Vintersalme-musik (1980)

Per Nørgård (b. 1932) — Vintersalme-musik (1980) for organ

“The passing year will pass its deep
So shall our mind reach winter´s sleep.
And as the tree stands leafless, bare,
Is winter’s realms: our minds aware.”

Ole Sarvig (1921–1981)

After completing his landmark third symphony (1972–75), which was the first complete manifestation of Nørgård’s “infinity series” (integrating the three series for melody, harmony, and rhythm together for the first time), he used some of the symphony’s musical material to produce several smaller works. One of them was an original chorale/hymn “Året” (The Year) to a text by Ole Sarvig. This hymn was included in the 2003 edition of the Danish Hymn Book. In the years that followed Nørgård used this hymn itself for various subsequent works, including this chorale prelude for organ, inspired by the “winter” verse of Sarvig’s text. (The original chorale tune is designed so that it can be harmonized by itself in several different tempo relationships, the effect of which the composer compares to fractals.)

Danish composer Per Nørgård (b. 1932) was born in Gentofte and studied with Vagn Holmboe at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Widely considered one of the most important Scandinavian composers of his generation, he has written music in many genres, including six operas, two ballets, eight symphonies, other orchestral works/concerti, choral and vocal music, and a large catalog chamber music, including 10 string quartets. Since the late 1950s, many of Nørgård’s works feature his “infinity series” (Uendelighedsrækken), a personal method that generates endless self-similar pitch patterns via projection which has been likened to a musical equivalent of fractal geometry.

Published by Edition Wilhelm Hansen in “Orgelbogen”