The Naiads as electronic music
As a matter of fact, Nørgård has composed quite a lot of electronic music. His best-known works are Den fortryllede Skov (The Enchanted Forest, 1968) produced in the Holstebro Studio for Electronic Music, and Kalendermusik (Calendar Music, 1970), written to accompany the intermission picture on Danish television and produced in the EMS (Elektron-Musik-Studion) in Stockholm: a very ambitious work, which, however, was never fully used for its intended purpose. Listen to a little fragment of this peaceful music.
Per Nørgård in EMS, Stockholm
The Naiads was produced in the composer's own studio, using the very modest equipment noted on the tape sleeve: Jupiter 8 synthesiser, BX-80 mixer, Roland MC-500 keyboard, Hindsberg grand piano.
Nørgård has never tried to present himself as a true composer of electronic music; he has far too many irons in the fire to restrict himself to this. At the same time, it must be said that he is not just experimenting with the medium; he really expresses himself in accordance with its nature.
The Danish tradition
In Sweden, there is a rich tradition for electronic music dating back to the 1950s; whereas in Denmark, not many composers have made a name for themselves in this area. However, one should mention Else Marie Pade (b. 1924), Jørgen Plaetner (b. 1930) and Bent Lorentzen (b. 1935) as important composers in this field. Of a later generation, one can mention Gunner Møller Pedersen (b. 1943).
Et Lydår (A Sound-Year)
Gunner Møller Pedersen has composed a work called Et Lydår (A Sound-Year), 12 pieces of music each lasting half an hour, typifying each of the twelve months of the year. This music was originally composed for the Winter Garden at the Glyptoteket Museum in Copenhagen, where it is played every day, filling the role of a kind of high-quality ambient music. The music was composed with precisely this room in mind, so that plants, splashing fountains and human voices are 'naturally' drawn into it.
However, to describe Et Lydår as ambient music is surely a devaluation of the work. Et Lydår possesses a very refined and well-conceived sound universe, constantly changing and developing, which is far removed from simple 'muzak'.
Aesthetics
The fact is, that Gunner Møller Pedersen's music reflects a very refined aesthetic approach. I am thinking of the fact that in terms of form it is very well planned: the way in which sound patterns, gradual transformations and sudden changes succeed each other. I am also thinking about a quality associated with the sounds: that they do not immediately resemble anything familiar. A very good example of this is that some of the interesting passages in Et Lydår were actually created by rustling paper or striking stainless steel kitchen pans - sounds which were then treated electronically.
There is a very high level of abstraction around the music: the sounds are really just sounds and should be experienced as such; they do not refer to existing instruments or to anything else. They stand alone.
In my view, this is precisely the 'secret' of electronic music. One might think that the sound in certain sections of Et Lydår came from a harp, but then at once it changes, and one seems to be hearing a cembalo, or perhaps a piano? One is not given the opportunity to identify the sound as something familiar - one is really forced to hear the sounds as sound and keep the experience open. As soon as one identifies it as something familiar - "Oh, it's only a piano" - one has closed down this open experience of sound.
In this vein, one can see The Naiads as a piece of electronic music with a very high level of abstraction, as 'real electronic music'. The experience of sound remains 'open', because the sounds do not 'resemble' anything as such.
The high, glistening tone in The Naiads reminds one of some passages in Et Lydår, which of course is also linked to running water, and to the myths of ancient Greek represented in the exhibition at the Glyptoteket museum.
On the other hand, The Naiads is markedly different from Et Lydår, in that it does not include real musical constrasts. This would have been an easy thing for Per Nørgård to do - but he was aiming at something else:
