Biography

Meeting with Sibelius

Before the end of his period of studies, however, Nørgård came to know very well a composer who has meant a great deal to him right up to the present time: Jean Sibelius. While in the bath at home in his parents' house sometime in the late 40s, Nørgård heard a radio performance of Sibelius' 2nd Symphony, and experienced that special attraction of 'the call of the wild' which has always fascinated him.

However, it was not until 1953, after the first performance of Holmboe’s Sinfonia boreale, that this interest in Sibelius really made an impact on Nørgård. He studied all the scores and collected all the records he could of Sibelius’ music, and discovered that the idea of metamorphosis, which plays such a central role in Holmboe's music, was already found in a fully developed form in Sibelius' oeuvre. The existence of several independent levels in the music, the shift between foreground and background, and even the idea of hierarchy itself - all this Nørgård found in Sibelius.

At that time these ideas, which for Nørgård were to reach far into his musical future, were more or less ignored or unrecognised, not only in Denmark, but even more in central European countries, where the name Sibelius stood for a hopelessly outdated nationalist romanticism.

When Nørgård had discovered this and thought it over, he wrote a letter to Sibelius setting out the ideas outlined above, and indeed also with the aim of assuring Sibelius that he was not alone with his musical visions, but that these would endure and be further developed.

There was in fact a good deal of speculation as to why Sibelius had composed nothing for nearly 30 years. Theories ranged from the idea that the composer was depressed or 'burnt out', to the notion that he no longer felt he belonged to the time he was living in.

Nørgård's letter to Sibelius is dated 2 July 1954. He also enclosed the score of his quintet op. 1 for flute, violin, viola, cello and piano.

Nørgård has held onto the opinions expressed in this letter right up to the present day. Most important of all, he received a reply from Sibelius, who thanked him for the letter and was delighted to hear that Nørgård understood his music.

A few months later Nørgård was in Helsinki, where he had been invited to a pan-Scandinavian Schools of Music festival. They were invited to visit Ainola, Sibelius’ isolated retreat outside the Finnish capital. The ageing composer stood on his veranda and waved to the young Danes; one of them, Ole Schmidt, even got to shake his hand. Nørgård, however, who was also standing close to the old maestro, was too shy to introduce himself! Read and hear his own account of this meeting!

In November of the same year, Nørgård wrote another letter to Sibelius asking for permission to dedicate his new choral work, Aftonland op. 10, to the Finnish composer. Sibelius granted permission and was later sent a printed score of the work.

First successes

In the course of his student days, Nørgård emerged more and more into the limelight of public attention. In April 1955, there was a concert at which the Erling Bloch Quartet played the first performance of Nørgård's First String Quartet. Not only did the work receive a generally positive review, but it was also given a very detailed and sympathetic treatment. The music critic especially emphasised the organic form of the work.

The first performance of Aftonland

His works continued to receive good reviews. Nørgård's choral work, Aftonland op. 10, was performed for the first time on 19 October 1955 by the Academy of Music Madrigal Choir under the direction of Niels Møller, at a concert of works by young Scandinavian composers arranged by students at the Academy of Music. The music critic of the newspaper, Berlingske Tidende, wrote about the "greatest talent in Danish music since Niels Viggo Bentzon". As can be seen, Nørgård not only reached a wider public at an early age, but did so with considerable success.

The young man gets married

Shortly after his final examination at the Academy of Music, Nørgård married Anelise Brix Thomsen, and his parents invited his teacher, Vagn Holmboe, and his wife, Meta Holmboe, to the wedding festivities. Holmboe wrote a very kind letter thanking for the invitation, in which he informed Nørgård's father that Høffding in a conversation with Holmboe had said that Nørgård was one of the best students the Academy of Music had ever had.

Per og Anelise had two children, Jeppe, born on the 17th of January 1959 and Ditte, born on the 27th of May 1961.

Debut

On 17 January 1956 the Royal Danish Academy of Music put on a composers' evening, and the programme consisted entirely of works by Per Nørgård. This was his debut as a fully-trained composer.

The works performed at the concert, with the exception of the Four Strophic Songs (which today form part of the ‘Nine Danish Songs’ op. 14), had already been performed: Piano Sonata No. 1 op. 6, Aftonland op. 10, and String Quartet No. 1 op. 3 (later revised, and known today as Quartetto briòso op. 21).

One particular work - surely the most important, though perhaps peripheral in other senses - was included in the programme, but was not actually performed at the concert. This was the composer's large Trio, op. 15, for clarinet, cello and piano in four movements, of which only three were mentioned in the programme. Helmer Nørgaard, a fellow composer, some years older than Per (and not related to him), wrote about the debut concert as follows:

At the present time the air at the Royal Academy of Music is heavy with the scent of rising sap: composers especially, it would seem, are making their presence felt, by expressing themselves with individuality and authority at an earlier age than we are accustomed to see.
This applies especially to Holmboe's exceptional pupils, amongst whom we find one of the rarest talents we have seen for many years, the 23 year-old Per Nørgaard. Even before he entered the Academy of Music this young man studied under Vagn Holmboe, who discovered his unique talent, and continued under the guidance of this teacher until January this year, when he passed out of the soloist class accompanied by the very best hopes and wishes, and with a scholarship in his pocket to study under Nadia Boulanger in Paris. (...)

After further praising the composer in the warmest terms he went on to write about the programme for the evening. In his opinion, all the works were of a high standard, but he especially regretted the absence of the Trio, which he felt could have been the highpoint of the evening:

It is hard to ascertain why the work was not performed, but the fact is that the Academy of Music, who organised the event, must be held responsible for the fact that one of its best pupils was not given the kind of presentation he had a moral right to. This work, the Trio for clarinet, cello and piano op. 15, was at that time (January of this year) his most recent work, and has not yet been performed anywhere in public. As this composition is of an exceptionally high quality, and in addition is a most clear expression of Per Nørgaard's mental state and his artistic striving, I will hazard the unusual step of taking a closer look at the work even though it is as yet only available in manuscript form...
(Quotation from an article, 'Mens vi venter' ('While we wait'), printed in Nordisk Musikkultur No. 5 , 1956, pp 43-45)

He then went on to describe the Trio in great detail.

In October of the same year, the Trio was finally performed for the first time in its entirety, after a radio performance of the work had previously been broadcast with the movements in the wrong order - just one more setback after the non-appearance of the work at the debut concert even though it had been included in the programme.

To Paris

Immediately after his debut evening, Per Nørgård left for Paris to study under Nadia Boulanger, the foremost name among music teachers in France, and a personality of great importance for many composers in the second half of the 20th century. She was the person any composer simply had to be in touch with. On a visit to Copenhagen she met Vagn Holmboe, who recommended Per Nørgård to her, and so with the help of scholarships the young composer was able to study under her in Paris.

In an interview given before his departure for Paris, Nørgård spoke about Boulanger's incredible energy. We know that she started her day with morning mass at 5 a.m., and that she worked 18 hours a day, only breaking off for a short sleep, which moreover was something she hated: "Five hours full of nothing!", she is reported to have said. She was a tough and dominating old lady, in character quite different from the diffident young composer from far-off Denmark, who, as may be clearly seen from the interview, had a great number of reservations concerning the new music elsewhere in the world, and not least in France.