"He is regarded as the contemporary Norwegian composer who has achieved the greatest recognition beyond the borders of his own country."

Norwegian composer Arne Nordheim (1931-2010) made his international breakthrough at the beginning of the 60s, and since then his works have been played by the world's leading orchestras and performers. He is regarded as the contemporary Norwegian composer who has achieved the greatest recognition beyond the borders of his own country.

Nordheim's name is inextricably linked to the arrival of musical modernism in Norway. In his roles as composer, music critic and champion of composers' rights, he ensured that international trends gained a foothold during a period when Norwegian music was still influenced by national romanticism, as was the rest of the Norwegian art world in the wake of World War II.

The young composers growing up during the war knew from personal experience what it was like to be isolated from the rest of the world. As soon as the war was over, many of them left the country for studies abroad. They had a pressing need to gain new inspiration through contact with people in other countries who shared their interests.

Much of the music composed by Nordheim's generation in the 50s had links with international trends. Before, it had not been difficult to hear the Norwegian sound in music; now it was impossible to hear whether a composer came from Norway or from somewhere else in Europe. The struggle to break out of isolation came to play a major role in Nordheim's works. The underlying motifs of his compositions are almost always communication and international understanding.

As Nordheim studied at the Music Conservatory in Oslo there were few possibilities to hear and study contemporary music. Together with a small group of fellow students he tried to comprehend contemporary music by studying expensive musical scores and recordings.

Nordheim financed his studies by working on the docks, as a telegraph messenger and as a choir conductor. During his studies in Copenhagen, composer Vagn Holmboe introduced him to the music of Béla Bartók, and in Paris in 1955 he became aware of electronic music, musique concréte, which was based on recordings of music and sounds that were processed electronically. Then Nordheim became a pioneer in the field of electronic music in Norway after further studies in Warsaw and Stockholm.

Nordic Music Days and the Young Nordic Music Festival were inspiring venues for young Nordic composers. Nordheim's meeting with the Swedish avant-garde and the Hungarian composer Györgi Ligeti, at the time a guest lecturer in Stockholm, had a decisive impact on his development.

Nordheim had his breakthrough as a composer with the song cycle Aftonland (Evening Land) in 1956, and in the course of a few years he had written Canzona (1960) and Epitaffio (1963), works that attracted attention far beyond the borders of his own country.

In the 60s, avant-garde music swept over Norway like a tidal wave.  At that time Norway had still not managed to catch up with international music trends after the isolation of the war years. Consequently, it is not difficult to imagine how unprepared audiences and performers were for electronic music and other radical musical genres.

In retrospect one must stand in awe of the strength he had then.  When both musicians and audiences were vociferous in their dislike and mistrust of the music he composed, it must have taken an enormous amount of self-confidence to carry on. Perhaps the answer is easy: he gained his confidence abroad.  Epitaffio and Eco were first performed in Stockholm, Greening was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and its conductor Zubin Mehta, Spur saw the light of day in Baden-Baden, Ariadne in the Netherlands, the ballet The Tempest in Schwetzingen, and Tenebrae in Washington. Magma was commissioned by the Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Tractatus was planned to premiere in Toronto, Canada.

Moreover, it was not only leading orchestras that commissioned and played Nordheim’s works. The fact that musicians such as Dorothy Dorow, Peter Pears and Mstislav Rostropovitch first performed many of his compositions for solo instruments also attracted attention. With support from these world-famous figures, Nordheim could face the Norwegian music community with his head held high, and the turning point and breakthrough for his position at home came when his and Glen Tetley’s ballet The Tempest was presented at the Norwegian National Opera in 1980.

During the following 25 years Nordheim composed many of his best compositions. Among them are Partita für Paul for violin with electronic delay (1985), Magic Island for soprano, baritone and chamber orchestra (1992), the violin concerto, the oratorio Nidaros for 6 voices, boy's voice, mixed choir, children's choir, orchestra (1997). Arne Nordheim's latest large-scale work was Fono for trombone and orchestra (2005).

Nordheim's musical journey through the past and present is related to his awe for human existence. It is almost as though he wants to free himself from his own place in time. Many of his works concern life and death, the dead (Epitaffio, Aftonland (Evening Land), loneliness, Earth, peace and human rights (Pace). His music is like waves on the sea of life, carrying with it memories of the past, while he tries to use it to interpret the future. Where do I come from? What am I doing here? Where am I going? These are words and phrases that often inspired his musical imagination, not only because of the world of sound they represent or are shaped into, but also because it is challenging to let music express deeply-felt thoughts.

Arne Nordheim died on 5 June 2010. He has finally got an answer on his questions. In the poem And everything will sing the poet Stein Mehren set word on what was Nordheim’s primary concern: "We are waiting for  signs of what is to come – a song that can open the mirrors - We call it origin and end -  Then everything shall all sing ..."

Profile © Harald Herresthal
Professor, Norwegian State Academy of Music

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