'Open works' from the 1970s, etc.



At the end of the 1970s - after the 3rd Symphony - Per Nørgård's works tended to group themselves around a common theme or a common method of working. It was as if one work was not enough to express the material the composer was working on, which therefore had to be realised and made tangible in a number of compositions.

A second tendency was to allow for considerable openness in the individual work; an openness which offered freedom of interpretation with regard to such decisive matters as form, instrumentation and duration.

This is due to the fact that he was working with the hierarchical principles in music: new avenues of approach constantly reveal themselves and windows are thrown open onto new landscapes which, in virtue of the fundamental harmony of the hierarchies, may quite legitimately be explored, even though they have been discovered by others than Per Nørgård himself.


Vinterkantate (Winter Cantata) (1976) - for a 'few or more' performers - is one of a number of works formed by Per Nørgård around the melodies he had created to Ole Sarvig's poems Året and Korsalme. Vinterkantate offers another interpretation of the same melodic material that forms the basis of his major virtuoso work, Frostsalme (Frost Hymn), which had been written the previous year. Amongst the other works in this 'family' may be mentioned the equally virtuoso Kredsløb (Cycle), and the simpler and less ambitious works, Korsalme (Choral Hymn) and Vintersalme (Winter Hymn).

This composition arose at the instigation of Jesper Jørgen Jensen, an organist, who wanted a work that could be performed by himself, the soprano, Dorrit Basse, and perhaps a choir. The work can indeed be performed in this way, but there are many other possibilities. As Nørgård wrote in his preface:

    ... by extending the harmonic structures of the infinity principles, this work has become something never seen before: a cantata which both in terms of size and the number of musicians involved can be expanded as organists, conductors and other musicians work on it, combining a certain amount of aesthetic sense and a vein of compositional skills with the ground rules that govern the way the infinity principles work! In this way it is possible for the existing notation to emerge in versions for several soloists, choirs, ensembles - even, in fact, an orchestra - and it also allows people to make cautious changes in order to expand or reduce the original material.

The basic material, therefore, is an organ part and a voice part, but much more complicated instrumentation can be used. The organ part includes 'latent choral parts' which can be extracted and harmonised. Moreover, the instrumentation can both underline and spotlight interesting threads in the 'tone tapestry' as a whole. It is possible to compose additional parts, or even completely new sections.

In fact, the composer gives carte blanche to anyone "who can muster a general musical and aesthetic sense ('good taste') and a little imagination", to put on their own performance - as long as they stick to the premisses of hierarchical music. The Swedish choir leader, Gunnar Ericsson, for example, has arranged Vintersalme as an easily accessible and simplified version of the Frostsalme melodies.


Den afbrudte Sang (The Interrupted Song) (1977) goes even further in terms of openness. The subtitle describes this work as a madrigal comedy in 2 (failed) marriages, and is about Orpheus and Eurydice, with a text by Ulla Ryum and Per Nørgård. The work was composed for Marselisborg High School and involved the participation of both professionals and amateurs.

In its original form the score consisted of only 6 pages containing a few simple, basic melodies, the rhythmical structure and the figuration for the accompaniment - which, however, can be extruded and freely instrumented in the manner described in connection with the Vinterkantate.

The first performance involved pupils from the Marselisborg High School choir, opera singers and ballet dancers from Stockholm and pupils from Holstebro Folk High School and School of Music. The performance lasted more than half an hour.
We have a hand-written score for the actual version performed on this occasion. Furthermore, Nørgård used the same basic material again in 1988 and worked it up into an opera (for The Jutland Academy of Music) entitled Orfeus - den uendelige sang (Orpheus - the Unending Song).





Percussion rhythms


Sun and Moon music

At the heart of Den afbrudte sang and all the other works for amateurs or a mixed group of performers composed at the end of the 1970s lies in reality the twelve-tone infinity row (see Drømmesange and the 2nd Movement of Wie ein Kind), with its hierarchical unfolding of the basic opposition between bright and dark.

Ivan Hansen, one of the most prominent musicians and music teachers within this particular musical genre, which has been given the title, 'Sun & Moon music', writes as follows:

    The so-called Sun & Moon music (developed in the seventies in private musical circles, at Folk High Schools and similar institutions, or by ensembles at Academies of Music) appears to have given rise to a kind of 'music within Nørgård's music', in a form that creates a link between a more spontaneous kind of music-making and Nørgård's complicated compositional techniques.
    (see Ivan Hansen: Sol og Månemusikken in Per Nørgård artikler, 1962-82)


Easy to learn
It takes about ten minutes to learn how to manage the 64-note row of this rhythmical infinity series, and after that one will be able to play along with others by repeating the same pattern over and over again - in the same way as a harmony pattern is repeated in a standard piece of blues or jazz music - and there will always be harmony, whether one plays all the notes, every second note, every fourth, etc. (which is the same as playing at half or quarter tempo), or even 'odd' wavelengths such as every third note or other ways of interweaving or jumping over notes.

'Percussion' here means any form of sound-producing object that can differentiate between a bright and a dark element.


See how easy it is:

Extrapolation of the opposition between bright and dark:

  • play 1 bright note (l) and its opposite = 1 dark note (d)
  • play a bright 2-note group (l d) and its opposite = (d l)
  • play a bright 4-note group (l d d l) and its opposite = (d l l d)
  • play a bright 8-note group (l d d l /d l l d) and its opposite = ???
  • play a bright 16-note group, while remembering it as:
    a) a bright 4-note group +
    b) a dark 4-note group +
    c) a dark 4-note group + d) a bright 4-note group = L D D L
  • finally, play a whole period of 64 notes composed of a bright 16-note group + a dark + a dark + a bright = L D D L

As can be seen, l d d l appears at all levels.


The following example of notation shows, once again, the first 64 notes plus three different 'interweavings' (many other are possible):


Playing together

As we have said, these percussion rhythms formed the basis of many play-together sessions of a more or less improvised nature and of teaching sessions at courses and so on at the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s. Even today, a encounter between people who 'know' their light-dark hierarchy can lead to a play-together session that can last for hours.

One can keep on repeating the 64-note period, but one can also try to expand it and see if one can manage 256 notes (where the first 64 are simply a LIGHT 64-note row followed by a dark) - or try perhaps moving up to 1,024 notes!


Works

As has been mentioned, the percussion rhythms were the basis for a large number of works, usually extremely open in terms of structure.

Tider and Højtider (Seasons and Festivals) (1978) and Krystalspejlinger (Crystal Reflections) (1979) are two products based on the same material, with a text by Marie Lalander.

They were both written for a Da Camera choir, but apart from a choir, dancers, percussion instruments and other instruments  can be included ad libitum. Once more, the 11 pages of the score consist of the basic melodies and harmonic and rhythmical structures, which can be developed by people who have grasped the rules of the game.
On the first occasions when the piece was performed, performances lasted about an hour, and the composer himself was responsible for the arrangement of the material. At this point, of course, no one else had attempted to arrange the patterns themselves, though it is precisely in this connection that Sun & Moon music really opens up new perspectives:

    Follow the structures and construct your own melodies around them by playing notes that fit into the overtone spectrum of the tone of the structure in question.

This sounds like the kind of collective improvisation we are familiar with in New Orleans jazz - though on quite a different basis.


Other works:

Among other works composed on the basis of percussion rhythms may be mentioned Tredie Tilstand (Third State), which was performed at the Billedstofteater in 1979. One of the tempo layers is said to have been so slow that was called 'striking the hour'.

Of lesser works can be mentioned:

    Tidligt Forårs Danse (Dance in the Early Spring) (1979-80) - for choir, oboe and percussion (dance ad. lib.).

    Slå Dørene Op (Open Wide the Doors) (1981) - for a 2-4 voice choir and instruments.

    Små Slag (Easy Beats) (1981) - for 6 percussion players.

In addition, the following works are within the reach of skilled amateurs:

    Wie ein Kind (Like a Child) (1980) was in fact written for an amateur choir festival (Nordklang).

    Drømmesange (Dream Songs) (1981) has been performed by amateurs on several occasions.

Finally, we should mention

    Korbogen (The Choir Book) - Ballads, Songs and Motets 1952-1992 - a collection of 45 large and small choral works by Per Nørgård of varying degrees of difficulty, selected and edited by Ivan Hansen.