Unsung Composers

 
   Thank you very much britishcomposer, for Svendsen's Cello concerto.
   I like Svendsen's violin concerto very much.
   I listen his cello first time.
   I will enjoy to listen it :D


   A.S
   
 

Yes, thanks for the Svendsen.  It is (like many CCs of the time) a one movement work, so I was wondering if you have any tempo indications for the sections.

Cello concerto of Svendsen (http://imslp.org/wiki/Cello_Concerto,_Op.7_%28Svendsen,_Johan%29) reduced score-

Allegro (qu=144) - Andante (qu=76) - Tempo I.

Kind of figured that Tempo I bit.

Thanks, Eric.  ;D

  Thank you very much Holger.
  I failed to record this broadcast.
  And I've been looking forward to listen.


  Regards

   A.S
 

This version of Svendsen's cello concerto features on my old reel-to-reel tapes, in a box somewhere in the house. How marvellous to hear it again after all these years. Thank you. Members are so generous. When time and health allow, I must digitize whatever has survived on the tapes and do some uploading myself - mostly ex-BBC Radio 3, 1970s and 80s, including a few FBPs, and some rather obscure composers.

Thanks A.S, for the Winter-Hjelm. I had this on an old NKD LP and made a digital copy. Not great music, but a very pleasant listen.

have heard the Winterhjelm on the radio but not recently and have wanted to hear it again. Thank you!

  Thank you all.
 
  This work is good nordic style symphony, in my view.


   A.S

Many thanks for the Tveitt Symphony! An amazing cloudburst of orchestral colours. I like Tveitts Music very much, its a tragedy, that so many works of him were lost in the fire.

Any chance of the original recording of Klaus Egge's great Symphony No 1, which I think is even better that the Karsten Andersen recording on Phillips (now on a Aurora CD)?

  Dear Members

  Who anyone have recording of  Gjerstrøm, Gunnar (1891-1951) 's Piano concerto?

  Piano Concerto No. 1 in f (1930)
  Piano Concerto No. 2 "Sjøstemninger" [By the Sea] (1936)

  I hope to listen these long time.


  Best

  A.S

re the Winter-Hjelm by the way, one of his symphonies was performed in Berlin in 1863 according to NZM (Neue Zeitschrift für Musik) (p125 v58) - not sure if anyone has a good chronology of the dates of the two of them, but I know I like to have that sort of information in my iTunes data just because (geeky dork that I am etc.) when I can (or just like to know such things). I don't know which of the two of his symphonies that was, actually... the report just said symphony (in German) and when I wrote that down years back I'd never heard of him, and while I may have heard his 2nd symphony on the radio then I didn't make the connection (my notes have a ? by his name. Yes, I do have all these notes from library visits awhile back of things from NZM concert reports and thelike *oops* - an older magazine, Allgemeine Musik Zeitung, is partially online at google books now with much information of a similar kind in some ways better etc. - and erm... way offtopic and anyway.)

Any chance of the Gruner-Hegge recording of Klaus Egge's Symphony No 1?

Have other members had problems with Atsushi's recent Norwegian uploads, too?
Kaspersky Internet Security didn't allow me to download the Groven-Egge file, said it was somehow dangerous or virus infected.

  Oou! What?

  I checked my uploads contents.
  But my computer didn't found virus.
  How about other members?


  Atsushi

If no one else had a problem I will accept it as a strange peculiarity of my Anti-Virus-Software and (sadly) do without this particular download.  ;)

could be a "mimetype" thing...

It is truly excellent to now be able to hear Klaus Egge's Symphony No.5 :) (thanks, once again, to shamokin)

With the Symphony No.3 "Louisville Symphony" available for download from Amazon that gives us a complete set of the Egge symphonies. Egge was another fine Norwegian composer missing out to date on an integral symphonic set.

Strange that BIS was prepared to record all the Saeverud symphonies yet won't do the same for their own Hilding Rosenberg :o

Quote from: britishcomposer on Thursday 15 September 2011, 21:35
Klaus Egge (1906-1979)

Symphony No. 1 Lagnadstonar Op 17 (1942)

Filharmoniska sällskapets orkester, Oslo.
Odd Grüner-Hegge, conducting (1958)

Broadcast by Swedish Radio SR2 on 19 July 2011, Egge's birthday.
According to vandermolen this recording was released by Phillips on LP but has never been released on CD.

http://www.mediafire.com/?8bh0k1v3snmjkfs (http://www.mediafire.com/?8bh0k1v3snmjkfs)

Thanks so much for downloading this - the best recorded performance of a great work. Actually it was the Karsten Andersen, Bergen version which appeared on Phillips (now on an Aurora CD). The Gruner-Hegge was once available on a Norwegian HMV LP but never on CD.

Quote from: Holger on Sunday 31 July 2011, 09:31
On request, I have uploaded a recording of Geirr Tveitt's Symphony No. 1, subtitled "Christmas Eve". Ole Wiggo Bang is conducting the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.
http://www.mediafire.com/?m0ekqzce1ar3zh4 (http://www.mediafire.com/?m0ekqzce1ar3zh4)

The recording is taken from the radio, that's clearly not in best sound quality but the piece is magnificent in my view, though it's certainly not a symphony in the conventional sense. It shows Tveitt's extraordinary command of colours and atmosphere and it would be very much worth a modern recording if you ask me.

Regards,
Holger

!

This was the perfect gift for the holiest of days...thanks for posting it. I love Tveitt's music.

Quote from: Amphissa on Sunday 18 December 2011, 23:55
Johan Svendsen
Norwegian Folksong Suite

Moscow Radio Symphony
Nicolai Golovanov, conductor

From a 1949,  7" 78 RPM record D 00794

Amphissa, I suppose the piece is called 'Norwegian Folksong Suite' on the LP, however the exact title is:

Ifjol gjætt' e gjeitinn (Last year I was tending the goats), Op. 31 (1874)

I think this is a music title that would not sell many records in the U.S. haha

Many thanks for the uploads of music by Monrad-Johansen - interesting music and a totally new name to me.  :)

This must be the week for unpleasant composers, though, having had uploads of music by John Powell, because according to Wiki:

During the German occupation of Norway in the course of World War II, Johansen supported the collaborationist government of Vidkun Quisling, and during the period of 1942-1945 was a member of the Nazi-appointed Kulturting (Cultural Council).

Thank you so much for the Symphonic Fantasy by Monrad-Johansen, Sicmu!  :D :D :D
My recording from a broadcast was done in 1994 I think and I know the work quite well - apart from the last minute: due to the news broadcast they had faded out after about 18 minutes. Wonderful to have this complete after so many years!  ;D

Quote from: semloh on Wednesday 11 January 2012, 09:54
Many thanks for the uploads of music by Monrad-Johansen - interesting music and a totally new name to me.  :)

This must be the week for unpleasant composers, though, having had uploads of music by John Powell, because according to Wiki:

During the German occupation of Norway in the course of World War II, Johansen supported the collaborationist government of Vidkun Quisling, and during the period of 1942-1945 was a member of the Nazi-appointed Kulturting (Cultural Council).

Yep and Gesualdo was a murderer but I like him a lot ! Like Pettersson I don't think music makes people better.

I also have an overture by Groven and a piece by Svendsen from the same LP if anybody is interested ( The Symphony by Egge is available on CD).

Quote from: semloh on Wednesday 11 January 2012, 09:54
Many thanks for the uploads of music by Monrad-Johansen - interesting music and a totally new name to me.  :)

This must be the week for unpleasant composers, though, having had uploads of music by John Powell, because according to Wiki:

During the German occupation of Norway in the course of World War II, Johansen supported the collaborationist government of Vidkun Quisling, and during the period of 1942-1945 was a member of the Nazi-appointed Kulturting (Cultural Council).

And that's the reason his son took his mothers name, Kvandal.

Quote from: Sicmu on Wednesday 11 January 2012, 15:40

Yep and Gesualdo was a murderer but I like him a lot ! Like Pettersson I don't think music makes people better.

And yet the claim that the arts 'improves' people is often used to persuade governments and businesses to provide fundng, and appears quite often in academic literature on the value of the arts. If the arts are purely for personal pleasure and don't change us as people then they are no better than watching a favourite sport - a game of football, say, or a darts match.  I'm sure Colin's son's reaction to the Gothic was more than that. Doesn't 'good' music educate our emotions, heighten our sensibilities, and illuminate our understanding of life, love, death, existence and all those metaphysical things which - some might claim - are beyond words? This is certainly what many claim, not least the afficianados of opera, including, and perhaps especially, the operas of Wagner.

Maybe there's a difference between these arguments as they apply to composers and as they apply to listeners...

Hmmm...  it's a complicated issue. ::)

Nephew.  You mean Colin's nephew.

Quote from: JimL on Thursday 12 January 2012, 00:55
Nephew.  You mean Colin's nephew.

To be strictly accurate greatnephew ;D He is the grandson of my late brother.

Quote from: Dundonnell on Thursday 12 January 2012, 02:00

Quote from: JimL on Thursday 12 January 2012, 00:55
Nephew.  You mean Colin's nephew.

To be strictly accurate greatnephew ;D He is the grandson of my late brother.

Yes, indeed!

I have apologized to Colin directly and, being the gentleman he is, I know that will suffice.  :)

My brain isn't what it was!!  ;D ;D

Quote from: semloh on Thursday 12 January 2012, 05:50

Quote from: Dundonnell on Thursday 12 January 2012, 02:00

Quote from: JimL on Thursday 12 January 2012, 00:55
Nephew.  You mean Colin's nephew.

To be strictly accurate greatnephew ;D He is the grandson of my late brother.

Yes, indeed!

I have apologized to Colin directly and, being the gentleman he is, I know that will suffice.  :)

My brain isn't what it was!!  ;D ;D

I may be getting a touch of the juvenile Alzheimers meself!  ;)

Quote from: semloh on Thursday 12 January 2012, 05:50

Quote from: Dundonnell on Thursday 12 January 2012, 02:00

Quote from: JimL on Thursday 12 January 2012, 00:55
Nephew.  You mean Colin's nephew.

To be strictly accurate greatnephew ;D He is the grandson of my late brother.

Yes, indeed!

I have apologized to Colin directly and, being the gentleman he is, I know that will suffice.  :)

My brain isn't what it was!!  ;D ;D

We all make mistakes ;D ;D

Can anyone actually hear the Egge 5th?

[I have moved this from the Downloads board. PLEASE post replies without links in this board NOT in the Downloads board itself, which is only for download links. Mark]

Shamokin did say when he uploaded the Egge 5th that it was not in "outstanding sonics". The recording is pretty quiet but I can hear it with the volume turned well up. Not that I find it a very interesting or ingratiating work ;D Egge's late change in style is not really to my taste.

I have posted Jiedna for Soprano and Orchestra by Ketil Vea in the downloads section.  I' ve not had much luck finding the specifics of this work, but I KNOW that I would like to hear any other works of this composer I can get my hands on.  If you like Late-Romantic/Neo Romantic lushly orchestrated music with a lot of muscle underneath, you may really like this!

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Ketil_Vea.jpg)


The following biographical sketch is from: http://www153.pair.com/bensav/Compositeurs/Vea.K.html (http://www153.pair.com/bensav/Compositeurs/Vea.K.html)


Ketil Vea (born 1932) has been called a "composer from the borderland". The description is fitting in more ways than one. Geographically, Vea has done most of his work in northern Norway, and while it may be an exaggeration to call this part of the country a "borderland", musically and culturally it is not that incorrect. The northernmost parts of Norway are as far from its cultural capitals as is the south of Europe, and this has resulted in this part of Norway having found a cultural identity of its own.

There has also been an increase in collaboration across borders with Sweden, Finland and the Soviet Union. For the Lappish population this has always been natural, given their migratory travel, but in recent years phenomena such as the "Nordkalotten Symphony Orchestra" have been established as a collaborative effort involving all of these Nordic countries. A central figure in this process has been Ketil Vea. As a cultural organizer, performing musician, and composer, he has greatly influenced the development of music life in northern Norway which today includes professional ensembles, a music conservatory and a multitude of non-professional initiatives.

As a composer from northern Norway he has also had an affinity with the Lappish cultural inheritance. Several titles from his works suggest this, f. ex. Stallogargo and Jiedna. In Concert for flute, recitation and orchestra he utilizes inspiration from yet another indigent people: The text comes from Indian Chief Sealth's letter to president Franklin Pierce in 1855.

This "borderland" has yet another dimension. Ketil Vea's compositional point of departure is in his own environment. The environment in northern Norway consists mainly of a large group of non-professional musicians and a number of professional soloists and chamber ensembles. Because of this many of his works are written for non-professionals, as well as for professional participation. He has written several concerts for professional soloists accompanied by a non-professional orchestra.

Ketil Vea also plays an important role in Norwegian music education. He has taught on all levels, but perhaps has been particularly effective in the education of Norwegian teachers and at the music conservatories. He has, among other activities, been the principal at the Music Conservatory of Northern Norway in Tromsø. His many textbooks are being used in Norwegian music education, and in 1983 he received the Lindeman Prize for his pedagogical achievements.

I've DELETED THE LINK TO   Tema con Variazioni (1925) by Ludvig Irgens Jensen in the downloads folder.

I've been notified that this track has been released on CD.   

(http://www.grexvocalis.no/grex-medlem/img/konserter/ludvig-irgens-jensen.jpg)

Wikipedia Entry:
Paul Ludvig Irgens-Jensen (13 April 1894 – 11 April 1969) was a Norwegian twentieth-century composer.

Irgens-Jensen studied piano with Nils Larsen while a philology student at the University of Oslo. He began composing in 1920, and the radical nature of his work attracted some interest. Irgens-Jensen's oratorio Heimferd (for solo choir and orchestra) won first prize in a national competition, and is considered a national monument of sorts for Norway. The song Altar is one of his most familiar works.
During the Second World War, Irgens-Jensen composed several songs and orchestral works to patriotic texts; due to the restrictions imposed by the Nazis, these works had to be distributed anonymously and illegally. Irgens-Jensen is often characterized as a neo-Classical composer.

Naxos Bio:

LUDVIG IRGENS-JENSEN 
(1894 - 1969)
Ludvig Irgens-Jensen was born on 13 April 1894 in Christiania (as Oslo was then called) and died on 11 April 1969 during a trip to Italy. Many Norwegian composers have had close connections with folk music and have aimed to create a national musical identity. Irgens-Jensen on the other hand could be described as European, with more of a focus on form and other musical elements in their own right. He was powerfully influenced by German and French culture, and spent extended periods in Berlin and Paris. He learnt the piano, but never tried to study composition at a conservatory. Nevertheless he was regarded by his composer-colleagues as one of the most skilful among them. He was something of a humanistic philosopher, with an all-embracing vision of art. Throughout his life's work he grappled with the big questions about human existence. He also wrote poetry, and was accomplished at drawing and watercolour painting. Friends tell of a quiet man, wise and deeply empathetic. He loved nature and the outdoor life, and often went climbing in Norway's highest mountain range, Jotunheimen.

Much of Irgens-Jensen's music has a characteristic elegiac melancholy. As well as being a sensitive lyric poet he was also a sceptic and rationalist: 'there are no shortcuts in art', he said. When asked which earlier composers he admired, he replied: 'I have my heroes, Bach and Palestrina, Chopin and Brahms, everyone who wrote music of real importance'. He said that his goal was a universal, classical art, growing not from an 'individualistic state of mind' but from a mentality like that of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), 'where humility and a desire to serve were profound realities'. When young, Irgens-Jensen was viewed as one of the modernists, together with composers such as Fartein Valen (1887–1952), Pauline Hall (1890–1969) and Harald Saeverud (1897–1992). Later some saw him as a conservative classicist.

 
I have posted Ballad of Revolt by  Harald Sigurd Johan Sæverud

(http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/4738332.jpg)


Wikipedia Entry:

Harald Sigurd Johan Sæverud (17 April 1897–27 March 1992) was a Norwegian composer.[1] He is most known for his music to Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt, Rondo Amoroso, and the Ballad of Revolt (Norwegian: Kjempeviseslåtten). Sæverud wrote nine symphonies, and a large number of pieces for solo piano. He was a frequent guest conductor of his own works with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.

Background and early career
Harald Sæverud was born in Bergen and got his basic music education at the local conservatory where his teacher was the Leipzig-educated composer Borghild Holmsen. During his conservatory years he began working on what would become his first symphony, outlined as two large symphonic fantasies. The first fantasy was completed in 1919 and was accepted for performance in Kristiania (later Oslo) in 1920. It revealed an extraordinary talent and gained him a scholarship for further studies at Staatliche Hochschule für Musik, where Friedrich Koch was his teacher for two years. In Berlin, Sæverud completed the final part of his first symphony, and this new section was premiered by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The performance was conducted by his friend Ludwig Mowinckel, who had hired the orchestra to present a concert dedicated to modern Norwegian music. The critics were mostly favorable to Sæverud's symphony, and this further raised his interest for symphonic and orchestral music.

Harald Sæverud moved back to his hometown of Bergen in 1922, where he stayed - with few exceptions - for the rest of his life. His earliest compositions are coloured by a late Romantic musical style, but later he developed a personal idiom, often based on classical forms inspired by composers like Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. But his neo-classicism could often possess dissonant and strong expression. How he has utilized this, is commented on by musicologist Lorentz Reitan: "His symphonies, for example, are studies in musical form: Thematic/motive development in accordance with the material's own rules and logic. Classic forms such as sonatas and fugue are for him, to a larger extent, overriding principles rather than forms to be filled out, and his circling around musical constructions often gives his music an abstract quality". (Cappelens Musikkleksikon).

Bergen
In the 1930s Harald Sæverud and his American-born wife Marie Hvoslef built a magnificent mansion on the outskirts of Bergen. It was named "Siljustøl," and the family moved there in 1939. The composer came now into close contact with nature, which had a very strong impact on him and his compositions. His compositions turned towards a more Norwegian and "greener" style. In 1940 Nazi Germany invaded Norway. From this point, Sæverud's compositions became weapons against the occupying army. His main compositions from the period are the three "War-symphonies": nr. 5, Quasi una fantasia, nr. 6 Sinfonia Dolorosa and nr. 7. Psalm. Also from this period comes his direct protest against the Nazis: Ballad of Revolt in versions for both piano and orchestra.

In contrast to these strong compositions he also shaped a number of lyric piano pieces inspired by nature and Norwegian folk music (he never borrowed directly from folk music) published in collections called Tunes and dances from Siljustøl and Easy pieces for piano.

Post-war
After the war, Sæverud was considered to be the dean of Norwegian composers and he gained wide popularity for a number of his compositions. Particularly noteworthy from his later years, are his incidental music for Ibsen's Peer Gynt (1948), his symphonies nr. 8 Minnesota (1958) and nr. 9 (1966), the ballet Count Bluebeard's Nightmare, and concertos for piano, violin and bassoon. During the two last decades of his long life the orchestra-composer suddenly got an interest in chamber music, and produced, among others, three string quartets and two woodwind quintets.

Harald Sæverud was widely famous for his humour, mainly of a grotesque kind. "I was born on a graveyard," he said, and it is a fact that the ground under the house where he was born was both a former graveyard and a place of execution. He was convinced that his mother's nightmares there had influenced both him as a person and composer: "My music is terribly melancholy - wildly melancholy."
Besides his humour, his uniqueness as a composer is obvious and can be read in a quotation by the English conductor Sir John Barbirolli: "Whether you like Sæverud's music or not, there is never any doubt about who has written it, and this can be said about very few composers today".

Honours
Sæverud's central place in Norwegian and European music has resulted in a number of honorary awards: He received the State Guaranteed Income for Artists from 1955 until his death. He became an honorary member of the music society Harmonien (the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra) in 1957, and was awarded their Gold Medal. Also in 1957, he became a Knight in the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, and 20 years later became a Commander in the same order. In 1979, he received the Arts Council Norway Honorary Award. He has also received awards from Sweden, Finland, Yugoslavia and England.

Death
Harald Sæverud died on 27 March 1992. The funeral ceremony which took place in the Grieg Hall in Bergen, was broadcast by the national Norwegian television.

From "Listen to Norway"

Harald Sæverud (1897 - 1992): Born in a Graveyard
"As Norwegian as Grieg, but in his own way," was Carl Nielsen's description of Harald Sæverud. The object of this year's centenary celebrations drank sea water for his health, fought the Nazis with his composer's pen and wrote his own folk songs. In his opinion, "Electronic music can be entertainment for robots."

When Harald Sæverud died in 1992, the last Norwegian composer with one foot in the last century fell silent. Three years old in 1900, Harald Sæverud was to create music for almost an entire century. With his considerable age, he gradually became known as the eternal grand old man of Norwegian music, and in the course of his extremely long creative period, he progressed through most stages between "enfant terrible" and popular classical composer. When he left this world, his funeral was worthy of a statesman.

Harald Sæverud was born in Bergen, just as Edvard Grieg had been 44 years before. Bergen, which many people call the only real city in Norway, has an unusually colourful, varied architecture and has been Norway's window to the world for centuries; it is an open, lively city with ocean trading links to most corners of the globe. And this is where the cultural impulses landed, too. The first permanent orchestral society in the country was founded here – the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra is actually believed to be one of the oldest in the world – and Norway's first national theatre was established here. The subsequent establishments of the country's International Music Festival in Bergen was almost a foregone conclusion.

In spite of this lively, colourful city, however, Harald Sæverud had rather sombre beginnings. He seldom hesitated to relate that he was conceived and born in a house built on a disused graveyard. It was located close to Bergen's old Gallows Hill, where murderers, thieves and witches were buried alongside the town's poor. Was it surprising that as child he already had a special relationship with the darkest, saddest hymns? At least that had to be one of the reasons why so much of his music would later be composed in a minor key, believed the superstitious composer.

Although Edvard Grieg was Bergen's unrivalled musical master, Harald Sæverud was in no way a Grieg epigone. He was too strong an individualist for that. Grieg preferred he small format. Sæverud began composing a symphony when he was still a pupil at the music conservatory in his home town. When the first part was performed in Christiania (Oslo) in 1920, people suddenly discovered that this young autodidact could rival considerably more experienced colleagues. This resulted in a state grant which enabled Harald Sæverud to study at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, where he remained for two years. In his view, that was plenty.

In Berlin, the rest of the symphony was first performed by no less than Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Youthful "Sturm und Drang" in the broad brush-strokes of late romantic orchestral music. The work was kindly received in the musical metropolis. Leopold Schmidt, the city's leading music critic, wrote that Sæverud was "a constructive force, a talent who determinedly starts out along his own road". More important for the young composer, however was a letter from Danish composer Carl Nielsen, who encouragingly maintained that "Your composition was able to retain my interest from the first bar to the last, an occurrence which I seldom experience (...) I expect much of you." Like his Danish colleague, Harald Sæverud was also to become a symphonic composer; for him the attraction lay in the orchestra and the large formats.

At that time, it was impossible to make a living as a composer. He therefore gave music lessons, wrote music reviews, and for a while was also a pianist in a cinema orchestra. But he was only interested in composing. Symphonies! His first five works included three symphonies, unconventional in form, with two or three movements, and in a musical language that became increasingly dissonant and expressionistic. By 1930 he was on the borderline of atonality, but did not exceed it. He was too committed to the melody as the driving element of the music for that, and to tonality as the glue that bound it together. Mozart, Haydn and Shubert increasingly become his ideals, and his style gradually becomes more simplified and clarified. At the end of the 1930s he must almost be regarded as a neo-classisist.

Harald Sæverud was an urbanite who loved nature. He was increasingly attracted to the barren, rocky landscape that surrounded Bergen. Thanks to his marriage to a rich Norwegian-American in 1934, his dream of a house in the country was fulfilled. The house that was built on a 50-acre natural site outside Bergen, now surrounded by the city, was called "Siljustøl". But it was not an ordinary house. For the composer who loved rocks (his professor in Berlin told him, "There is so much rock in your music"), granite had to be one of the most important building materials, together with pine-wood. The family had 900 square metres at its disposal, and the design of the house was inspired by the most traditional farms in the Norwegian valleys. With its 63 rooms, 86 doors and 6 lavatories (including one of the "hole in the ground" type based on the south European style), "Siljustøl" was strongly reminiscent of the royal manors of Norwegian fairy tales.

But most important of all was Sæverud's "musical laboratory"; the large estate with trees, water and rock formations where he spent as much time as in his studio. In the mornings, he used to go out onto the grass in his bare feet to feel the forces of nature rise through his body, and every day he fortified himself with a dram of sea water which he was convinced contained all the minerals his body needed. But it had to come from 40 metres below the surface!

Now a new side of Harald Sæverud began to emerge. He began to concentrate seriously on piano pieces; small, melodious tone pictures inspired by nature, the animals on the farm and his own children. Rondo amoroso is the best known of the early works, also called Ville blomster på en barnegrav (Wild flowers on a child's grave). Several have titles reminiscent of Norwegian folk music: Småsvein gangar and Vindharpe-slåtten. He would later compose collections of piano pieces which he entitled Slåtter og stev fra Siljustøl.

Gangar and slått are the names of dances for the Hardanger fiddle, the Norwegian national instrument; stev is a short, vocal version. However, in Sæverud's case they all just mean "piece of music". He was very interested in Norwegian folk music, referring constantly to his grandfather, who was a well-known fiddle maker. But folk music did not become a source from which he drew direct inspiration, as many Norwegian composers since Grieg had done. "I prefer to write my own folk songs," he used to say, and much of his music gradually assumed some of the simplicity that typifies folk music.

World War II was a frenetically creative period for Harald Sæverud. He was not a violent man, but when the Germans occupied Norway he felt that his resistance effort must be to write music which reflected the current situation. His three "war symphonies" were composed during the five years of occupation. They were all inspired by the prevailing situation, but are nevertheless absolute music, in the sense that they stand firmly on their own musical feet. Symphony No. 5 is subtitled Motstandsviljens symfoni (Symphony of the Will to Resistance) - the title was not published until after liberation - and No. 6 Sinfonia Dolorosa. After the war he dedicated the latter to the memory of a friend who had been executed by the Nazis. Symphony No. 7, Salme (Psalm), appeared in the last year of the war and was not performed until October 1945. The violent expression of its predecessors has given way to lighter tones. It reflects the optimistic mood that prevailed among the Norwegian people when they realised that peace was close at hand.

His best known piece from the occupation period is nevertheless Kjempeviseslåtten (Ballad of Revolt), which came to Harald Sæverud with explosive force when he was travelling in the Norwegian fjords. In a place where he had least expected to find occupying forces, he suddenly saw the mountainside full of German barracks.

Kjempeviseslåtten exploded from him like an oath and was dedicated to "the small and great fighters on the home front". The piece was first arranged for piano and later for orchestra. It has the same intensity as Chopin's Revolutionary Study and builds up like Ravel's Bolero. One of the most important works of Norwegian music, this piece also remained unperformed until after the liberation.

Just after the war, Sæverud was to have the delicate task of writing music for Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt. No easy assignment for a composer who lived in Edvard Grieg's home town. Grieg's Peer Gynt music was regarded as the only valid version and had achieved world-wide popularity. In the new production, the drama was even going to be played in the Norwegian country dialect, and the interpretation was to be "anti-romantic". These were fairly radical ideas in a country with such a strong Ibsen-Grieg tradition as Norway. They also aroused heated debate.

However, Harald Sæverud accepted the challenge and in 1948 created one of his most popular works. He com-posed music to some of the same parts as Grieg had done, and to quite different parts as well. Like his fellow townsman, he arranged a selection of this music into orchestral suites which have been performed abroad many times with great success. The Swedish composer Sten Broman said of the Peer Gynt music: "From both a compositional and a dramatic point of view, Sæverud's music is clearly superior to Grieg's". Harold Taubman of the New York Times was convinced of its dramatic qualities. "This is music for the theatre and it speaks with great dramatic impact".

Harald Sæverud was now regarded as the most prominent contemporary composer in Norway. Already before World War II, he had been one of the co-founders of the Norwegian Ny Musikk Organisation (ISCM) and was several times represented at ISCM festivals. He also received flattering commissions from abroad, including a violin concerto for the Koussevitsky Foundation of the Library of Congress, and a symphony for the centenary celebrations of the state of Minnesota, USA. They wanted a symphony by a Nordic composer, and Harald Sæverud was awarded the honourable commission. For him, the first performance of the Minnesota Symphony in Minneapolis, conducted by Antal Dorati, was a major triumph.

The master from Siljustøl was a productive composer who was to continue to write music until the age of 92. Of the works he wrote in the final decades, we might mention the ballet Ridder Blåskjeggs mareritt (Knight Bluebeard's Nightmare), the bassoon concerto and Symphony No. 9. As an 89-year-old he was "festival composer" at the Bergen International Festival, and completed a major orchestral suite to Henrik Ibsen's drama Keiser og Galilæer (Emperor and Galilean). His final composition was a sonata for viola and piano, written in the neatest script.

Although Harald Sæverud for many years regarded the orchestra as his most important medium and found the piano a good number two, he suddenly produced a series of chamber pieces after he had long since reached what would normally be regarded as retirement age. Prior to 1970, his opus included little chamber music. Now he produced three string quartets and two wind quintets in rapid succession, as well as smaller chamber pieces, providing an exciting addition to the Norwegian chamber music repertoire.

In the course of his long life, Harald Sæverud received a long list of honours, including a artist's salary from the Norwegian government from 1953 onwards, and he was a Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav. He was also awarded Finnish, Swedish and Yugoslav honours. When he died, he was given a state funeral and he is buried at Siljustøl, which is now a listed building and will soon be a museum.

Not many composers experience becoming classics in their own time, but Harald Sæverud managed it. His unique musical language has something unmistakably Norwegian about it, but at the same time it has an appeal that transcends the borders of his home country. The British conductor Sir John Barbirolli often performed Sæverud's compositions and once described him as follows:

"Whether you like the music of Sæverud or not, there is no mistaking who wrote it, and this can be said of few composers of the present day."

He was an individualist to his fingertips and almost fanatical about the "naturalness" of the expression. He was highly sceptical about atonal music and avant-gardism. "Electronic music will be prohibited for medical reasons because it may be life-threatening for some people," he used to say, with conviction. And on the other hand:

"I know that nothing is as difficult as writing simple, good melodies with character. They just can't be written, they can only be created." He was an incorrigible classicist and melodist, with more than a touch of the natural mysticist. But always in his own way. And he is regarded by many people as the most prominent symphonic composer his home country has ever produced.
Lorenz Reitan
Translation: Virginia Siger
Printed in the music magazine Listen to Norway, Vol.5 - 1997 No. 1

Raymond Tuttle, Classical Net
I gather that "Ballad of Revolt," from Harald Sæverud's Slåtter og Stev fra "Siljustol" (Tunes and Dances from "Siljustol") plays a special role in Norwegian musical life. The composer wrote it to protest the German occupation of Norway, and it starts with a simple melody that might be a marching-song. Sæverud builds up to a thrilling, revolutionary climax that would get the audience roaring in any concert hall.

I just posed the Romance for Violin and Orchestra by Johan Svendsen in the Downloads Fodler



From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Johan%2BSvendsen.jpg)


Johan Severin Svendsen
Johan Severin Svendsen (30 September 1840 – 14 June 1911) was a Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist. Born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway, he lived most his life in Copenhagen, Denmark. Svendsen's output includes two symphonies, a violin concerto, and the Romance for violin, as well as a number of Norwegian Rhapsodies for orchestra. At one time Svendsen was intimate friends with the German composer Richard Wagner.

Life
His father was a music teacher and Svendsen learned both the violin and clarinet from him. By the time he finished school, he was working as an orchestral musician, and occasionally made short concert tours as a violinist. In Lübeck, on one of his tours, he came to the attention of a wealthy merchant who made it possible for him to study from 1863-67 at the Leipzig Conservatory. He began his studies with Ferdinand David, but problems with his hand forced him to switch to composition, which he studied with Carl Reinecke. He completed his studies in Leipzig in 1867, receiving first prize in composition. During this period, Svendsen had a son out of wedlock, Johann Richard Rudolph (1867–1933).

Gradually his attention turned to conducting. After spending time in Paris (1868–70) and Leipzig (1870–72), he returned to Christiania. In the summer of 1871, he went to New York City to marry Sarah (Sally, later changed to Bergljot) Levett Schmidt, whom he had met in Paris. He was conductor of the Musical Society Concerts in Christiania (1872–77), then spent three years in Germany, Italy, England and France. He returned to teach and conduct in Kristiania (1880–1883). In 1883, he was appointed principal conductor of the Royal Theater Orchestra in Copenhagen, where he lived until his death.

In 1884, he and his wife separated, and she moved to Paris. Their relationship had been chaotic for several years. In 1883, in a fit of anger, she had thrown the only copy of his Symphony No. 3 in the fire. This incident was used by Henrik Ibsen in Hedda Gabler.
Following a divorce from Sarah (10 December 1901), he married (23 December 1901) Juliette Haase with whom he had been living and had three children. His younger son from this marriage was the famous Danish actor Eyvind Johan-Svendsen (1896–1946).
In stark contrast to his more famous contemporary and close friend, Edvard Grieg, Svendsen was famous for his skill of orchestration rather than that of harmonic value. While Grieg composed mostly for small instrumentation, Svendsen composed primarily for orchestras and large ensembles. His most famous work is his Romance for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 26. He was very popular in Denmark and Norway during his lifetime, both as a composer and a conductor, winning many national awards and honors. However this popularity did not translate into acceptance into the international repertory of classical music. He died in Copenhagen, aged 70.


Svendsen's first published work, the String Quartet in A minor, Op. 1, achieved great popular success. He quickly followed with the String Octet, Op. 3 and String Quintet, Op. 5, both of which added to his early fame. All of Svendsen's chamber music was written while he was at the Leipzig Conservatory, yet these works are not considered student works. By general consensus, Svendsen was regarded as one of the most talented students then at the Conservatory. His works won prizes and received public performances to much acclaim.

 I've uploaded Suite 4 (Nuptuals) from 'A Hundred Folk Tunes from Hardanger' by Geirr Tveitt


(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Geirr_tveitt3.jpg/500px-Geirr_tveitt3.jpg)



Wikipedia Entry:
Geirr Tveitt, born Nils Tveit (October 19, 1908 – February 1, 1981) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. Tveitt was a central figure of the national movement in Norwegian cultural life during the 1930s.[1]
   
Life

Early years
Tveitt was born in Bergen, where his father briefly worked as a teacher. His parents were Håkonson Lars Tveit (1878–1951) and Johanna Nilsdotter Heradstveit (1882–1966). His family were of farmer stock, and still retained Tveit, their ancestral land in Kvam - a secluded village on the scenic Hardangerfjord. The Tveit family would relocate to Drammen in the winter to work, but return to Hardanger in the summer to farm. Thus Tveitt enjoyed both a countryside existence and city life. Tveitt had originally been christened Nils, but following his increasing interest in Norwegian heritage, he thought the name 'not Norwegian enough' and changed it to Geir. He later added an extra r to his first name and an extra t to Tveit to indicate more clearly to non-Norwegians the desired pronunciation of his name. It was during his childhood summers in Hardanger that Tveitt gained knowledge of the rich folk-music traditions of the area. Historically, Hardanger's relative isolation allowed for the development of a unique musical culture, with which Tveitt became infatuated. Tveitt was no child prodigy, but discovered that he possessed musical talent, and learned to play both the violin and the piano. And, after having been encouraged by Norwegian composer Christian Sinding, Tveitt decided to try his hand at writing music.[2]

Leipzig
In 1928 Tveitt left Norway to be educated. He headed for Germany - to Leipzig and its Conservatory, which had been the hub of European musical learning and culture for so long. It was an intense time for Tveitt. He studied composition with Hermann Grabner and Leopold Wenninger, and the piano with Otto Weinreich, making extraordinary progress in both fields. The joy of learning from some of the best German educators of the time were often overshadowed by his almost chronic lack of funds - Tveitt having to rely upon translation work and donations to support himself. The Norwegian composer David Monrad Johansen through the student years. Perhaps it was the expatriation from Norway that kindled in Tveitt a strong desire to embrace completely his Norwegian heritage. Tveitt's profound interest in the modal scales (which forms the basis of the folk-music of many countries) often tested Grabner's patience. However, the latter must have felt great pride when Tveitt had his 12 Two-part Inventions in Lydian, Dorian and Phrygian accepted for publishing by Breitkopf & Hartel in 1930. The following year the Leipzig Radio Orchestra premiered Tveitt's first Piano Concerto - a composition that reflects Tveitt's search for an individual and Norwegian voice.

Amongst the great in Europe
In 1932 Tveitt headed on to Paris. Tveitt had become increasingly frustrated with the teaching in Leipzig, but found a new freedom and inspiration. Here he obtained lessons from some of the greatest and most well-known composers of the times: Arthur Honegger and Heitor Villa-Lobos both agreed to see Tveitt. He further managed to enroll in the classes of Nadia Boulanger. Tveitt also made a visit to Vienna, where he was able to study for some time with Austrian composer Egon J. Wellesz, a former pupil of Arnold Schoenberg. Tveitt made one last educational stopover in Paris in 1938 before heading home to Norway to work. Compared to other Norwegian composers contemporary with Tveitt, he had perhaps the most diverse education - and he had already started to make a name for himself. His writings and compositions made quite a stir amongst the establishment in Oslo. In the years leading up to World War II, Tveitt derived most of his income working as music critic to Sjofartstidende (The Naval Times). Tveitt's highly opinionated reviews contributed to his securing strong opponents - one of these were the Norwegian composer, Pauline Hall. Tveitt focused his energies on composing. As soon as the Second World War had ended, Tveitt brought his scores with him to Europe, touring extensively - often performing own piano works with similar works by other composers, i.e. Grieg and Chopin. Many of the concerts were great personal and artistic successes for the Norwegian composer, and especially so the 1947 concert in Paris. Here Tveitt premiered his Piano Sonatas nos 1 and 29, some of his adaptations of Hardanger Folk-Songs and also the Fourth Concerto for Piano and Orchestra - Aurora Borealis. The piano concerto was performed in a two-piano version, Tveitt assisted by the French pianist Genevieve Joy. According to reviews, the concerto had thrown the Parisian audience into a paroxysm of ecstasy. Tveitt's intense, glittering, French-Impressionist flavoured rendition of the dancing and mystical northern winter sky, earned him the acclaim of his former teacher Nadia Boulanger in her following review.[3]

Burned to the ground
In spite of Tveitt's glorious successes internationally, the contemporary Norwegian establishment remained aloof. Following the upheaval of the Second World War, anything that resembled nationalism or purism was quickly disdained by the post-war intellectuals. Tveitt's aesthetic and music were fundamentally unfashionable. Tveitt struggled financially and became increasingly isolated. He spent more and more time at the family farm in Kvam, keeping his music to himself - all manuscripts neatly filed in wooden chests. The catastrophe could therefore hardly have been any worse when his house burned to the ground in 1970. Tveitt despaired - the original manuscripts to almost 300 opuses (including six piano concertos and two concertos for Hardanger fiddle and orchestra) were reduced to singed bricks of paper - deformed and inseparable. The Norwegian Music Information Centre agreed to archive the remains, but the reality was that 4/5 of Tveitt's production was gone - seemingly forever. Tveitt now found it very difficult to compose and gradually succumbed to alcoholism. Several commentators imagine that his many hardships contributed to these conditions. Tveitt died in Norheimsund, Hardanger, reduced and largely embittered, with little hope for the legacy of his professional work.[4]

A great controversy
One of the most delicate and controversial areas of Tveitt's biography is his affiliation with the so-called Neo-Heathenistic movement, which centered around the Norwegian philosopher Hans S. Jacobsen (1901–1980) in the 1930s in Oslo. This is a topic that frequently returns in Norwegian public debate. Jacobsen's main thesis, inspired by the theories of the German theologist Jakob Wilhelm Hauer, was the total refutation of Christianity in favour of a new heathen system based upon Norse mythology and the Edda poetry. The movement refuted Christianity and sought to re-introduce the Norse pre-Christian system of belief - the adoration of Odin, Thor and Balder. Jacobsen later became a member of Nasjonal Samling ('National Assembly'), which led the interim, pro-Hitler puppet government during the German occupation of Norway. Even though Geirr Tveitt displayed a deep interest in the theories of the movement, he never enrolled as a member of Nasjonal Samling. His preoccupation with Jacobsen's thinking however, materialised in conspicuous ways; for example Tveitt invented his own non-Christian timeline based upon the arrival of Leif Erikson in what is now Canada. Traces of Antisemitism are often found in his correspondence from the 1930s. The Neo-Heathen system of thought found its way into Tveitt's music; his perhaps most intensely such composition is the ballet Baldur's Dreams. In it, one could argue, Tveitt seeks to establish a link between this world - its creation, cycle and dwellers - and the eternal battle between the benevolent heathen Norse gods and their opponents, the evil jotuns. Tveitt began work on the ballet whilst studying in Leipzig, where it was first performed on 24 February 1938. There Baldur's Dreams became a remarkable success, and performances were later given in Berlin, Tübingen, Bergen and Oslo.

Another result of Tveitt's Norse purism was his development of the theory that the modal scales originally were Norwegian, renaming them in honor of Norse gods. He also developed an intricate diatonic theory, which interconnected the modal scales through a system of double leading notes. These ideas were published in his 1937 argument Tonalitätstheorie des parallellen Leittonsystems. Even though most musicologists agree that Tveitt's theories are colored by his personal convictions - his thesis is intelligent, challenging and thought-provoking.

The issue of Tveitt's inglorious relationship with so-called 'nazi-ideologies' is so delicate that most scholars have avoided it altogether. Some commentators have noticed that one of the foremost Norwegian authorities on Tveitt, Hallgjerd Aksnes, Professor of Music at the University of Oslo, did not address this question in her article on Tveitt in Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Tveitt's connection to far-right German thinking is perhaps a question scholars will return to as the world understands the dynamics of a troubled period in European history more fully. For Tveitt, the question proved devastating to his reputation, and contributed significantly to his becoming a persona-non-grata in the post-war musical establishment in Norway. However, as the most traumatic years of European history is now becoming more distant, a new generation of academics and musicians are approaching Tveitt and his music. Most of Tveitt's remaining music is now commercially available on records.[5] [6]

Music
Introduction
His music draws from many styles and traditions, most notably the barbarism of Stravinsky's early ballets, the unique rhythms and textures of Bartók's music and the floating and mystic moods of Debussy and Ravel's music - always underpinned by idioms derived from Norwegian folk-music. Very few of Tveitt's works had been published or properly archived at institutions - aggravating the effects of the 1970 fire. Tveitt himself made visits to universities across Norway, and wrote to friends, asking for spare copies and parts - but little was found. However, over the years, copies of quite a few scores have turned up, and others have been reconstructed from orchestral parts, or from radio and magnetic tape recordings.[7]

The great treasure of Hardanger
Tveitt's perhaps greatest musical project was the collection and adaptation of traditional folk melodies from the Hardanger district. Many composers and musicologists (including Norway's internationally recognised Edvard Grieg) had successfully researched and collected the music of Hardanger long before Tveitt. However, from 1940 onwards, when Tveitt settled permanently in Hardanger, he became one of the locals, and spent much time working and playing with folk-musicians. He thus happened upon a treasure of unknown tunes, claiming to have discovered almost one thousand melodies, and incorporated one hundred of these into his work list; Fifty folktunes from Hardanger for piano op. 150, and Hundred Hardanger Tunes for Orchestra op. 151. Musicologist David Gallagher might speak for many when he suggests that in these two opuses - their universe, music and history - are found the very best of Tveitt's qualities as a composer. The tunes reflect both profound (in fact) Christian values and a parallel universe dominated by the mysticism of nature itself and not only the worldly, but also nether worldly creatures that inhabit it - according to traditional folklore. The major part of the tunes is directly concerned with Hardanger life, which Tveitt was a part of. In his adaptations, therefore, he sought to bring forth not only the melody itself, but also the atmosphere, mood and scenery in which it belonged. Tveitt utilised his profound knowledge of traditional and avant-garde use of harmony and instruments when he scored the tunes - achieving an individual and recognisable texture. Copies of the piano versions and orchestral suites nos 1, 2, 4 and 5 were elsewhere during that tragic fire in 1970, so these works survive. Norwegian musicologists hope that suite nos 3 and 6 might be restored from the burned-out remnants held at the archives in Oslo.

Songs for the common Norwegian
Tveitt's works remained largely misunderstood and unappreciated by his contemporary Norwegian musical establishment. However, Tveitt won the hearts of a whole nation with his radio programmes on folk music at the Norwegian National Broadcasting (NRK) in the 1960s and '70s. Tveitt worked as Assistant Producer to the radio, where he also premiered numerous songs written to texts by respected and well-known Norwegian poets like Knut Hamsun, Arnulf Overland, Aslaug Vaa and Herman Wildenvey. Many Norwegians remember perhaps Tveitt most fondly for his tune to Aslaug Laastad Lygre's poem We should not sleep in summer nights. Tveitt could not impress the musical intelligentsia with his complicated and refined scores, but won the affection of the commoner with simple lyrical tunes of a clearly Norwegian curve. In 1980 Tveitt was awarded the Lindeman prize for the work he had done through the NRK.

Recordings and research
Today Norway is seeing the advent of a new generation of musicians and musicologists, who seem to be primarily concerned with Tveitt's music and not so much with the controversies he inspired. Starting in the late 1990s the Norwegian government began to provide some funding for the examination and preservation of the remains of Tveitt's scores, and several startling discoveries have been made. Thought to have been lost for all time, Baldur's Dreams appeared amongst the damaged manuscripts, and its fate is illustrative. Tveitt made numerous versions of the ballet - in Paris he presented a reworked score Dances from Baldur's Dreams. Tveitt then sent it to the choreographer Serge Lifar in London, where the score allegedly was lost in the Blitz.

However, after the singed manuscripts held at the NMIC were examined in 1999, it became apparent that Tveitt indeed had a copy of the 1938 original score - and through tedious restoration work by Norwegian composer Kaare Dyvik Husby and Russian composer Alexej Rybnikov from the singed manuscripts, recording, and a piano version, the ballet literally rose from the ashes. It is now available on BIS-CD-1337/1338, where Ole Kristian Ruud conducts the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. A TV documentary program Baldur's Dreams on the incredible fate of the ballet, was broadcast in Norway on June 15, 2008 and attracted nationwide interest.

Another reconstruction project worth mentioning is the reconstruction of the solo piano piece Morild. The title alludes to the mysterious phenomenon of phosphorescence of the sea, and it was amongst the treasures lost in the 1970 fire. Fortunately, a recording of the work made by Tveitt for French national radio in 1952 has survived. It was issued for the first time on Simax in 1994. A reconstruction of the score was undertaken by the American transcription specialist Chris Eric Jensen in 2005 in collaboration with the pianist Håvard Gimse who gave the piece its first performance on Tveitt's 100th birthday on October 19, 2008 - first time performance by another pianist but the composer himself.

I am afraid that the Ludvig Irgens-Jensen Tema con variazioni recording should be removed from the Downloads section :(

This performance from a Phillips LP was transferred to a Simax cd(PSC 3118).

Thanks for the heads up.  I've deleted the link, and updated the entries. 

Thanks for your vigilance, Dundonnell and for your cooperation, jowcol.

No problem on my end.   If there is even a doubt about a link in the future, I don't mind having the an admin removing the post until it is resolved.

Thanks to Atsushi for the upload of Elling's truly beautiful Symphony in A - a bit like Brahms with a northern accent, I thought. A lovely surprise indeed - I shall be listening to this again with some enthusiasm.

Thanks to AS for the Elling symphony. A most beautiful & dramatic work. It's hard to understand why this work is not performed more often.

Yes, Atsushi, thanks so much.  A real gem.   A friend sent me a cassette of #2 years ago and I've always wondered about #1.  Wonder no more, Jer......

J

  You are welcome ;)
  I also think why this wonderful symphony has long been forgotten. 
  Anyway I want to say my big thank you for Miklos that provide us this wonderful work :D

Music of Ludvig Irgens-Jensen
(http://www.ballade.no/nmi.nsf/pic/irgens-jensen_ludvig/$file/irgens-jensen_ludvig.jpg)

1-2: "Homeward" Symphony (Choral)
Norwegian Radio Orchestra
Odd Grunner-Hegge, Conductor
(Chorus unknown)

3: Passacaglia for Orchestra
Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestra
Ovin Fjeldstad Conductor (March 1971)

From the collection of Karl Miller

Some information from the "Listen to Norway" website:

Ludvig Irgens Jensen - Biography
06.01.2006 | By: Arvid Vollsnes

As a composer, Ludvig Irgens-Jensen (1894-1969) was in many ways both creating something genuinely new as well as conserving tradition. He started to study philology at the University of Oslo at the same time that he took piano lessons with, among others, Nils Larsen, then Norway's leading piano teacher. He undertook all of his musical studies, apart from the piano lessons, on his own and he never had a teacher in composition. As time passed, thorough studies of musical scores and topics in music theory took all his time. He also had short periods of study in Germany, Denmark and France.

His debut as a composer in 1920 was with a number of songs which attracted considerable interest, and in those days they seemed quite radical to many listeners as well as to Norwegian critics. Vocal music became an important part of his production. Perhaps most familiar is the song "Altar", written to a poem by Halldis Moren Vesaas. On the occasion of the 900th anniversary celebrations in 1930 to commemorate the death of the saint-king Olav and the subsequent christianisation of Norway, the oratorio Heimferd, a "dramatic symphony" for solo choir and orchestra, won first prize in a national competition. The work (with text by Olav Gullvåg) created enormous enthusiasm and, in the first months following its premiere, was performed twelve times in order to accommodate public demand. Heimferd is considered a national monument because of both the content and the musical material, and represents a major work within the Norwegian oratorial tradition. Other great vocal works to be mentioned are Der Gott und die Bajadere (Text: Goethe), a cantata from 1932, and Japanischer Frühling (Japanese Spring, with Japanese poetry), a vocal cycle from 1957.

Irgens-Jensen began to compose larger instrumental works early in his career, and orchestral works such as Tema con variazioni (1925/34) and Passacaglia (1927) are considered essential works in the Norwegian literature for orchestra. One of the few works for orchestra where national traits are noticeable, is the orchestral suite Partita sinfonica (1939), which builds on his stage music for Hans E. Kinck's drama Driftekaren (The Drover).

The war years made a strong impression on Irgens-Jensen, and he composed several songs and choral works to patriotic texts; works that due to the Nazi rule were distributed anonymously and illegally. During the occupation he also wrote his Symphony in D minor, which won first prize at a secret competition held in 1943, on the occasion of the 25 year Jubilee of the Society of Norwegian Composers.

Ludvig Irgens-Jensen kept himself apart from the musical fashions of his time, even though his music was concerned with current directions and is readily characterized as Neo-Classical. He was an important contributor to the reintroduction of polyphony as both a formative element and a means of expression in Norwegian music during the period between the wars. His strong focus on the strictly logical-dynamic in a well-proportioned form, his refined literary taste and sensitivity, together with his ethical seriousness and philosophical inclination, have left their mark on Norwegian music. Today, he is seen as one of the truly important Norwegian composers of the twentieth century.
Translation: Palmyre Pierroux



And the Naxos Bio:

LUDVIG IRGENS-JENSEN 
(1894 - 1969)

Ludvig Irgens-Jensen was born on 13 April 1894 in Christiania (as Oslo was then called) and died on 11 April 1969 during a trip to Italy. Many Norwegian composers have had close connections with folk music and have aimed to create a national musical identity. Irgens-Jensen on the other hand could be described as European, with more of a focus on form and other musical elements in their own right. He was powerfully influenced by German and French culture, and spent extended periods in Berlin and Paris. He learnt the piano, but never tried to study composition at a conservatory. Nevertheless he was regarded by his composer-colleagues as one of the most skilful among them. He was something of a humanistic philosopher, with an all-embracing vision of art. Throughout his life's work he grappled with the big questions about human existence. He also wrote poetry, and was accomplished at drawing and watercolour painting. Friends tell of a quiet man, wise and deeply empathetic. He loved nature and the outdoor life, and often went climbing in Norway's highest mountain range, Jotunheimen.

Much of Irgens-Jensen's music has a characteristic elegiac melancholy. As well as being a sensitive lyric poet he was also a sceptic and rationalist: 'there are no shortcuts in art', he said. When asked which earlier composers he admired, he replied: 'I have my heroes, Bach and Palestrina, Chopin and Brahms, everyone who wrote music of real importance'. He said that his goal was a universal, classical art, growing not from an 'individualistic state of mind' but from a mentality like that of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), 'where humility and a desire to serve were profound realities'. When young, Irgens-Jensen was viewed as one of the modernists, together with composers such as Fartein Valen (1887–1952), Pauline Hall (1890–1969) and Harald Saeverud (1897–1992). Later some saw him as a conservative classicist.

Poem for  a Lost World for Violin and String Orchestra(Op. 66B, 1985) , by Johan Kvandal
Private recording, performers unknown.
(http://www.johankvandal.com/multimedia/newsbox.jpg)
From the collection of Karl Miller


Kvandal outgrew a flirtation with the Avante-Garde and developed his style as a tonal composer.   This is a very approachable work.  He's one I'd like to learn more about.


From the Bio on his website:

Early impulses (1919-1951)
From an early age Kvandal received impressions from a rich artistic environment. His father, the composer David Monrad Johansen and mother 'Lissa' were constantly on the move. The young Johan was brought to Paris, lived in Arne and Hulda Garborg's house in the 'artist valley' at Hvalstad and the Ekeberg artists' colony. Every summer was spent in the mountain valley Østerdalen. There, a vibrant community surrounded the Norwegian anarchist writers Arne Garborg and Ivar Mortensson Egnund. The cultural influences and beautiful mountain landscapes were abundant sources of inspiration throughout Kvandal's life. After having lived on nine different locations the family finally got a permanent home close to Oslo in 1935. Painter Henrik Sørensen found the suitable property and architect Arnstein Arneberg designed the characteristic building – successively the home of composer Monrad Johansen and his son Johan Kvandal.
Kvandal studied composition with Geirr Tveitt from 1937- 1942 and Joseph Marx in Vienna 1942-44. He graduated from the Music Conservatory in Oslo as a conductor in 1947 and as an organist in 1951. He also studied theory with Per Steenberg and organ with Arild Sandvold. Like other composers of his generation Kvandal was influenced in his early works by the then prevailing national movement in the 1920's and 1930's. This can be seen in Seven Songs, Op. 4 and the Piano Pieces op. 1 and 5. His early work also reveal an urge to combine Norwegian folk music elements with classical forms such as the rondo and sonata form, e.g. Sonatina for Piano op. 2 and Norwegian Overture op. 7.

Paris and the avantgarde (1952-1969)
Kvandal's stay in Paris in 1952- 54 became an important turning point. Through studies with Nadia Boulanger at the Conservatoire de Paris he was exposed to an extremely inspiring musical environment. He became familiar with the works of Bartók and the later works of Stravinskij and Messiaen. In the 50s and 60s he integrated elements from international contemporary music scene, but without employing atonality or electronic aids. The result was a far greater compositional freedom. From 1970 he returned to his core with strong impulses from Norwegian folk music. But this time it became synthesised with an equally important feeling for the international contemporary music. This led to an innovative musical language based on what Kvandal himself defines as modern tonality.

Kvandal's modern musical expression is reflected in Variations and Fugue op. 14 for orchestra (1954), Duo for Violin and Cello op. 19. (1959), Symphony No. 1 op. 18 (1958-59), Symphonic Epos op. 21 for orchestra (1962), Flute Concerto op. 22 (1963) and String Quartet No. 2 op. 27 (1965-66). Symphonic Epos was his final breakthrough, and the conductor Odd Grüner-Hegge pronounced that 'this is a work of European importance.' The conductor Herbert Blomstedt appreciated the music of the young composer and premiered Kvandal's Flute Concerto op. 22 in 1963. The contemporary music association Ny Musikk comissioned a string quartet in 1965, which resultet in String Quartet nr. 2 op. 27.  It is Kvandal's most experimental piece, summing up his modernistic periode in the 60s.
   
New synthesis (1970-1979)
In his youth, Kvandal had experienced  the Norwegian modal tonality of folk music, which he later combined with the sonata and symphony form. He said that this form of classical music was not a conformity, but an enormous field of energy, which he as a composer could activate. The 70s was a rich decade in Kvandal's production. He turned back to a more melodic style. Fantasies on Three Country Dances op. 31 (1969) introduced a new turn back to folk music inspiration. Antagonia op. 38 for two string orchestras and percussion (1972-73) reveals a synthesis of the national and international tendencies in Kvandal's compositions. His later works often contain transformed folk music material, for instance Sonata for Solo Violin op. 45 (1976) and Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra op. 46 (1976-77). At the same time, romantic elements become progressively more discernible, particularly in Michelangelo Poem op. 49 (1977) and the large-scale Concerto for Violin and Orchestra op. 52 (1979). One of the music critics wrote: 'Kvandal's Violin Concerto is such a monumental composition that I would not be surprised if it were the best Norwegian work in this genre.'

Composer in demand (1980-1999)
The 80s and 90s were extremely busy decades for Kvandal, with new commissions accumulating and actually having to wait in line. The opera Mysteries is Kvandal's major opus. Based on the novel with the same name by Knut Hamsun, the opera was commissioned by The Norwegian National Opera & Ballet and was mainly written during the early 90s. The world premiere took place in January 1994 as part of a Norwegian Music Festival in connection with the Olympic Games at Lillehammer. The opera music received excellent media reviews and was performed a dozen times in 1994 og 1995. The opera was followed by the colourful Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra op. 77, commissioned by The Edvard Grieg Society in New York for the Grieg jubilee in 1993. Sonata for Strings op. 79 (1994) was commissioned by the Arts Council of Norway (Norsk Kulturråd) for its 30th Anniversary. In 1995 Trondheim Symphony Orchestra commissioned a work for the Kirsten Flagstad Jubilee and the result was Eternal Summer op. 80 (1995) for soprano and symphony orchestra, based on three Shakespeare texts. Sonata for Viola and Piano op. 81 (1995) was commissioned by Leif Ove Andsnes and Lars Anders Tomter for the Risør Festival of Chamber Music. After Fantasia for Hardanger fiddle and String orchestra op. 82. came Fantasia for Organ and Strings op. 83, followed by Missa Brevis op. 84 for mixed choir and organ.The last work Kvandal completed is Concerto for Piano and Orchestra op. 85, commissioned by the Elverum Music Festival 1998 and The Norwegian Youth Symphony Orchestra. It was written for pianist Håvard Gimse, who recently recorded the concerto together with Kvandal's father Monrad Johansen's Piano Concerto.

"His world of sound is international"
With strong roots in the European tonal musical tradition Kvandal inevitably came to represent an opponent voice in the prevailing experimental modernist environment. It remained a life-long paradox for Kvandal that a radical avantgarde itself had turned into a powerful establishment. In 1988 Kvandal critisised openly the favoring of atonal music in the Norwegian Society of Composers (see Quotes). Financed with own funds he released an album with the most important orchestral works in 1998, also known as his "protest album" (see Articles). Simultaneously, towards the end of his life, Kvandal experienced an increasing international interest in his music. The trend continues into 2012, with performances in New York, Dubai, Berlin, Aix-en-Provence, Devon, Scotland, Australia and India only the two last years. This testifies what pianist and journalist Kjell Bækkelund once wrote: "His world of sound is international" (see Articles).

Ingar Sletten Kolloen: Interview with Johan Kvandal in Aftenposten 23th February 1984

-Music is something truly mysterious

Johan Kvandal, one of our most performed contemporary composers, highly respected music critic in Aftenposten for years, record producer, lecturer, church organist, member of the TONO board and part of the Norwegian Arts Council's board of musicians, new dad... has written more than 60 works. One of them is 'Antagonia'. It means contradictions that belong together. An understandable choice of title.

30 years ago a relatively young composer came back to Oslo after staying several years in Paris. - Two years passed until I was able to compose anything. All the impressions needed time to sink in. Luckily, I understood that, in the same intuitive way that I earlier realized the need to break up from many things in and around me. Isn't is like that with all of us, that in certain periods we need to meet a kind of good and evil spirits of the past? Kvandal is wondering.

'Old-fashioned'
During the experimental and increasingly radical post-war years, Johan Kvandal was characterized by some as an old-fashioned composer.
- It is rather like I have always been an oppositional, the 64-year-old says quitely. These days he experiences having his works performed in Norway and abroad, and commisions for new works must wait in line.

- It was of course not easy to be accepted by my father's, David Monrad Johansen's contemporaries, who were based in much I had to make some kind of rebellion against. And my contemporaries were mostly modernists, to whom I had personal bonds. But I did not have a close artistic bond to any of these groups.

Kvandal has been inspired by widely different sources at different times. - But I have always held on to the tonal music, because it always has been a measure to be clear. I have never found it difficult to compose within the classic forms. No, what am I saying, now I talk just like a modernist, turning to non-instrumental effects in his eagerness to create 'different sound'. Some call this innovative, radicalism. It might have been in so Schönberg's time. Well, back to these basic principles I think must apply. I do not for example find the sonata form limiting, but simply as en enormous field of energy, which I as a composer can activate. But I have been wondering alot about what really happens. The longer I live, the more mysterious the music appears to me. Something absolutely amazing happens when the music of 'the great' is performed, the non-physical in us is inspired into movement.

The mysterious
During the conversation he continuously mentions his fear of grandiose words and expressions.

- But can we evade the notion of spirit in order to graps what hides behind the measureable? A composer's true inspiration can be transferred to ever new listeners in the future. An amazing process! My old pedagogue Nadia Boulanger once said: 'The geniouses were great musicians. Without knowing it, but posterity knows, they also touched the mysterious'. This is how I regard the non-material in our existence.



Handwritten note by the Composer:
Like most Norwegian composers of my generation, I began writing music with close ties to Norwegian tonal feeling, but without integrating folk music. This applies to all the early works, like songs opus 4 and Norwegian Overture op. 7, things that are still performed, the overture even very often. Eventually a need to orient myself away from this direction emerged. In the longer term, the stay in Paris from 1952 to 1954 helped me in this struggle. It wasn't in any way a break with tonality, only an expansion and enrichment of aids towards what I would call a modern tonality. This is perhaps most noticable in Symphonic Epos, op. 22 and even more in the String Quartet No. 2 op. 27.

With the music of Skipper Worse, I was involuntarily led back home, and an assignment from the Bergen International Festival to produce adaptions of Norwegian folk tunes for piano for the first time brought me in direct relation to Norwegian folk music (apart from small adaptions in op. 5). With the experience I had gained in the meantime, I could now approach the folk music without being encumbered by some sort of national issues, but look at it from a more healthy angle, as a distinctive and interesting music in and of itself.

When it comes to the Stev tunes (op. 40), I would like to mention that my mother was a great connoisseur of Norwegian folk music and sang the old folk and stev tunes for me since I was little. Only now did I, however, feel so free in relation to the material that I would dare to attempt at an adaption. In Antagonia op. 38 I think I have managed to gather and combine my experiences in the best way. In the last movement I use a stev tune, but in such a way that it is completely integrated in the style. I studied Herbert Eimerts Lehrebuch Zwôlftontechnik and in the 60s I followed closely the development, by doing many study trips. All I have heard and studied, however, has strenghtened my belief in the tonal principle.

But one's musical expression has really more to do with instinct, a kind of voice of the heart, than with the outer intellect.