Ib Nørholm (24 January 1931 in Søborg, Gladsaxe Municipality – 10 June 2019) was a Danish

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

Life and career

Nørholm studied with

Vagn Holmboe Vagn Gylding Holmboe (; 20 December 1909 – 1 September 1996) was a Danish composer and teacher. Early life and education Vagn Holmboe was born in Horsens, Jutland, into a merchant family of dedicated amateur musicians. Both parents played the ...

at the

Royal Danish Academy of Music The Royal Danish Academy of Music, or Royal Danish Conservatory of Music (), in Copenhagen is the oldest professional institution of musical education in Denmark as well as the largest, with approximately 400 students. It was established in 186 ...

, where he later taught (from 1973), becoming a professor in 1981. Among the honours Nørholm has received are the

Gaudeamus International Composers Award The Gaudeamus International Composers Award is made by the Gaudeamus Foundation. The prize is awarded yearly, to a young composer at Dutch music concert, ''Gaudeamus Muziekweek''. The Gaudeamus Foundation had held an annual music week of Dutch ...

in 1964, the Carl Nielsen Prize in 1971 and a

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in 1981. Initially, Nørholm's music was very much in the tradition of

Carl Nielsen Carl August Nielsen (; 9 June 1865 – 3 October 1931) was a Danish composer, conductor, and violinist, widely recognized as his country's most prominent composer. Brought up by poor yet musically talented parents on the island of Funen, he d ...

, as exemplified by his first

symphony A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning c ...

(1956-8). In the 1960s, however, Nørholm began to explore the possibilities of

serialism In music, serialism is a method of composition using series of pitches, rhythms, dynamics, timbres or other musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though some of his contemporaries were also ...

and

graphic score Graphic notation (or graphic score) is the representation of music through the use of visual symbols outside the realm of traditional music notation. Graphic notation became popular in the 1950s, and can be used either in combination with or instea ...

s, having been deeply impressed by his experiences of the music of

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 19255 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. Born in Montb ...

, and others at the

ISCM The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music. The organization was established in Salzburg in 1922 as Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM) following the ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

.Samfundet website Later still his music took on a more economical approach, often characterised by the term '

new simplicity New Simplicity (in German, ''Neue Einfachheit'') was a stylistic tendency amongst some of the younger generation of German composers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, reacting against not only the European avant garde of the 1950s and 1960s, but al ...

'. Compositions by Nørholm include the

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

''The Young Park'' (1969–70), ''Symphony No. 3'' (1973),

sonatas In music a sonata (; pl. ''sonate'') literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cantare'', "to sing"), a piece ''sung''. The term evolved through the Music history, history of music, designating a variety of ...

for

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

(1967) and

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

(1976), ''Idylles d'Apocalypse'' for

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

and

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

(1980), ''Symphony No. 5 'The Elements' ''(1980), ''Immanence'' for solo

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

(1983), ''Aspects of Sand and Simplicity'' for string orchestra (1987), a symphonic fantasy ''Hearing Andersen'' (1987), and the

choral A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

work ''Sjaelfuld Sommer'' (1997). The opera ''Invitation til Skafottet'' ''("Invitation to a Beheading")'' (1965) was commissioned by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation.Mikkel Hauge Kofoed.
Ib Nørholm
, ''DanishMusic.Info'', website of the Danish Arts Agency. In all Nørholm has written twelve symphonies. His second symphony, commissioned by the

Danish National Symphony Orchestra The Danish National Symphony Orchestra (DNSO; ), is a Danish orchestra based in Copenhagen. The DNSO is the principal orchestra of DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation). The DRSO is based at the Koncerthuset () concert hall in Copenhagen. Histo ...

is subtitled ''Isola Bella'', and the fourth symphony is subtitled ''Moderskabelsen'' ''("Mother Creation")''. The première of his twelfth symphony, ''Virkeligheder'' on texts by Thorkild Bjørnvig, Lene Henningsen and Inger Christensen, took place in Odense on 28 April 2011. In addition to his activities as a composer, Nørholm was a prolific music critic and choral conductor. He died on 10 June 2019, aged 88.

Selected works

Orchestral music

*Thirteen symphonies (1956–58, 1968–71, 1973, 1978–79, 1980–81, 1981, 1982, 1990, 1990, 1998, 2008, 2009, 2013) *Concerto for violin and orchestra (1974) *Concerto for cello and orchestra (1989)

Chamber music

*''Mosaic: Recitative Fragments'', op. 15 (1959) for flute, violin, viola and cello *''Varianter'', op. 19 (1959) for violin and piano *''Præludium til min vintermorgen'' (''Prelude to my Winter Morning''), op. 52 (1971) for flute, violin, viola, cello and piano *''Kontrast-Kontinuum'', op. 70 (1977) for flute quartet *''Så at sige'' (''So to Say''), op. 74 (1978) for flute and percussion *''Essai prismatique'', op. 77 (1979) for violin, cello and piano *''Before Silence'', op. 83 (1980) for flute trio *''Den ortodokse drøm'' (''The Orthodox Dream''), op. 92 (1984) for flute, cello and harpsichord *''Medusa's Shadow'', op. 105 (1987) for flute, guitar, viola and cello *Saxophone Quartet (1992) *''Nu og Da'' (2000–01) for voices and string quartet *''Jubilate Deo in Primavere'' (2005) for flute, saxophone and percussion

Songs

*3 Songs, Op. 3b : No. 1 Critique Of Gold No. 2 The Condemned Speak Of Their Country No. 3 Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

Solo instrumental music

*Sonata No. 1, op. 69 (1976) for guitar *''Turbulens-Laminar'', op. 93 (1984) for piano *Sonata No. 2, op. 110 (1989) for guitar *''A Song of Breath and Wings'' (2002) for clarinet

References

External links

Edition S
website, ''Ib Nørholm'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Norholm, Ib 1931 births 2019 deaths Danish male classical composers 20th-century Danish classical composers 21st-century Danish classical composers Gaudeamus Composition Competition prize-winners People from Gladsaxe Municipality Musicians from the Capital Region of Denmark Royal Danish Academy of Music alumni Danish classical organists Danish male classical organists Pupils of Vagn Holmboe 21st-century Danish organists 20th-century Danish male musicians 21st-century Danish male musicians