Violin concerto

"Helle Nacht" (Light Night)

by Svend Hvidtfeldt Nielsen



    Composed 1986-87
    Dedicated to Anton Kontra
    First performance 22.3.1988 at Holmeager School, Greve. The Zealand Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Okku Kamu. Soloist: Anton Kontra.
    Length: 23 minutes


This work is the third of three solo concertos, all for a string instrument, composed by Per Nørgård within a short space of time. This even more remarkable in the light of the fact that he had not previously occupied himself with solo concertos.

The first of these concertos, Between for cello and orchestra (1985), was commissioned by the Royal Danish Academy of Music, which by commissioning a series of works in 1985 helped to breathe new life into this somewhat disregarded genre.

The second concerto, Remembering Child, for viola and chamber orchestra, was dedicated to and performed for the first time by Pinchas Zukerman (1985-86).

[Unfortunately, there are no music samples in this section, as we do not have an agreement with the record company. jm]


About the work

This violin concerto was composed while Nørgård was working on his Fifth Symphony. In fact, the last movement is directly based on material originally intended for inclusion in this symphony. Per Nørgård used this work to try out some important compositional innovations which came to characterise his work in the following years.

... poetic,
lyrical...

Despite its technical complexity, the concerto comes over as a poetic, lyrical work of a singular and immediate beauty. The composer, Svend Aaquist, wrote as follows in his review of the work in DMT:

    Per Nørgård's new violin concerto, "Helle Nacht", is a delightful work all through: expansive, full of contrasts and yet a solid unity; concertante and symphonic, free as an improvisation and yet tightly constructed, wastefully generous and yet economical.

In other words, it seems one is entitled to conclude, a multi-layered work!

The work is divided into four relatively short movements, each possessing its own musical form of expression, and each composed with a particular idea in mind.  It is true of all the movements that the solo part is very melodic, almost singable. This is especially the case in the two delicate middle movements.
Chamber music style

Here, in an ambience which in terms of instruments reminds one of chamber music, the soloist plays in a tonal language that appears familiar, a dialect seemingly comprehensible, and yet it has not be heard before (though perhaps...).

The first and final movements offer a greater degree of dynamic movement, although large sections of the first movement are also in chamber music style, with a lyrical melody that bears the theme throughout.

In the last movement, the full symphonic potential of the orchestra is exploited in an explosive passage which gradually dies away to calm.
Multiplicity of meaning

In a programme note on the occasion of the first performance of the work, the composer himself wrote that the "inner, fundamental principle" of all four movements was multiplicity of meaning.



General structure - an overview

In his review, Svend Aaquist offered the following spontaneous, and very apposite, description of the composition:

    The first movement has two basic and contrasting characteristics: one is a quiet, singing melody (from an early song by Nørgård), and the other is a "scherzando grazioso", a title to which one could add "e diabolico". The form suggests a reprise, with a short, dramatic solo cadence situated in about the right place.

    The second movement is an Adagio, a sort of "theme with variations", if you will. Or perhaps rather a chaconne with episodes, in which the strict maintenance by the orchestra of a 3-6 beat "thematic" structure, gives the variations an air of time frozen, of a situation played through experimentally in various ways, whilst freer melodic expressions, heart-rending in their vulnerability, assert themselves from time to time.

    The third movement, Allegretto leggiero, is a dance of the kind one expects to hear in a symphony. A dance which expresses a quite un-classical sensuality, rhythmically labile, at one and the same time organically organised, familiar, and yet completely unpredictable.

    The fourth movement is a genuine finale, moving inexorably forwards towards a highly dramatic, sudden ending - an impression which is in no way weakened by a candid recognition of the fact that the ending is a clear-cut retrogression to the beginning.



More detailed comments

The following more precise comments can be made:

  1. In the second movement, it is quite true that the orchestra plays a sort of passacaglia, while the soloist points up the various melody lines of which the "passacaglia" is composed.
  2. In the third movement, the soloist's melody line consists of four different melodies, which are brought to the fore by different sections of the orchestra.
  3. The fourth movement, apart from the introductory and concluding solo cadence, is composed as one long ritardando. Per Nørgård has created this ritardando by using two different techniques:

In the first half, the ritardando comes about as a plunge down into a fixed scale that "whirrs along" at a slower and slower rate. At first only the initial notes of the series can be heard, then the first and middle notes, and so on, until the whole series can be heard. This scale is the so-called "super sequence".

In the second half, the ritardando is formed by emphasising ever slower pulsations in a polyrhythmic pattern. That is, from quintuplets to sixteenths, from triplets to quintuplet-eighths, etc. The thematic material in this section has been quarried out of a theme brought in from the first movement.



Its place in Nørgård's oeuvre

As an example of the new multiplicity of meaning that has characterised Nørgård's oeuvre up to the present day, this work enjoys a very central position. This multiplicity is based on the existence of several musical layers of equal value, which - in contrast to the multiplicity of levels found in works before the infinity series - are generally contrasting and only rarely combined. The themes found in these layers can, if required, be used to form infinity series, which can be used when their hierarchical qualities are called for.


ESSAY

On multiplicity of meaning in Helle Nacht

    I dream of a sort of music in which the musical forms provide both a foreground and a background for each other.

This a loose quotation from Per Nørgård talking about his own music in an interview on the occasion of his 60th birthday, but could very suitably be used as a heading for the violin concerto composed five years earlier, Helle Nacht (1986-87).


Who is the accompanist?

Who is carrying the tune?

In one sense, musical forms always provide both a foreground and a background for each other - as in the case of a tune with an accompaniment, for example. In this case, the accompaniment forms the background for the tune.

On the other hand, the kind of music Per Nørgård is thinking of is music in which it has not been decided in advance what is the theme and what is the accompaniment.

The title itself, 'Helle Nacht', reflects this situation. Either one can focus on the light in 'Helle', or on the darkness in 'Nacht'. There is a certain sense in which these two concepts cancel each other out, but even so the whole is not meaningless, but creates its own special, unique form of expression.

The violin concerto consists of four movements:

  1. Allegro moderato
  2. Adagio
  3. Allegro leggiéro
  4. Poco Allegro



Two ...




... and two

Each of these movements presents its own version of how music in which the forms provide both foreground and background for each other, might look.

The first and fourth movements share a degree of thematic similarity - in fact, the first movement breaks into the last movement at a certain point. Moreover, they are related to each other as opposite poles: the first movement has a stable tempo and evolves in free association, whereas the last movement is conceived as one large ritardando, composed within a rigid framework. Both movements are Allegro, and primarily extrovert in their style of expression.


The middle movements are in a quieter tempo, with an introverted, lyrical style of expression. They, too, constitute opposite poles in relation to each other. This opposition consists in the way they each exemplify the idea of the mutual foreground/background relationship of musical forms. The second movement has the solo violin extract a melody from a characteristic orchestral backdrop, whilst inversely, the third movement has the orchestra extract popular melody lines out of the violin's solo line, which has apparently grown wild.


Foreground-background

As we have said, each movement expresses the foreground/background relationship in its own way. This relationship has to be understood in a wider sense than, for example, in a Bach fugue, where themes more from part to part in co-operation with a counterpoint.
Free polyphony
 In Nørgård's music, the various elements that make up a movement are often very different and originate from very different musical worlds: in the same way as in much of Olivier Messiaen's music and that of Charles Ives (choosing these composers largely to illustrate Nørgård's breadth of vision). In Nørgård's case, however, their reciprocal relationship is governed by a special purpose. The listener must be able to follow the lines and choose what she or he wants to focus on, thus gaining the opportunity to experience the coexistence of elements which are comprehensible in themselves, and which, each with its own tempo and sound landscape, can be united in a mutually fruitful manner, the one shedding light on the other, if you like.


Perception games

The experience one is thus able to take in aurally is not unlike another one in the visual sphere. Per Nørgård once described the following experiment, which can be used to illustrate his musical thoughts:

LIke a double image

1: place two almost identical photos in front of you! These could be [..] a portrait with two expressions, one smiling, for example, [..] the other a little downcast [..]. 2: Squint - so that the two photos are united in one visual image [..]. 3. [..] it proves [..] to be very difficult, though possible with a great effort of will, to see both pictures at the same time.[..] In this way, one can get the double image to smile or be serious, but also - with practice - to 'segment itself in layers', so that, for example, the smiling mouth from the first photo is in one's field of vision along with the sad eyes [..]  
(from 'Et tilbageblik - undervejs!' (Retrospect - while moving forwards). In: Per Nørgård Artikler 1962-1982 p. 302).


 

Articles (in Danish or English) about the violin concerto "Helle Nacht"

Per Nørgård:
Henimod en optimalt økonomisk signalsystematik (DMT 4 87/88)

Svend Aaquist:
Den fraktale flod i den lyse nat (DMT 5/6 87/88)

Svend Hvidtfelt Nielsen:
Helle Nacht, en præsentation af Per Nørgårds violinkoncert (DMT Vol. 6 88/89)

Erling Kullberg: Per Nørgård og den delte opmærksomhed. Homage to Søren Sørensen 1990.

Anders Beyer Christensen: Attraction and Repulsion. In: The Music of Per Nørgård (1996).