“I naturally only compose because I think the world lacks something in the music, and now I am going to make that lack because I lack it… So in this way, I always work with new ideas, ideas of my own. And then hopefully it will one day become ideas for other persons too. But the important thing for me is to be open for new ideas in my inner world…”
Per Nørgård (b. 1932) is generally considered the most prominent Danish composer since Carl Nielsen. Fascinated by mathematics, he is associated with the serial compositional system, “infinity series”, which is displayed in his I Ching (1982) for percussion solo and his Symphony No. 3.
More recently, his music borders on surrealism, with “time-breezes” that, as displayed in the piano concerto Concerto in Due Tempi (1995), “force its way into an unknown, dark and fascinating shadow land.” His prizes include the Nordic Council Music Prize (1974) for his opera Gilgamesh, the $200,000 Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music (2014) by the New York Philharmonic, and most recently, the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (2016).
On October 1, Musiqa presents Nørgård’s Re-percussion, as part of “Sustained by Breath and Line” performance at the MATCH. Scored for two percussionists playing a variety of pitched and unpitched instruments, the work features steel drums among its many exotic tone colors. It is a propulsive and energetic work, with cross-accents and rapid riffs traded between the two players. The work’s rhythmic momentum rarely relaxes: the final measures fade away with the percussionists still busily performing their intricate patterns.