Knut Wiggen (1927– 2016) was a Norwegian-Swedish composer. Wiggen was head of the

Fylkingen Fylkingen - New Music and Intermedia Art is an artist-run venue and member based organisation committed to contemporary experimental performing arts. Over 300 artists from various disciplines use the space to develop and present new work. Today Fy ...

in Sweden (1959–69) and director of (1964-75). He had a significant influence on Swedish experimental music at all, but especially between the 1950s and 1960s.

Biography

Wiggen was born in 1927 in

Buvika Buvika is a village in the municipality of Skaun in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located at the end of the Gaulosen, an arm of the Trondheimsfjord, about southwest of the mouth of the Gaula River. Buvika lies along the European route E39, ...

, near

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

. After being raised in Trondheim, Wiggen settled in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

(1955). He studied piano with ,

Hans Leygraf Hans Leygraf (7 September 1920 – 12 February 2011) was a Swedish pianist, music educator, conductor and composer. Life Born in Stockholm, Leygraf studied piano with in Stockholm and Anna Hirzel-Langenhan in Switzerland. He was one of Sweden ...

, and

Robert Riefling Robert Dankwart Leo Riefling (17 September 1911 – 1 July 1988) was a Norwegian classical pianist and pedagogist. He was regarded among Scandinavia's leading pianists, and toured all over the western world. He was a Professor in Copenhagen fro ...

, before arriving at

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

where he attended composition studies under Karl-Birger Blomdahlkom and was associated with both Darmstadtskolen and

Pierre Schaeffer Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer (English pronunciation: , ; 14 August 1910 – 19 August 1995) was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist, acoustician and founder of Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète (GRMC). His innov ...

Fylkingen

In 1959, he was elected president of Fylkingen. Wiggen started trying to create new connections between art, music and technology, including in collaboration with

Moderna Museet Moderna Museet ("the Museum of Modern Art"), Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened a new branch in Malmö in t ...

, where

Pontus Hultén Karl Gunnar Vougt Pontus Hultén (21 June 1924 – 26 October 2006) was a Swedish art collector and museum director. Pontus Hultén is regarded as one of the most distinguished museum professionals of the twentieth century. He was the pioneering f ...

just had become leader.

EMS studio

In 1963 he started a small electroacoustic studio in ABF's premises in Stockholm where among others Gottfried Michael Koenig,

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century" ...

and

Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; el, Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde ...

came to hold courses in composition, where for example Lars-Gunnar Bodin and Bengt Emil Johnson attended. ''In 1962 the foundation Stockholm studio for elektronisk musikk'', initiated a first draft of an electronic music studio, that Wiggen together with engineer Tage Westlund started to build the same year. The studio would get the name Elektronmusikstudion EMS. Two years later

Sveriges Radio Sveriges Radio AB (, "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a licensing fee, the level of which is d ...

developed a studio under the direction of Wiggen, and in 1967 the studio was ready for use. The studio continued under the auspices of Swedish Radio until 1969, when it separated to become its own entity. Wiggen led the work with EMS until 1975.

MUSICBOX

Along with the American David Fahrland, Wiggen created the audio control program MUSICBOX which is used in the composition of electronic music. There is now only five original compositions of those Wiggen created with MusicBox in 1971, to be heard. Due to the conflict, Wiggen left EMS in 1975 and moved back to Norway, where he removed all the documentation of MUSICBOX. Wiggen was married to Aina Karine Wiggen until 1952, and from 1962 to 1967 with the artist Ulla Wiggen (b. 1942).

Honors

* 2003: 'Studio Wiggen' was created by NOTAM in Oslo * 2009: Awarded Honorary Membership of the Norsk Komponistforening (NKF) * 2010: Kongens fortjenstmedalje in silver

References

External links

Knut Wiggens hjemmeside

Knut Wiggen
på Libris (bibliotekskatalog)
Dödsnotis - Dagens Nyheter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiggen, Knut 2016 deaths 1927 births Norwegian composers Norwegian male composers Musicians from Trondheim