Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996)

[Parsifal]

This just reminds me I have to find time to listen to the Holmboe Symphonies again (such fine performances and such superb sonics) and start on the quartets. 

[Mirror Image]

I would like to revoke my previous comments made about Holmboe and, in particular, the Hughes symphony set on BIS. I'm listening to Symphony No. 2 right now and this is freakin' fantastic! Where was my mind two years when I heard this symphony and thought "I don't like this"? It's just another example of how the mind grows with more musical experience. Of course, there are some composers that I haven't come around to, but I'm really enjoying Holmboe's music now.

[Madiel]

 

Edit: It's okay, you're in reasonable company, seeing as how the 2nd symphony was eliminated in the first round of the competition that it subsequently won after being reinstated.

[Mirror Image]

All good things come to those who wait.

[Madiel]

Even as someone who 'knows' I consistently like Holmboe, an awful lot of his pieces don't unlock for several listens.  Even when I come back to something I've previously listened to, it can take several attempts to feel like I'm really getting the rewards from it.  Not least because so often the rewards are in the large-scale structure, not the details along the way.

(String Quartet No.8 is quite weird and not entirely working for me as a complete work just now.  But then, String Quartet No.7 came more and more alive over half a dozen listens yesterday and the day before.)

[Mirror Image]

Even as someone who 'knows' I consistently like Holmboe, an awful lot of his pieces don't unlock for several listens.  Even when I come back to something I've previously listened to, it can take several attempts to feel like I'm really getting the rewards from it.  Not least because so often the rewards are in the large-scale structure, not the details along the way.

(String Quartet No.8 is quite weird and not entirely working for me as a complete work just now.  But then, String Quartet No.7 came more and more alive over half a dozen listens yesterday and the day before.)

I'm one of those listeners that likes to take breaks from composers that I don't quite like on first or even fourth hearing. I think my problem with Holmboe was the simple matter of biting off more than I could chew. I tried to listen to all of his symphonies over a period of two days and that's just impossible. Of course I'm not going to "get" a composer that I've tried to force feed down my throat. Lesson learned here. Let things happen and if they don't, then they don't, but don't be afraid to try again just be careful not to overindulge.

[Madiel]

I tried to listen to all of his symphonies over a period of two days and that's just impossible.

  Hell yes.

[Mirror Image]

  Hell yes.

[Madiel]

So, just curious, was Symphony No.2 your starting point this time around, or had you tried others?

[Mirror Image]

So, just curious, was Symphony No.2 your starting point this time around, or had you tried others?

It was my starting point and then I listened to Sinfonia in Memoriam. Both works are coupled together in the box set.

[Mirror Image]

Last night, I listened to Holmboe's Symphonies 4 & 5. Really great! I liked the 5th much better than the 4th, although it did has some beautiful sections, especially in the slow movement. The 5th was much more concise, which is what I was expected, especially with it's three-movement structure.

[Christo]

At last.   

[Madiel]

Last night, I listened to Holmboe's Symphonies 4 & 5. Really great! I liked the 5th much better than the 4th, although it did has some beautiful sections, especially in the slow movement. The 5th was much more concise, which is what I was expected, especially with it's three-movement structure.

I'm not really a fan of the 4th, except for the Gloria. Partly it's that I don't find the text very convincing. I'm also not that well-versed in choral works generally, and certainly not in Holmboe's extensive contribution to the genre (it's on the to-do list).

The 5th, on the other hand, is the very first one of his works I listened to (following the recommendation of the Penguin Guide that it was a good entry-point) and I've always enjoyed it.  The first movement actually reminds me of the first movement of Beethoven's 5th, in that both have a fairly relentless rhythm and construct a movement out of very few motifs.

[Mirror Image]

At last.   

[Mirror Image]

I'm not really a fan of the 4th, except for the Gloria. Partly it's that I don't find the text very convincing. I'm also not that well-versed in choral works generally, and certainly not in Holmboe's extensive contribution to the genre (it's on the to-do list).

The 5th, on the other hand, is the very first one of his works I listened to (following the recommendation of the Penguin Guide that it was a good entry-point) and I've always enjoyed it.  The first movement actually reminds me of the first movement of Beethoven's 5th, in that both have a fairly relentless rhythm and construct a movement out of very few motifs.

I did like the 5th a lot more, but the 4th wasn't bad at all. Would I listen to it very often? Of course not but this doesn't mean that I didn't at least get something out of it.

[Madiel]

The 11th string quartet, the 'Rustico', is a real delight. I think it's my favourite so far on my April numerical listening tour.  I'm pretty certain none of the others have left me with a grin on my face at the end.

[Madiel]

Up to quartet no.17. Still going... not worn out yet 

No.13 was actually one of the ones I had difficulty with this time around, surprisingly.

[snyprrr]

Up to quartet no.17. Still going... not worn out yet 

No.13 was actually one of the ones I had difficulty with this time around, surprisingly.

We want a full overview!!

I still find the sonics on these cds a bit tight and wiry, no?

[Madiel]

We want a full overview!!

I still find the sonics on these cds a bit tight and wiry, no?

A full overview... I should have been taking written notes, it's been so long since the first three... I'll still be able to give you some very general impressions, eg I definitely feel that the quartets divide into a number of different chronological groups.

And then I'm actually considering listening to them in more rapid-fire succession, jumping through the chronology, next week.

They are on the tight and wiry side, particularly the first couple of volumes, but as someone has said previously (Karl?) it does tend to suit the music reasonably well.  I don't find myself wanting a more romantic sort of bloom. And the great slower movements in some of the quartets (eg the andantes in 11 and 12) still work. I suppose they come across as passionate rather than especially smooth and rich.

[Madiel]

And so, today I have reached quartet no.20.  Twenty quartets on 26 days.

Wow.

We all know I'm an obsessive Holmboe nut, so it's no surprise that I have the urge to go back and deepen my knowledge of these works again.  It would be interesting to see how many of them I could 'get' on a first listen now.  It's extremely common for me to listen to a Holmboe piece - even the symphonies which I've owned for quite a few years now - several times over the space of a few days, before I really feel like I'm grasping the flow of the music.  And what I love about Holmboe is that flow, from one movement to another and across a whole work.

There aren't that many of these quartets that communicate to me in a really direct, immediate fashion.  Quartet No.11, the 'Rustico', is one that does, which I think is why it's currently my favourite.  It's relatively easy to connect to its strong rhythms and pastoral feel.  I think there are several other 'pastoral' quartets as well - numbers 2, 16 and 17 all give me that sense.

Some of the quartets I had thought had communicated to me well on the first listen in previous months were slightly more difficult this time. The real surprise was no.13 - my recollection had been that this was one I responded to immediately, but this time it was one I struggled with. In other cases, ones that I didn't think I had really responded to the first time made a stronger impression this time - no.19 is an example.  But every quartet has its rewards.

I do think there are some groupings within the works, but on the whole Holmboe's style is remarkably consistent. It should be remembered there are no 'early' works in the numbered quartet series.  Quartet No.1 is opus 46 and Holmboe was already close to 40 years old.

Quartets 1 to 3 were essentially written together, although I do think quartet no.3 is a little different - it is bleaker and has some similarities with quartets 4 and 5, which tend to use simpler textures and are more direct than their predecessors.

Quartets 6 to 8 are, to me, definitely the most complex-sounding and challenging works in the series. There seems to be something about Holmboe's music in the 1960s that is tougher than his work before or after... I think I've read in a couple of places a suggestion that he felt challenged/influenced by some of his former pupils who thought his music wasn't 'modern' enough.  This is still recognisably the same composer though.

Quartet 9 goes back to textures more similar to quartets 4 and 5 - MusicWeb describes it as 'Bachian' and I think the description is apt.  Quartet 10 is somewhat similar although it has a little more of the flavour of quartets 6 to 8 in it.

Quartet 11, the 'Rustico', is notably more sprightly and vibrant and is one of the most cheerful works.  Quartet 12 is also quite energetic.  Both of these quartets have particularly superb Andantes as their longest movement.  Quartets 13 and 14 are relatively dreamy and light-textured - this is something that I've seen commented on with some other Holmboe from the 1970s period, so it seems to be one of those little shifts in his style.

Quartets 15 and 16 are both particularly compact works, relatively direct in their expression, probably more similar to 11 than to their immediate predecessors.

And then, quartets 17 to 20 which feature titles from different periods of the day.  Listening to them again, I honestly don't know where this idea came from that they are more austere than the previous quartets.  They're full of energy and vitality.  They all have 6 movements, but trace different kinds of arcs.  What they seem to have in common is a gradual moving away from the starting point, so that movements 4 and 5 are quite different in character from the beginning, before the final movement returns back to something more like the starting point.  No.17 is warm and pastoral (but is considerably less warm in the 4th and 5th movements).  No.18 starts full of uncertainty and fluttering before gradually becoming more controlled.  No.19 is firm and darkly energetic but becomes smoother and serene before the opening of the finale disrupts everything again.  And No.20 seems to be about the breakdown of rhythm before the finale comes back with an ostinato.