit Symphony Orchestra commissioned and premiered his Symphony No. 10 (1971-72). In Danish musical debate of the 1960s and 1970s the metamorphosis technique was associated with the classical-romantic tradition and major-minor tonality. A factor that may have contributed to this was the slogan that the composer Niels Viggo Bentzon coined in connection with his own Symphony No. 4 Metamorphoses (1948-49): “Metamorphosis is the form of our time”. In the light of history, however, it is just as important to dwell on the very spacious definition of the metamorphosis technique that Vagn Holmboe himself offers: The metamorphic [is] based on a process of development that transforms one material into another without it losing its identity, its fundamental qualities. Metamorphic music is therefore essentially stamped by a unit y, which means among other things that oppositions, however strong they may be, are always created from the same material substance, and that contrasts may well be complementary, but not dualistic. With a starting-point in a complex of motifs, rhythm and sound, or in a series whose individual elements are musically recognizable, the transfor mation of elements that takes place may be regarded and understood as a metamorphosis. (Translated from Vagn Holmboe, Mellemspil. Tre musikalske aspekter. Copenhagen 1961, pp. 43f. Published by Edition Wilhelm Hansen AS, Copenhagen)
If one builds on this definition, there are grounds for considering whether the metamorphosis technique lives on in a serial version in the “infinity series” that Holmboe’s pupil Per Nørgård developed in the beginning of the 1960s. Which is to suggest that beneath the break with the tradition there run certain hitherto undervalued currents of continuity that elucidate the importance of Vagn Holmboe for the generation of composers that was to become dominant in Danish music throughout the last third of the twentieth century.
6
Per Nørgård (1969) · Copyright © Edition Wilhelm Hansen AS, Copenhagen
The 1960s
M OD E R N IST S A ND CL A S SI C I S TS
Renewal came late to Danish musicallife; considerably later than to
and a frontal attack on the three citadels of musical conservatism –
Sweden, for example – one had to waituntil the years 1959-60be-
the Royal Danish Academy of Music, the Danish Broadcasting Cor-
fore the real rupture withtradition tookplace. Yet this was not due
poration and the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen – before one
to any lack of innovators before this. Several composers – first and
could speak in earnest of a showdown with the Carl Nielsen tradi-
foremost Niels Viggo Bentzon
tion in Danish music.
(1919-2000), Gunnar Berg (19091989)and Jan Maegaard (b. 1926)
The inspiration came from Darm-
– were well aware that Danish
stadt and the ISCM Music Days in
music was heading for a provincial
Cologne in 1959, and works like
cul-de-sac, and soughtinspiration
Stockhausen’s electronic Gesang
from the German-Austrian music
der Jünglinge or Boulez’ Le marteau
(Hindemith, Schoenberg and We-
sans maître. They questioned at
bern) that had been anathemati-
one and the same time the stub-
zed by the Nazis, and from the
born adherence to major-minor
young composers who with Karl-
tonality and the classical concept
heinz Stockhausen at their head
of the work, and showed new
traced out the line in German
ways towards serial composition
music that was called “post-We-
technique, open-ended forms and
bernist” and was basedin Cologne
aleatory m usic that exploded the
and Darmstadt. As a pianist Niels
Northern tonal universe centring
Viggo Bentzon made a great effort
on Carl Nielsen and Sibelius in
to spread knowledge of Hinde-
which the young compo sers had
mith’s and Schoenberg’s music
otherwise found themselves.
and also wrote the first Danish book on twelve-tone technique
The assault was launched by the
(1950). Gunnar Berg was the first
generation born immediately af-
Danish composer to attendtheho-
Gunnar Berg, Gaffky's No. 1 (from Gaffky's: assortiment 1, March 1958) for piano
liday courses at Darmstadtandde-
ter 1930 and had Per Nørgård (b. 1932), Ib Nørholm (b. 1931) and
votedhimself to the serial composition technique. As chairman of
Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen (b. 1932) as its standard-bearers.
Det unge Tonekunstnerselskab (DUT, the Society of Young Compo-
They challenged the aesthetic principles that they had upheld in
sers) Jan Maegaard put music by Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, but
their earlier works, and which were taught by their teachers at the
also for example by Varèse, onthe society’s concert programmes in
Academy (first and foremost Vagn Holmboe), and in the course of
the 1950s, helped by enthusiastic ensembles.
the 1960s they plunged into a series of experiments that aroused a furore and split Danish musical life into belligerent camps of traditi-
Why these and similar attempts at renewal never really made much
onalists and modernists. Det unge Tonekunstnerselskab and the
of an impact is a question that can hardly be answered on the basis
Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen were transformed into party
of musical aesthetics alone. Perhaps the forces of cons ervatism in
headquarters. The music department of the Danish Broadcasting
Danish musical life were too strong. Perhaps the attempts were not
Corporation (with the Danish National Radio Symphony Orche-
convincing enough. Perhaps the time was simply not “ripe”, as they
stra), the press and the Royal Danish Opera became the battlefields.
say, in the 1950s. However this may be, it took a new generation
And when the smoke had cleared so much in the middle of the 7
1960s that one could get an overview of the sit uation, it emerged
Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Jutland. With him he had taken
that the modernists had won. The Broadcasting Corporation had a
the composition students in Copenhagen.
new Head of Music, the declared modernist Mogens Andersen, with the nickname “Our Time’s Mogens Andersen”. The opera had a new
The latter move was perhaps the most decisive factor in the longer
Artistic Director, the pianist John Winther, who used his influenc e
term, for it continued the decentralization of Danish musical life
among other ways to place opera commissions with the modern
that formed part of official cultural policy, and which led to the con-
composers. And although the Royal Danish Academy in Copenha-
version of the academies into s tate institutions and the establish-
gen was at least formally in the hands of the traditionalists, and the
ment of five state-supported regional orchestras and the Danish
tonal composer Svend Westergaard (1922-1988) succeeded Knu-
National Opera in Aarhus. In the long run this meant that Denmark
dåge Riisager as principal, it was at best a Pyrrhic victory that the
gained two musical capitals – Aarhus and Copenhagen – where in
traditionalists had won there: the leader of the modernists, Per
some periods Aarhus has been the leading centre, for example for
Nørgård, had resigned in protest from the Copenhagen academy in
opera and contemporary music.
1965 and was immediately engaged as composition teacher at the
S E RI A L ISM , S T Y L IS T IC PLU R A L IS M , S IM PL I C IT Y
The 1960s was the decade of the avantgarde in Danish music. But it was a short decade when the attempts to catch up with international modernism and confront Danish m usic with the latest expe riments – from prede termined serial com-
Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Eksempler VI (1970) · Copyright © Edition Wilhelm Hansen AS, Copenhagen
positions, electronic music and aleatory music to the Fluxus movement and happenings – drained the
plexity made it impossible for m usic to bear simplistic ideological
energy of the avant-garde. Composers began to gravitate towards
messages like those that had enabled the Nazis to use and abuse
the tradition again, and this at first took the form of a new interest
music in the service of ideology and nationalism. From a German
in simplicity as opposed to complexity.
point of view this was a logical development and a necessary process, if German m usic w as to manifest itself un burdened by a
Complexity was otherwise an important – one might almost sa y
burdensome past.
constitutive – element of international contemporary music. It had
8
its technical point of departure in Schoenberg’s dodecaphony and
The Danish avant-garde accepted the battle-cry from Darms tadt
Webern’s serialism, which the Darmstadt school expanded to em-
(“One must accept complexity”) as an aesthetic dogma, although it
brace all the elements of music: not only melody and harmony, but
did not have the same historical necessity for them as for their
also rhythm, sound, texts and the placing of the instruments in
Darmstadt colleagues, and they attempted with varying success to
space. This resulted in an aperspectival music where it was difficult
live up to it in a number of works like Ib Nørholm’s Fluctuations
or impossible to tell the difference between foreground and
(1961-62), which won the Dutch Gaudeamus Prize, or Per
background, melody and accompaniment, and where the com-
Nørgård’s – also prizewinning – Fragment VI (1959-61, rev. 1962),
which was given its first performance by the Danish National Radio
seems like a return to an earlier aesthetics where direct lyrical
Symphony Orchestra during tumultuous scenes at the ISCM festival
expression and melodic-harmonic inspiration again assumed a
in Copenhagen in 1964, when some of the musicians of the orches-
dominant role in the composition work.
tra had to be replaced by composition students because they refused to play on sirens as the composer had prescribed.
The music world soon found a catchword for this development: the
But it was not only the musicians who had difficulty seeing the ne -
announced the new music’s self-perception as ‘modern-all-the-
cessity of this development. The audiences did too, and at the end
same’. The simplicity was regarded as a further stage on the route
New Simplicity as opposed to the abandoned complexity; and this
of the 1960s the composers began to feel the same way. The com-
of experiment, not as a return to the anecdotal simplification
plexity dogma was undermined by attempts to compose music
against which at least the Schoenberg school and Darmstadt
that was both modern and so simple that it could be comprehen-
modernism (with Theodor W. Adorno as its aesthetic father-figure)
ded by the ear. The attempts came from the ranks of the avant-
had turned. But the question is whether the composers were not
garde itself: from the young, Fluxus-inspired composer Henning
pulling the wool over their own eyes this way. The simplicity was
Christiansen (b. 1932) whose work for chamber ensemble entitled
not consistently new. It also represented a return to the old and
Perceptive Constructions (1964) pointed out a path that the trend-
abandoned: to tonality, which began to appear in the modern sco-
setting composers followed in different ways:
res – at first as quotations, later as a structural basis – and to the
Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, in his orchestral work Tricolore IV
the rounded work, whose reestablishment was announced with tit-
(1969) uses three simple, easily recognizable blocks of s ound that
les such as “symphony” or “string quartet”.
thematic work, the classical forms and the “op us music” notion of
vary throughout the wor k. The pr ovocative simplicity of the piece aroused a scandal when it was played at the ISCM festival in Basel in
The New Simplicity was neither new nor entirely simple, but should
1970, and for some years the opening of Tricolore IV was the signa-
rather be regarded as an incipient synthesis of the local tradition
ture tune for Radio Sweden’s broadcasts about modern music.
with the innovation that had at last brought Danish music into contact with international musical life.
Per Nørgård de veloped a spec ial form of melodic serialism that permitted him both to use quotations from popular music (in the music from 1964 for Flemming Flindt’s Ionesco ball et The Young Man Must Marr y) and made it possible for the complex polyphony in works like Fragment VI, Iris (1966-67, rev. 1968) and Luna (1967) to be simplified to heterophony in Voyage into the Golden Screen (1968-69). IbNørholm was probably themost radical of thethree : in his works fromthebeginning of the1960she had engagedin extreme experimentswith serialism, stylistic pluralismand Fluxus-like instrumentaltheatre, andhe had confronted twelve-tone music with tonal quotations in his TV opera Invitation to a Beheading (1965). Compared with this his piano work Strophes and Fields (1965-66) 9
TON A L VO I C E S The latitude with which Danish musical life has been credited in the
the French line in Danish music f rom Knudåge Riisager and Poul
1980s and 1990s w as not characteristic of the 1960s. At that time
Schierbeck (1888-1949); it applies to Leif Thybo, whose Neobar-
Danish musical life was still centred on Copenhagen and the m usi-
oque point of departure and inspiration from Stravinsky (the organ
cal institutions of the capital, and in them there was rarely room for
transcription from 1952 of the Dumbarton Oaks concerto from
more than one attitude at a time. This meant that the vi ctories of
1937-38) led to a series of concertos for orchestra and solo instr u-
the modernists in the musical struggle at the same time became
ments, and the Karen Blixen opera The Immortal Story (Sweden
defeats for the traditionalists, whose music was to a great extent
1971); and it applies to Svend Westergaard who, inspired by Italian
ousted from the public arena. Vagn Holmboe and Herman D.
Neoclassicism (C asella) and Bartók, composed few but artistically
Koppel were exceptions in this respect. Their age and earlier output
highly profiled works like the Cello Concerto from 1965 (rev. 1973)
ensured them a place on the concert pro-
and the String Quartet from 1966.
grammes – for both premieres and revivals. The Danish musical world still has to fully reThings looked worse for the generation that
cognize what these composers, despite
was wedged between the Koppel-Holmboe
poor working conditions, managed to write
generation (born a few years before the out-
– both for the sake of justice and as a remin-
break of World War I) and the Nørholm-
der of the dangers that the smallness of the
Nørgård generation (born in the 1930s). It
country involves: now as at the end of the
was characterized by a number of compo-
1800s, when Niels W. Gade and J.P.E. Hart-
sers who persisted in the tonal tradition in
mann dominated musical life, or at the be-
opposition to the signals from international
ginning of the 1900s, when there was no
modernism, but who were not strongly eno-
room for both a Carl Nielsen and a Rued
ugh established to maintain their positions
Langgaard in Copenhagen.
in the public eye when the new departure came. These were composers like Jørgen
Niels Viggo Bentzon, however, was not to be
Jersild (b. 1913), Svend S. Schultz (1913-
ousted. After a period in the 1940s when he
1998), Leif Kayser (b. 1919) and Leif Thybo
was among the earliest pioneers of the new
(b. 1922) or Svend Westergaard. Influenced
music (by among others Schoenberg and
by Neoclassicism, they represented a line in
Copyright © Palle Nielsen and Brøndums forlag
Danish music that wished to renew the local Carl Nielsen tradition f rom which the younger generation with its starting-point in Darmstadt serialism wished to emancipate itself.
Hindemith), he was lumped together with the traditionalists. His immense producti-
vity and a decided talent for publicity – combined with the courage to transcend the boundaries between the arts and play the role of “all-round genius” – won him a position in the public eye as the en-
The Danish musical world gave these composers the cold shoulder, and they had few chances to compose major works and have them
provisation-oriented way of working, created the picture of an
performed. Nevertheless, they produced works of quality which,
artist for whom quantity was of greater impor tance than quality.
with their high artistic standards, d iversify the picture of Danish
But the picture lies. The quantity of Niels Viggo Bentzon’s output is
music in the 1960s and 1970s: this applies to Jørgen Jersild, whose
huge, with more than 600 works – no less than 24 of which are
early piano work from 1945, Trois pièces en concert, has become part
symphonies. At regular intervals, however, he wrote music of
of the repertoire, and whose music for harp and harp accompaniment
extraordinarily high quality and originality.
written for among others the Welsh harpist Osian Ellis continues 10
fant terrible of the musical world. And this, along with an often im-
This applies not only to his early period, when besides piano works like Toccata and Partita, orchestral works like Symphony No. 4 Metamorphoses opus 55 (1948-49), or Symphonic Variations opus 92 (1953) are telling examples of his contrapuntal manner of writing and a texture that t owards 1960 became ever more compl ex and chromatically coloured. But it applies equally to his later output, where in particular the thirteen volumes each with 24 preludes and fugues with the general title The Tempered Piano (1964-96) demonstrated his a bility to renew and recr eate the tr adition (in this case J.S. Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier) in an original way that combines freedom and imagination with artistic economy and consistency, especially in the elaboration of the harmonic development. Only the renaissance that Niels Viggo Bentzon’s music has seen in the 1990s seems likely to ensure him the significant place in postwar Danish musical history that his originality and tireless creative energy justify.
11
The 1970s
YO UTH R E VO LU T ION A ND F R AT E R N IZ ATI O N In 1969 the conductor L avard Friisholm celebrated his 25th anni-
posers in The Group for Alternative Music, which held its own con-
versary in a concert with his chamber orche stra Collegium Musi-
certs without censorship – that is, in principle everything that was
cum. The programme was devoted to the contemporary music for
submitted was played with no prior assessment of quality – and
which Friisholm and his ensemble had fought throughout the
went in for a popular, politically leftist music without however asso-
1960s, and among the works performed was one by the very young
ciating themselves with the political folk music that was being
Aarhus composer Karl Aage Rasmussen (b. 1947) with the provoca-
played by rock groups or the popular music which, with the Beatles
tive title Symphonie classique (1968). The title was a quotation from
and the Rolling Stones at the forefront, came to represent the youth
Prokofiev, and the music bore witness to inspiration from Str av-
revolution musically.
insky and his Neoclassical symphoni es of the 1940s – as well as a personal and incredibly mature talent that was to have a crucial in-
But the clear stylistic difference that there had been at the begin-
fluence on Danish music in the last third of the century.
ning of the 1960s between traditionalists and modernists with tonality/atonality as the characteristic dividing-line, never took root
In 1968 Karl Aage Rasmussen appeared so far to be a lone swallow
in the ‘68 generation’s music and that of the Nørgård-Nørholm ge-
whose demonstrative rejection of modernism and adherence to a
neration. The period was typified by a latitude and openness to ex-
new classicism could be regarded as youthful hubris. But he was
periment that meant that there was room for music spanning Karl
quickly followed by other young composers who emerged from
Aage Rasmussen’s Stravinsky-inspired compositions, which soon
unexpected places: from the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music on Fu-
incorporated elements of Ives and Mahler; Ole Buck’s (b. 1945)
nen, where Ib Nørholm was a composition teacher and Poul Ruders
chamber music with its stamp of American minimalism; Hans Abra-
(b. 1949) was his pupil; from the Department of Musicology at the
hamsen’s works, on the surface minimalistically simple, but in
University of Copenhagen, where Niels Rosing-Schow (b. 1954), Bo
structure often serially elaborated; Poul Ruders’ Liszt-inspired piano
Holten (b. 1948) and Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen (b. 1951) studied; and
music, whose formal world was quickly supplemented with influen-
from the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, where af-
ces from medieval music; Niels Rosing-Schow’s lyr ical song melo -
ter Vagn Holmboe’s departure (1965) as composition professor,
dies; Bo Holten’s Mahler-inspired instrumental music; and Carl
composition teaching had been re-established with among others
Bergstrøm-Nielsen’s experiments with “intuitive music”.
Niels Viggo Bentzon as a teacher, and where Hans Abrahamsen (b. 1952) was one of the students. These became the “‘68 generation”
Fraternization between tradition and renewal became a key con -
in Danish musical life.
cept in the understanding of Danish music in the 1970s. This is clearly manifested when one looks at the genres in which the mo-
It was in the air that the ‘68 generation would be rebellious, but no
dern composers chose to express themselves. Unlike the previous
radical youth revolution appeared in Danish music. There was a
decade’s “fragments”, whi ch signal a departure from the idea of
shortage of “enemies” to revolt against. Darmstadt modernism
the rounded and completed work of art, the classical titles sym-
was of course available as “the enemy”, but on the one hand it was
phony, string q uartet, sonata were now used with e ver-increasing
itself in the throes of a process of dissolution headed by Karlheinz
frequency. Per Nørgård composed his second and third sympho-
Stockhausen, who with a work like Stimmung (1968) associated
nies and began his fourth in the 1970s. Ib Nørholm’s Symphonies
himself with the hippie side of the youth revolution; on the other
Nos. 2, 3 and 4 with the titles Isola Bella, Day’s Nightmare and Mod-
hand there w ere no Darmstadt modernists left in Danish musical
skabelse (Countercreation) come from the same dec ade (1968-71,
life to defend the hard line.
1973 and 1978-79 respectively). Even Pelle GudmundsenHolmgreen – the most consistently modernist of the three leading
12
The elitist relationship of modern music to the public and society
Danish composers of the 1930s generation – used the designation
was another point of attack, and did in fact unite some young com-
“symphony” in the mid-1960s of a two-movement orchestral piece
(Symphony 1965, 1962-65), although he insisted that the word
Orchestra), Anton Kontra – became Denmarks’s first ‘national en-
symphony was to be understood in the original sense of “sounding
semble’ in 1989.
together”. And the three now older composers w ere followed by young symphonists like Steen Pade (b. 1956), who in 1980 presen-
These ensembles’ outstanding performances of Danish and inter-
ted a 10-minute Symphony No. 1 (1979) for large orchestra with tri-
national contemporary music were crucial in ensuring that the
ple woodwind and full brass complement.
fraternization was not limited to the circle of composers, but also extended to an ever-increasing number of musicians and listeners.
Along with the symphony – the representative orchestral work of the classical-romantic age – the string quartet also rose into favour again. The interest of the 1960s in the mixed chamber ensemble still continued, it is true, but the classical quartet was now cultivated by almost all composers. In this lies not only an assertion of their consciousness of the tradition, but also a signal of a change in the relationship between the modern composers and the musicians. The new music was often met with scepticism or antipathy by the performers in the musical world of the 1960s. It was perceived as anti-instrumental, which some of its more extreme experiments in fact were. It was very difficult to play, and the musicians sometimes had the feeling that its difficulties did not correspond to any precise auditory impression in the composer. This weakened the musicians’ confidence in the seriousness of the efforts that lay behind the written music, and their desire to spend time and energy realizing it. But in the course of the 1970s the musicians began to get a feeling for the qualities that existed in the new music, whi le at the same time the music became less inaccessible. A number of soloists – firebrands like the percussionist Suzanne Ibstrup and the cellist Jørgen Friisholm or the pianist Elisabeth Klein – and ensembles, some manned by the country’s leading orchestral musicians, made playing contemporary music a point of honour and commissioned, premiered and programmed works by Danish composers. Two ensembles took on particular importance in this respect: The Elsinore Players was a chamber ensemble led by Karl Aage Rasmussen and composed of musicians f rom the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra. It functioned as an ensemble-in-residence for the NUMUS festivals which started up in Aarhus in 1978 and quickly developed into the country’s leading festival of contemporary m usic and a festival of international format; and the Kontra Quartet – headed by the leader of the Sjællands Symfoniorkester (the Copenhagen Philharmonic
Hans Abrahamsen (1976-78) · Copyright © Edition Wilhelm Hansen AS, Copenhagen
13
14
15
16
I N SE A RC H O F LOST BE AU T Y If anyone stands centrally as the dominant figure in Danish musical
between the motivic development that had t ypified the l ate tonal
life in the second half of the twentieth c entury, it is Per Nørgård.
works before 1959 and the serial works from the ‘Fragment’ series.
Although he has formed no stylistic “school”, his influence has been
In this lay the seed of the “infinity series” that was to becomethe
enormous as an artist, cultural debater and forefront figure. This is
recurrent compositional element in Per Nørgård’s music from the
true not only in his own generation, where as primus inter pares with
end of the 1960s.
the composers Ib Nørholm, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Ax el Borup-Jørgensen (b. 1924) and several other slightly younger colle-
The infinity series was described above (page 6) as a serial version of
agues, he accomplished the new departure in Danish music; it is
the me tamorphosis technique. The background of this is that the
also true for the subsequent generations for whom Per Nørgård has
infinity series is a serial development of interval constellations that
been able to stand as an example without setting himself up as an
develop endlessly, and a hierarchical system that reproduces itself
artistic authority.
at d ifferent l evels such that the series reforms when for example
The reason this has been possible – besides a rare combination of
fulfils the conditions that Vagn Holmboe posited for the meta-
one plays every fourth note in the series. Thus the infinity series artistic talent and personal qualities – is that Per Nørgård has been
morphosis: it is new and yet the same, and thanks to its motivic
able in his output both to develop organically towards an incr eas-
character it contains the e lement of recognition that is associated
ingly comprehensive mastery of his art, and to demonstrate an
with the thematic metamorphosis.
openness and self-criticism that have permitted him to incorporate ever-new aspects in his work. This characteristic duality means that
The infinity series became a major theme in Per Nørgård’s works
Per Nørgård’s oeuvre falls into periods that are often demarcated
from the end of the 1960s with Voyage into the Golden Screen and
by crisis-like states in which the composer transforms doubt about
the one-movement Symphony No. 2 (1970, rev. 1971). But in these
what he has achieved so far into productive innovation.
works it emerged that the hierarchical element in the s eries transformed the polyphony th at Nørgård had developed in his earlier
It has already been mentioned how the encounter with internation-
works into a heterophony where the melodic material of the series
al modernism in the years 1959 and 1960 prompted doubts about
permeates all parts in shifting rhythmic lights. The feeling of unity
the sustaining power of the tradition and confinement to “the uni-
became too dominant. During the 1970s Per Nørgård tried to
verse of the Northern mind” that characterized Per Nørgård’s early
counter this problem by involving more elements in his compositi-
works, and at the end of the 1950s culminated in works like Sym-
onal technique: besides the infinity series, also the proportions of
phony N o. 1 Sinfonia austera (1954), Quartetto brioso (1953, rev.
the Golden Section, which guided the rhythmic element, and the
1959) and Constellations (1958) for 12 solo strings or 12 string
natural overtones, whi ch guided the harmony. With these elem-
groups. The result was a series of experiments with new formal con-
ents in play Nørgård w as able to create a music that reconquered
cepts – fragmentary form and collage – combined with serial
the lost beauty of the tonal works, since it ranged in sound from the
techniques that led to sonorically conceived works like the orche-
soft triads of major-minor harmony to modernism’s harsh disson-
stral pieces Iris and Luna and the prizewinning but later withdrawn
ances, as emerged in the opera Gilgamesh (1971-72, awarded the
orchestral work Fragment VI.
Nordic Council Music Prize in 1974) and in the series of works up to and including Symphony N o. 3 (1972-75). The culmination of this
The result of this development was twofold: on the one hand the
compositional development was the opera-ballet Siddharta (1974-
serial way of writing meant that Per Nørgård lost auditive contact
79, premiered in Sweden in 1983), which fully unfolded the potent-
with his music so that he was unable to recognize his intentions in
ial of this “hierarchical” music, but also demonstrated its limits: that
the finished work. On the other hand the study of the serial
is, the impo ssibility of trans cending the boundar ies that surround
techniques led to awareness of a technical compositional link
the totality, and looking at it critically from without. 17
This realization led to a new productive crisis in Per Nørgård’s development around 1980, when his preoccupation with the schizophrenic Swiss outsider artist Adolf Wölffli (1864-1930) inspired him to go beyond the confines of the hierarchical system. Symphony No. 4 Indischer Roosen Gaarten und Chineesischer Hexensee (1981) and the opera The Divine Circus (1982) showed him the way out of the crisis and paved the way for a productive period where the confrontation of chaos and cosmos – often symbolized in the concerto form’s opposition of the lone voice and the collectivity – becomes a central theme for Per Nørgård and is explored in a number of solo concertos for among other instruments violin and cello, up to Symphony No. 5 (1990). With the chamber opera Nuit d es hommes (1995-96, after Apollinaire) a new synthesis is ushered in, culminating so far in Symphony No. 6 At the End of the Day (1997-99), where the new techniques that were created during the Wölffli crisis and the older serial technique based on the infinity series are integrated into a unified complex that sho ws c haos and cosmos as two sides of the same coin, whi ch can be expressed in one artistic individuality. With this Per Nørgård stands as the Danish composer who more than any other has met the classical-romantic challenge of the universality of the symphony on a compositional basis that embraces both the permanent variation mediated on Nordic soil through Holmboe’s metamorphosis technique, and the lessons of serialism. 18
Per Nørgård, from Canon (1970-72). Two notations of the same music. Also see note on page 26 of this booklet. Copyright © Edition Wilhelm Hansen AS, Copenhagen
The 1980s
I N T E R NATI ON A L IZ AT I O N traditional position as the country’s musical capital, and this led to the establishment of specialized ensembles in Copenhagen for contemporary music: first and foremost the vocal group Ars Nova a n dt h e Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen. In the case of contemporary music it was especially the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus and the milieu around it that took on importance at the end of the 1960s and throughout the 1970s. But gradually it was joined by the Funen and North Jutland musical environments, where societies for contemporary music were formed and where new Danish music was included in the s yllabus that the music students read. In the course of the 1980s a generation of young musicians was trained for whom the performance of modern music formed part of their artistic equipment on an equal footing with the classical-romantic repertoire, and this in turn meant the formation of a number of ensembles which were either forced to specialize in contemporary music because of their instrumental configuration (as was the case with Storstrøms Kammerensemble, the Danish Chamber Players), or who on their own initiative gave contemporary music a central place in
Musikhuset Aarhus · Photo: Jacob & Weiland, Århus
their repertoire.
The decentralization of Danish musical life, along with the Act on the
Thus the background had been created for the spread of the new
National Arts Foundation, made up one of the most important
music to a wider public all over the country, and in this process the
music policy measures in the Denmark of the 1960s, and it was fol-
festival of con temporary music was to prove an important instru-
lowed up by the Music Act of 1976. As mentioned before, the de-
ment. Around the country there arose festivals which – typically
centralization meant that the municipally funded city orchestras of
held in the summer – were primarily addressed to audiences of lo-
Odense, Aarhus and Aalborg were made regional orchestras (i.e.
cal residents and visiting guests, and which were based on the usu-
with state subsidies) for Funen and Central and North Jutland
ally voluntary administr ative efforts of individual enthusiasts, and
respectively, while the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra was made the re-
often on modest financial support from district and county
gional orchestra for Zealand and a South Jutland regional orchestra
authorities and local sponsors.
was established. This led in turn to the establishment of modern, well-appointed music houses with large concert halls in a number of
Some of these festivals chose contemporary music as their special
cities – first and foremost Aarhus and Odense. This tendency to sup-
characteristic: first and foremost the NUMUS festivals in Aarhus and
port the local musical environment continued over the next few de-
the Lerchenborg Music Days (at the estate of Lerchenborg outside
cades with the establishment of mixed chamber ensembles in Es-
Kalundborg), which combined workshops for young Danish com-
bjerg, Randers/Viborg and Storstrøm County and with the founding
posers with visits by ensembles from a succession of countries such
of state-supported music schools in a number of local authorities all
as Poland, Holland, Finland or Japan. Along with the Carl Nielsen
over the country. Copenhagen had to make an effort to retain its
Academy’s festival “Music Harvest” and the establishment by the 19
Danish Composers’ Society of a Composers’ Biennale and the open-
began to make a name abroad: first and foremost in Europe, where
ing of an alternative opera (Den Anden Opera, The Other Ope ra) in
works by Per Nørgård, Poul Ruders, Karl Aage Rasmussen, Hans
Copenhagen this meant that the interfaces between musicians and
Abrahamsen, Bent Lorentzen (b. 1935), Bent Sørensen (b. 1958) or
public were substantially increased in number.
Anders Nordentoft (b. 1960) were performed and incr easingly recorded on CD, whi le the opera theatres in Kiel and Munich as early
For the generation of young composers who joined the ranks of contemporary
as the 1960s and 1970s had performed Bent Lorentzen’s electronic
music in the
chamber
operas
Die
Musik
1980s, the festivals became ral-
kommt mir äusserst bekannt vor
lying-points where composers
(1974) and Eine wunderbare Lie-
could on the one hand meet or-
besgeschichte (1979), and lead-
dinary concert-goers from differ-
ing concert-givers such as NDR,
ent parts of the country and on
the Berlin Philharmonic and the
the other hand meet one anot-
BBC
her in seminars and workshops.
respectively with Per Nørgård
placed
commissions
The feeling of belonging to a
(Symphony No. 4), Hans Abra-
small sectariangroup which was
hamsen (the orchestral work
at odds with the broad, music-
Nacht und Trompeten, 1981) and
loving public was replaced by the
Poul Ruders (Symphony No. 1
sense of growing public accept-
Himmelhoch jauchzend – zum
ance. And the recurring meet-
Tode betrübt, 1989, and the or-
ings with composer colleagues
chestral work Concerto in Pieces
and musicians from other parts
with the subtitle Purcell Variat-
of the country created a broad
ions, 1994-95). But by now the
national environment that coun-
USA and Latin America too were
teracted
calling for Danish music and
the
formation
of
“schools” and rivalry among the
Danish composers like Bent Lo-
various regions’ academies and
rentzen and Anders Nordentoft,
ensembles.
and attracting composers like Ivar Frounberg (b. 1950), who
The festivals were also to mean
studied with Morton Feldman.
an opening-up of Danish musical
The 1980s was the decade when
life to countries abroad. A num-
Danish
ber of prominent international
goodbye
composers such as Stockhausen, Berio, Ligeti, Xenakis, Takemitsu,
Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Spejlstykke III (1980)* Copyright © The Society for the Publication of Danish Music (Copenhagen)
music
really
to
provincial
sufficiency
and
waved
sought
selfout
international company.
Henze or Gubaidulina became the headline names at Danish festivals, and many of them per-
20
sonally attended the festivals and held lectures and master classes
*Note that th e Spejlstykker score calls for a “prepared” piano; consequently, the
for composition students. At the same time Danish composers also
piano part should not be expected to sound quite as notated in the illustration above
CO NST RU CT I V IS M A N D CL A S SI C IS M Along with the internationalization of Danish musical life one can
developments. This process, which in the 1960s and 1970s was
also note an incipient synthesis of the modernist and the classicist
especially manifested in a breaking-down of the musical tradition
tendencies that had typified Danish music in the two preceding de-
into expressive “slag”, proved at the end of the 1970s and in the
cades. Modernism, which looked set to be ousted by ‘Simplicity’ in
1980s to be a fertilization of newly-cleared land. There was room
the 1970s, made itself felt again as a constructivist element in com-
and potential for larger works with more contrastful and complex
positional technique, revealing its links with serial thinking. The
developments and a wider expressive spectrum.
directly expressive element – whether conveyed by a lyrical melodic line or by quotations and stylistic borrowings from the
Gudmundsen-Holmgreen’s breakthrough work in this respect was
music of earlier times – was underpinned by a structural awareness
the two-piece orchestral work Symphony, Antiphony (1974-77),
that integrated expression in the compositional unfolding of the
which was the second Danish work ever to win the prestigious
material in the individual work.
Nordic Council Music Pr ize in 1980, and which demonstrated that Gudmundsen-Holmgreen had now developed his constructivist
One cannot say whether this development was a result of or a pre-
basis so much that he could reformulate the classical genres.
condition of the internationalization. It was very likely both, in a
Symphony, Antiphony was followed up by other “classical” works,
reciprocal process which must be viewed in the context of the im-
with string quartets and a clarinet trio as the most striking, and this
proved working conditions that the National Arts Foundation h ad
development was crowned with Gudmundsen-Holmgreen’s new
given Danish composers since the mid-’60s with three-year grants
interpretation of the Baroque concerto form in Concerto grosso
to young composers and working scholarships which provided the
(1990) for string quartet and symphonic ensemble – a major work
potential for in-depth study and inspired competition with compo-
in contemporary Danish music and a work where compositional
sitional quality as the criterion of success.
consistency and expressive freedom unite in an original and characteristic sound-world.
The synthesis of constructivism and classicism left its mark on a whole generation of young composers with names li ke the first to
In 1981 Ib Nørholm took over the chair of composition at the Royal
establish themselves – Karl Aage Rasmussen, Poul Ruders and Hans
Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, vacant since Vagn Holm-
Abrahamsen – and those who arrived in the 1980s – Bent Sørensen,
boe’s departure (1965), and this became an important factor in the
Ivar Frounberg, Bo Holten and Karsten Fundal (b. 1966) – as some of
restoration of the balance between Copenhagen and Aarhus in the
the most striking. And it was characteristic of the further develop-
Danish composing courses. For Nørholm simplicity had involved an
ment of two of the older composers, Ib Nørholm and Pelle Gu d-
element of return to the time before modernism with its direct,
mundsen-Holmgreen, who had both been standard-bearers in the
spontaneous expressiveness. This r eactualized the classical genres
reorientation of the 1960s, but who had reacted quite differently to
and forms that had borne the brunt of modernism’s criticism be-
the turn towards the New Simplicity around 1970.
cause of their claim to a unified, universal expression; and among
In principle Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen was probably closer to
quartet and the symphony.
these especially the two most burdened by tradition: the string the Ame rican modernism of John Cage and the early minimalists than to the Darmstadt school with Stockhausen’s and Boulez’ seri-
With the orchestral suite with the telling title After Icarus opus 39
alism. Simplicity w as not contrasted with modernism, and for him
(1967) as a first attempt, in the years 1968-71 he returned to the
modernism was associated with the grotesque and absurd in a pur-
symphony with Symphony No. 2 Isola Bella opus 50 (1968-71),
gation process that peeled old expressive clichés from the musical
where texts by the Danish poet Poul Borum (1934-1996) surround
material and tried to penetrate to an objective expression that
a symmetrical form whose architec ture is inspired by the experi-
could be elaborated constructivistically in clear, goal-oriented
ence of terraced gardens at Lake Maggiore. Isola Bella was the 21
starting-point for a symphonic output which from the 1970s up to
ivism and postmodern classicism that was to become a major cur-
the end of the 1990s places Ib Nørholm as the perpetuator of the
rent in Danish music in the last decades of the twentieth century.
Carl Nielsen and Vagn Holmboe tradition in tune with the changed post-war ae sthetic and compositional norms in music. Characteristically all these works have titles that suggest a poetic content or a programme, which in Symphonies Nos. 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 is deepened in texts that may be elaborated into large, cantata-like forms as in Symphony No. 4 Modskabelse opus 76 (Countercreation, 1978-79) or may stand as isolated elements of song or recitation in an otherwise instrumental totality as in Symphony No. 8 Tro og længsel opus 114 (Faith and Longing, 1990). It would however be misleading to regard the symphonies as programme symphonies in the Romantic sense, where the music expounds the text. The texts, along with the composer’s programme notes, are an attempt to maintain immediate
auditive
accessibility
through often complex structural developments which combine classical form traditions with inspiration from literary s ources such as Dostoevski’s novels, and incorporate constructivist elements such as twelvetone technique from the modernist universe. In this way both Pelle GudmundsenHolmgreen and Ib Nørholm underwent stylistic evolutions in the course of the ’80s that approached the synthesis of modernist construct22
Karl Aage Rasmussen (1977) · Copyright © Edition Wilhelm Hansen AS, Copenhagen
The 1990s The sense of a Danish musical life that marches – if not together and
T E N D E N C IE S OF THE T IM ES The perc eption of time is an important e lement in Per Nørgård’s
in step, then at least towards a common goal – that might have
opera Siddharta, where Act One is played out in a mythological time
struck the observer in the 1980s cannot be maintained in the
which in Act Two is narrowed down to a realistic time, while Act
1990s. A new generation has arrived, the older composers have de-
Three unfolds in an augmented time where the moment of truth,
veloped in different directions, and this leaves the impression of an
when Prince Siddharta becomes aware of the illusion around him
incipient splitting into different camps. The contrasts are sharpen-
and begins his transformation into the Buddha, is spun into a long
ed between a modernism that becomes more uncompromising in
musical sequence lasting o ver 10 minutes. This immersion in the
its quest for artistic truths and chooses expressive forms that conti-
now, which involves both the memory of the past and presenti-
nue the radical experiments of the 1960s, and a conservative, clas-
ments of the future, was for Per Nørgård the point of departure for
sically minded direction th at seems more interested in consolidat-
the new composition techniques which, with the establishment of
ing the advances that the synthesis of the ’70s and ’80s brought.
the so called “tone lakes”, made the experience of time into a central element in his works of the 1980s.
One reason for this stylistic differentiation is the institutionalization and professionalization of the so-called “rhythmic” (i.e. mainly jazz
It was however Karl Aage Rasmussen’s works from the 1980s – first
and rock) music c ourses with the establishment of the Rhythmic
and foremost his string quartets and A Symphony in Tim e (1982) –
Music Conservatory in Copenhagen and the incorporation of
which most strikingly shifted the time dimension into the fore-
rhythmic music in the courses of the provincial academies, where in
ground in contemporary Danish music.
particular the Academy in Aarhus with one and later two rhythmic departments, and in Odense with the development of a special per-
In the 1970s Karl Aage Rasmussen had cultivated the musical com-
former course, were of great importance. This breaks down the
mentary in the form of “meta-music”: musical works that incorpor-
classical academy courses’ de facto monopoly of the training of
ated existing music as quotations of re-composed existing musical
composers, and young people with an education in the rhythmic
works. The immediate inspiration was Charles Ives’ use of quotat-
genres are beginning to work as composers of scored music.
ions and Stravinsky’s Neoclassical works, but the field was expanded to include Berio’s recomposition of the third movement of
However, across the differentiation and contrasts there are also re-
Mahler’s Second Symphony (in Berio’s Sinfonia from 1968/69),
curring tendencies that typify the decade; tendencies that affect
which lies behind Karl Aage Rasmussen’s chamber music work
both the compositional and aesthetic basis of contemporary music,
Berio Mask (1977), or Schoenberg’s reworking of Monn’s Cello Con-
and which make their impact on the composers’ relationships with
certo, which underlies Karl Aage Rasmussen’s cello concerto Con-
their audiences and their choice of genres.
trafactum (1980). This technique released the composer from working directly with problems of form, because the form of the
One of these tendencies has to do with the perception of the con -
musical work was often given by the existing works which were the
cept of time, understood as the basic material of which music is
point of departure for the composition.
formed. The idea that music can be vi ewed as sounding or audible time is well known, and the realization that time can have different
And as early as the beginning of the 1970s Karl Aage R asmussen
intensities played a crucial role in musical aesthetics throughout
had worked directly with the formal problems related to the com-
the twentieth century: fromthe French philosopherHenri Bergson’s
position of larger instrumental works: at first the concept of the
distinction between measured and experienced time up to
rounded work, with its requirement that a work should begin and
Stockhausen’s merging of r hythm and pitch into one time contin-
undergo a development that justifies its ending. The result of this
uum in the article “...wie die Zeit vergeht...” (1959), which was a
was the symphony Anfang und Ende (1970-73), which for Karl Aage
ground-breaking contribution to the aesthetics of serialism.
Rasmussen brought home the issue of what kind of time it is that 23
runs from beginning to end. Is it a dynamic, linear time in which
ominously close. Bent Sørensen, who in 1996 received the Nordic
premonitions become expectations which are fulfilled and create
Council Music Prize, developed this tendency in the course of the
new expectations until the sequence is completed in the classical-
1990s in a series of large works like the violin concerto Sterbende
romantic tradition? Or is it a static time composed of isolated mo-
Gärten (1992-93, the work that won him the Nordic prize ) and the
ments with no internal logical necessity (as is the case in that
piano concerto La Notte (1996-98).
particular modern tradition which, starting with Debussy, culminates in John Cage)?
The other important tendency that should be mentioned here is the increasing preoccupation with musical drama that made a strong
Karl Aage Rasmussen formulated his ans wer to the se questions in
impact in the 1990s. This is hardly a matter of the composers
the orchestral work A Symphony in Time. He chose a split time where
“discovering” music drama, b ut of the surroundings registering a
the dynamic, linear time sequence lies as a precondition, and where
need for newly-written Danish music drama – especially in the form
the possibilities of facing off different and conflicting experiences of
of chamber operas, but also in the direction of more experimental
time against one another in a contrapuntal play are exploited as a
forms of music theatre and even large, institution-demanding full-
form-constituting element, so that parts of different movements
length operas. This need is related to the n ationwide expansion of
are assembled amongst one another like retrospects or prefigurat-
the professional music training courses, as has been mentioned
ions. The timeline is broken so that the listener is time and time
above. The five Danish state academies of music train substantially
again made to doubt where in the sequence he actually is, and
more singers and instrumentalists than the established operas,
experiences that non-simultaneous events are presented at the
choirs and orchestras can absorb, and cannot export talent to a
same time or in the “wrong” order.
European market already overfilled after the economic breakdown
The study of Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920)
mass of talent that has to find new paths and create new institut-
along with a reassessment of Stravinsky’s later, Neoclassical works
ions to make an im pact in the competition, and which is making a
were crucial to this development, which is also found among a
striking mark i np erformances of newly written Danish music drama.
of Eastern Europe. Thus in the m usical area Denmark disposes of a
number of Karl Aage Rasmussen’s contemporaries and younger colleagues. This was reinforced by the feeling that the modern IT age
Thanks to this development Danish composers have been in the en-
with its scope for zapping around among different times and places
viable situation that they have been able to compose operas for li-
via the Internet and satellite TV wrenches the o bserver out of the
mited ensembles with a high professional standard, and have been
accustomed time continuum and confronts him with unman-
able to count on having them performed by enthusiastic artists for
ageable choices.
a public whose interest in several cases has necessitated revivals and new productions of works already performed. One cannot
The time dimension and the compositional work with different
24
speak of any stylistic or even aesthetic common denominator am-
“time layers” which presents non-simultaneous events at the same
ong these new musicodramatic works, but there is probably a ten-
time became recurrent features in the Danish music of the 1980s
dency for the more conservatively minded and outward-looking
and 1990s – for example in Ivar Frounberg’s computer composit-
composers to be particularly interested in the opera genre. The
ions, which combine inspiration from fractal geometry and spectral
stylistic quotation – sometimes also the quotation proper – has
music; but probably most strikingly in Bent Sørensen’s works – in -
been an often-used characterization resource, whether it has been
spired by Brian Ferneyhough – like the string quartets Adieu (1986)
used in a subtle, artistic collage to express the black humour in Na-
and Angels’ Music (1988) and the chamber music work The Deserted
bokov’s ironic-critical depictions of modern society, as Tage Nielsen
Churchyards (1990), which combine fascination with the past and
has done in his chamber opera Laughter in the Dark(1986-91), or on
decay with time shifts that make the experience of decay seem
a more abstract basis, as Bo Holten does in the music for the Danish
performance theatre Hotel Pro Forma’s abstract retelling of the
“omnipresence of times” dramatically with flashback scenes which
Orpheus myth, Operation : Orfeo (1993), where music by John Cage
break up the continuity of the action. Musically he expresses it with
and the Renaissance composer Hassler is confronted with a quotat-
gospel singing and with stylistic quotations from the Protestant
ion from Orpheus’ famous lament from Gluck’s opera and with B o
hymns and choral settings of the Baroque, which associate the fun-
Holten’s own major-minor-sounding music.
damentalist future regime in Gilead with the religious sects of America’s past, and which stand in unreconciled contrast with the
The culmination of this development, which involves a large num-
clearand expressive idio mt hat makes up theopera’s musica lp resent.
ber of composers such as Lars Klit (b. 1965), John Frandsen (b. 1956) or Andy Pape (b. 1955) and productions, many of them due
Thereisthusameetingofthetwomaintendenciesthatcharacterized
to The Other Opera in Copenhagen, was the Royal Danish Theatre’s
contemporaryDanish compositionmusicat theendof thecentury in
commissioning of Poul Ruders’ full-length opera The Handmaid’s
Poul Ruder’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Theopera at once stands as a mo-
Tale, premiered in the year 2000. For the first time since the Danish
numental rounding-off of an eventfuland fruitful epoch in Danish
premiere of Per Nørgård’s opera-ballet Siddharta in 1987 the
musicallife,andwithits socialcommitmentandits stylisticopenness
national theatre produced a modern Danish opera with full orche-
represents a challenge to the compositionmusic ofthe newcentury.
stra, chorus and soloists, which called for and exploited all the modern operatic theatre’s artistic and technical resources. And the composer utilized these resources to give striking musicodramatic expression to the split sensation of time that is characteristic of the most recent Danish music. The Handmaid’s Tale (1997-98) is based on the Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood’s futuristic novel of the same name, which, starting with a scholarly conference in the year 2195, provides a historical retrospect of a fundamentalistic republic which was established after a military coup in the USA in the year 2002. The Republic of Gilead is ruled in accordance with the Mosaic Law and a central element is the story in Genesis of the childless Rachel, who asks her husband Jacob to impregnate her handmaid, so that “she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her”. There are thus three different times at play in the opera: the remote past as viewed from the frame story; the close past in the Republic of Gilead itself after the year 2002; and the Handmaid’s own past in the USA, which corresponds chronologically to the present in which the opera is performed. These three times are mixed in the production, where one sees both the handmaid and her younger self with the husband and five-year-old daughter who disappeared during the coup. And they merge together when the Commandant’s bar ren wife plays video tapes from her own past as a revivalist preacher and gospel singer on TV. Poul Ruders represents this 25
Illustrations Also see cover, page 2, and pages 4, 7, 16, 20, and 25
the j oy of children, h ousewives and old-age p ension-
metric version (bottom). Wilhelm Hansen E dition No.
WH: short for Edition Wilhelm Hansen AS, Copenhagen
ers) invites several interpretations
4267 comes with both versions and a long preface. The
Page 3 Mogens Zieler (1905-1983), dr awing (1952).
Page 11 (bottom, right) From a photograph taken by
of ‘golden’ rhythms, whereas the metric notation faci-
Reproduced from the cover of the Zieler book (1960) in
Jørn Freddie at the Louisiana M useum of Modern Ar t
litates practising in solfeggio
the series Grafisk orientering. Reproduced by kind per-
(Humlebæk, Denmark) during a Collegium Musicum
proportional notation is best suited to indicate the use
mission of Hans Reitzels Forlag and Mogens Zielers
concert in May 1960; detail r eproduced by kind per-
Page 19 Musikhuset Aarhus, the ‘House of Music’ in
Fond; original at Horsens Kunstmuseum
mission of Mr Freddie and the Museum. Shown are (left
Denmark’s second-largest city; reproduced from a
to right) the conductor Lavard Friisholm, the composer
colour transparency kindly supplied by Musikhuset.
and pianist Niels Viggo Bentzon, the pianist Georg
Inaugurated on 27 August 1982, this beautiful building
the Inscape entry on page 131 in Per Nørgårds kom-
Vásárhelyi (b.1915), and the composer and pianist
is the home of the Aarhus Sym phony Orc hestra, Den
positioner, the catalogue published by WH in 1983; all
Herman D. Koppel. They are acknowledging the ap-
Jyske Opera (The Danish National Opera, not to be
four instruments use scordatura. String Quar tet No. 3
plause after a performance of Bentzon’s Chamber
confused with The Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen)
Page 6 (top) Per Nørgård's own manuscript incipit for
was premiered at Lerchenborg and is published by WH.
Concerto opus 52 (1948), the first page of which is
and DIEM, the Danish Institute for Electroacoustic
- (bottom) First page of Vagn Holmboe's String Quartet
shown to the left of the photo. - The music shown in the
Music; Musikhuset also p rovides the main venue f or
No. 10 opus 102 (1969), the work being discussed in
upper right-hand corner of the page is the conclusion of
the annual NUMUS Festival
the Lerchenborg photograph shown on page 6. - Holm-
the fir st m ovement of Koppel’s Divertimento p asto-
boe's Mellemspil book, quoted in the body text, is pub-
rale opus 61 (1955; published by Samfundet til U dgi-
Pag e2 0 Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, from Spejl-
lished by WH; Mellemspil means Interlude or In terlu-
velse af Dansk Musik) for oboe, viola, and cello; the
stykker (Mirror Pieces, 1980), the last movement of three
des, and the subtitle means Three Musical Aspects
tempo is Allegro moderato
Page 8 Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, from Eksem-
Page 13 Hans Abrahamsen, from the first movement
Page 22 pler (Examples, 1970; published by WH), six songs for
of Winternacht (1976-78; published by WH); the
script reproduced here is n ot in the composer’s hand.
mixed choir a cappella. The illustration shows the
tempo is Andante flu ente. The first and fourth m ove-
The tempo is quaver = 132
shortest genuine musical composition in Nordic choral
ments are dedicated to Trakl, while the second is dedi-
literature; like the preceding Examples, this sixth and
cated to Escher, and the third to Stravinsky
Cover, page 3 (opposite) Per Nørgård, the concluding two systems of the score for Symphony No. 6 At the
last song may be performed independently, all five-odd beautiful s econds of it. The ba sses s peak, the tenors
Page 14 Per Nørgård, Du skal plante et træ(You Shall
End of the Day, written in 1997-99 with a view to its
whisper, and altos and sopranos sing together on one
Plant a Tree, 1967) for choir a cappella (version for 4-
being premiered on 6 January 2000 at a Danish Broad-
quiet note; the poem thus set to music is by Charlotte
part mixed choir shown here; versions for other config-
casting Corporation Torsdagskoncert in Copenhagen;
Strandgaard (b. 1943) and consists of one simple state-
urations also exist); the poem is by Piet H ein (1905-
these regular Thursday evening concerts, usually
ment to the effect that “On the t re et here hangs a leaf”
1996). This song is dedicated to Finn Høffding and has
played at the Danish Radio C oncert Hall and always
Page 9
Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, first p age of
also made Nørgård’s name known in circles not
broadcast live, maintain their position as the most im-
otherwise familiar with his music
portant series of symphonic-music programmes offer-
Page 15 The first of 4 lydmønstre (4 Sound Patterns,
Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Oslo
ed in Denmark. The work was commissioned by the
the orchestral score for Tricolore IV (1969) Page 10 Palle Nielsen (1920-2000), the last drawing
1971) for speaking choir a cappella: experimental
Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Gothenburg Sym-
of sixteen India-ink drawings constituting the series
music that Borup-Jørgensen wrote for and ever so
phony Orchestra together. The symphony is published
Det magiske spejl (The Magical Mirror, 1950). Repro-
painstakingly and gently r ehearsed with the Kalund-
by WH; the reproduction shown in the illustration was
duced from ‘Palle Nielsen: København’ (Brøndums
borg Kamm erkor (a provincial am ateur c hoir) at the
made from a preliminary print d ating from December
Forlag, 1997); reproduced by kind permission of Mr
very first Lerchenborg Workshop in 1972
1999; the tempo is crotchet = 144. At the very end of this impressive 32-minute symphony, the percussion
Hans Jør gen Brøndum and Mrs Elsa Nielsen. The sign
26
Karl Aage Rasmussen, from Berio Mask
(1977; prin ted s core a vailable fr om WH). The manu-
on the wall s ays, ‘No music allowed in the courtyard’.
Page 18 Per Nørgård, stages 5 and 6 in Cycle 1 of Ca-
quietly heralds a new beginning, only to be topped by a
In the context of the present booklet, the sad fate of the
non (1970-72; published by WH) for organ, shown in
muttered aside from the first trombone – and then
organ grin der (with his carefree and clear-cut tun es,
the original proportional version (top) and in the
silence, suddenly pregnant with music to come
Per Nørgård (1997-99) · Copyright © Edition Wilhelm Hansen AS, Copenhagen
w w w. m ic.dk YOUR FIRST GATEWAY TO DANISH MUSIC AND MUSIC IN DENMARK
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