Stylistic periods in Per Nørgård's oeuvre

By Erling Kullberg

7-year or 10-year periods?

A changing view of the world. The sub-title of Jørgen I. Jensen's book about Per Nørgård stresses the fact that the constant changes in Nørgård's art and aesthetic approach are closely linked to a large measure of stability and continuity. As an artist, Per Nørgård shows a restless tendency to develop, constantly asking questions and looking for answers. As a person he is wholly and completely involved in the world around him with all its problems and challenges. His musical works offer tangible artistic solutions to the problems that absorb him - whether aesthetic, technical or existential. There is always some kind of problem-solving going on, though the type of problem may vary. Answers to such questions as: Is it possible that...? What will happen if....? Can one understand...? Because in this way, searching for answers, he turns his creative activity into a kind of research, he shows himself to be a true modernist, creating works because he ‘must’, driven on by an inner necessity.

As he himself puts it:

    The slippery slopes I find myself on tend to vary, but I am always on one or another. For me, existence is based on my conception of non-equilibrium as the basis of life at all levels.
For this reason it can be difficult to provide a clear overview of Per Nørgård's oeuvre; however, it would seem possible to divide it into several more or less clearly defined periods. Some commentators use a division into 10-year periods (the 50s, 60s, etc.) and this model can perhaps be said to apply to his personal  (rather than technical) development. Taking part in a panel discussion in 1987, Per Nørgård launched the idea that his oeuvre was apparently divided into 7-year periods. This use of the 'sacred' number may perhaps provoke a wry smile - and was in fact proposed by Nørgård with such a smile on his face - but even so there is some truth in the idea.

The following table, simplified, but not over-simplified, may be used to present Per Nørgård's career as a composer:

1950

50s
'The Universe of the Nordic Mind'

1st Period ( - 59)
'The Universe of the Nordic Mind'

2nd Period (1959 - 66)
'Modernism', experiments

1960

60s
'Modernism', experiments

3rd Period (1966 - 73)
'The psychedelic'

1970

70s
'The hierarchical'

4th Period (1973 - 80)
'The hierarchical, fundamentalist'

1980

80s
'Wölfli, the loner against the collective'

5th Period (1980 - 87)
'Wölfli, the schizoid, conflict'

6th Period (1987 - 94)
'The loner and the collective'

1990

90s
??????

7th Period (1994 - )
?????