Adolf Wölfli In 1979 Nørgård went to see an exhibition called Outsiders at the Lousiana Art Gallery in Humlebæk. He was fascinated by the work of artists who were mentally ill, and especially by one particular artist: Adolf Wölfli. Nørgård found in Wölfli’s artistic universe a way of expressing aspects of the human condition which he wanted to develop in his own music. In musical terms, the 'period of crisis', which Nørgård specialists have dubbed the period at the end of the 1970s, was an extraordinarily productive time, and the works from the so-called Wölfli period include a number of 'hits': Wie ein Kind (Like a Child) for choir, I Ching for percussion, and the Wölfli opera Det guddommelige Tivoli (The Divine Circus), to name but a few. See moreover the special article about Wölfli.
					The slippery path What fascinated Nørgård in Wölfli's world were the abrupt transitions between idyll and catastrophe. Right in the middle of each of Wölfli's fantastic descriptions of his journeys, a catastrophe suddenly erupts on the scene: one of the light-hearted travellers suddenly falls off a high mountain and ends up as a squishy mess on the ground, only to be brought back to life again immediately. Violent shifts of perspective are also found in Wölfli's many poems: a mad howl suddenly cuts into the middle of a delicate lullaby; or a lover's lay is brutally interrupted by obscene oaths - only to continue afterwards as if nothing had happened. The only thing one can be sure of in relation to Wölfli is that one can never feel secure. The artistic message is clear: catastrophe lurks behind every idyllic scene. In the middle of the fools' dance in the 'witchlake' one hears a bird song of innocent tenderness. Life is always lived on a slippery slope - on the edge of disaster - if it is to lived authentically.
					Thinking polarity Nørgård has sometimes been accused of writing works that were just too idyllic, especially in the hierarchical phase from the end of the 1960s to the end of the 1970s. But the point is that this has to regarded as an expression of polarity: the hierarchical phase was characterised by consistency, a grandiose attempt to create a coherent tone language following natural laws. This language is one of the poles, but life also embraces another pole: everything that is non-systematic, unforeseen, and spontaneous; including suffering and even catastrophe. And it is this latter pole that Nørgård emphasised in his compositions from the 1980s.
					Wölfli driftwood In a less dramatic form, idyll and catastrophe can also mean that objects in the raw can be juxtaposed with other elements. In his hierarchical music, as well, Nørgård always found room for 'objets trouvés': just think of the 3rd Symphony, in which another of the composer's works is integrated into the second movement, and in which we meet both quotations from Schubert and the signature tunes of detective films - though only as small ripples on the calm surface of the stream of music and not at all as foreign elements.
					Examples of other works Whatever is non-systematic cannot be organised, only emphasised. Nørgård employs two methods to bring idyll and catastrophe into relief: the sudden incursion - what could be called the 'film-clip technique' - and the gradual change, where the idyllic scene that is unfolding is changed bit by bit into catastrophe (and vice versa). This is a method familiar from Mahler's music, in which innocent motifs often transfigure themselves into all-consuming monsters, thus placing the 'innocent' motif in relief.
					Remembering child The predominantly 'holistic' tone of the viola concerto is rudely awakened in the second movement by a sudden witch-like howl:
					After this, the delicate melody continues undisturbed. What Nørgård put into his composition here was a cock which awoke him early one morning in his summer cottage on Langeland - and which at first he could not identify. After a few crows he heaved a sigh of relief: Oh, it was just a cock, after all!
					Den foruroligende ælling (The Alarming Duckling) Idyll and catastrophe can also appear in a less dramatic form. The idea here is that two different forms of musical expression are juxtaposed in their 'raw' state, without interpretation. An excellent example of this is the movement entitled 'D’Monstrantz Vöögeli' from the choral work Den foruroligende ælling (The Alarming Duckling) (1985). In this movement bird song is juxtaposed with wild cries in the Wölfli style.
					In the course of the movement the human voices come more and more to resemble the cries of birds, ending in a sort of chorale which praises heaven - though it should be noted that here we are speaking of the 'heavenly rest' of death.
					Symphony No. 4 The Fourth Symphony bears the title "Indischer Roosengaarten und Chineesischer Hexensee" (Indian Rosegarden and Chinese Witchlake). The transition from the first to the second movement, from 'rosegarden' to 'witchlake', is sudden, though in such a way that the catastrophe is lurking just round the corner: one can actually hear that the tiger is getting ready to spring out and down its prey.