Per Nørgård himself speaking about
...
The following sections are all extracts from an interview with the composer, recorded at his home on 8 April 1999. They contain Per Nørgård's own oral accounts or comments in connection with various aspects of his music.
Each recorded extract (in Danish) is accompanied by a transcription in English.
The meeting with Sibelius - on making
oneself known
The meeting with Stravinsky - over after-dinner coffee
The full potential of a composition - when is a composition finished?
The musical material - birdsong and eternal structures
Suchness - that for which we have no name
Suchness as unrepeatable - like a human face
Suchness in terms of ensemble/genre
On listening to music - plasticity, structure, images, multiplicity
Life/music - more and more fantastic ...
Life/music - spirituality in daily life
Mythology - the narratives we live out all the time
The mechanical element - stiffening to ice-crystals, robots
The lyrical element - like scents, unprepared
The narrow range of sound - a universe like any other...
The fully-unfolded sound - stages in growth
Breakthrough - waking from a dream
Anger - frenzied, out of control
The bizarre element - the most beautiful face, the most bizarre mask
Apotheosis - be in it, relinquish it
The moment of release - quiet, inconspicuous
The meditative element - an open state of listening
The cosmic element - the overtone series and a cheese sandwich
About Symphony No. 6 - caught up in a process
Background photograph: Rigmor Mydtskov ©