5th Period (1980-87)

‘The Wölfli Period’

A radical stylistic change occurred in Per Nørgård's music for the second time when he was a confronted with the work of the schizophrenic painter, Adolf Wölfli. This transmutation, which had been fermenting for some time, involved a shift of focus from a holistic view to very concrete and specific close-ups characterised by fragmentation, conflict, contrast and catastrophe. Wölfli himself was very much a personification of the problems involved here, just as his person plays a specific role in several works.

Style & Technique:

In his Wölfli period Nørgård generally abandoned hierarchical techniques and the infinity rows. The music is predominantly based on free, spontaneous composition, out of which a emerged a new view of rhythm which was further developed in the following period.

Important works:


• Wie ein Kind	for choir

• Det Guddommelige Tivoli (The Divine Circus)	opera

• I Ching	for percussion

• For a change	percussion concerto

• Achilles og Skildpadden (Achilles and the Tortoise)	for piano