Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996)

[Jo498]

The sonnet above hardly supports Calyptorhynchus thesis but without all the texts it is impossible to evaluate it.
I seriously doubt on the basis of the poem in #495 above that the texts have the simplistic "chick tract style" message (struck with madness 'cause forbidden thoughts) attributed to them in his point 3.

[Madiel]

I shall to have to do my own translation, because then I'll own the copyright on it!

[Karl Henning]

I shall to have to do my own translation, because then I'll own the copyright on it!

Winning!  As long as you secure permission to translate the source . . . .

[Madiel]

Or wait until 2075...

By the way, having tried to find something on Thorkild Bjørnvig, I found a short biography describing him as a "religious atheist" - reportedly a term he came up with to describe someone else, but the author of this biography evidently found it appropriate for Bjørnvig.

Ambiguous, then.

[Jo498]

As I said, I cannot really imagine even a halfway serious explicitly christian reception/evaluation from the 1950s to be on such a "Chick tract" level. (That's not to say that there might be quite a bit on that level, too...).
Bjornvig rather seems to see Nietzsche as a tragic figure. Which is not hard even on a superficial level: Very obviously he was not *physically" an Achillean superman even before his mental condition became worse. And don't forget that even most Homerian superheroes are tragic figures in the end.

[Madiel]

Well, I think it's offensive to write a Requiem for someone who was never a Christian, pretty much like the Mormons posthumously rebaptising people into the LDS.

It's taken me days to grasp this point...

Why on earth did you ever buy the CD in the first place? It's called "Requiem for Nietzsche", you knew that was the title, and now you're declaring the very idea offensive.

[Karl Henning]

It's a terribly fuzzy point, too.

Back to the music, though:  Listening to Kairos at last.

[Madiel]

I'm still thinking about the Requiem because I'm still listening to the Requiem. I actually used an audio editing program to create an 11-track version rather than 5-track one. I've pulled it apart, next I'll put it all back together again.

And then finally move on to opus 85!

[Karl Henning]

I'm still thinking about the Requiem because I'm still listening to the Requiem. I actually used an audio editing program to create an 11-track version rather than 5-track one. I've pulled it apart, next I'll put it all back together again.

And then finally move on to opus 85!

I admire your order! 

And the Requiem for Nietzsche is a piece worth dwelling upon.

[calyptorhynchus]

It's taken me days to grasp this point...

Why on earth did you ever buy the CD in the first place? It's called "Requiem for Nietzsche", you knew that was the title, and now you're declaring the very idea offensive.

Hoping for a postmodern exploration of Nietszche's thought, critiquing it in terms that weren't doctrinaire Christian.

[Madiel]

If you think that's "doctrinaire Christian", you really haven't been anywhere near a church in a very long time indeed.

But even if it was, it's still highly bemusing for you to now being saying that a 'Requiem' is inherently wrong, when that's the title of the piece. And it's not remotely a conventional Requiem, yet you still complain about it being a Requiem... so was there actually the slightest hope that a piece called 'Requiem' was going to meet your requirements? It seems most unlikely.

[calyptorhynchus]

If you think that's "doctrinaire Christian", you really haven't been anywhere near a church in a very long time indeed.

But even if it was, it's still highly bemusing for you to now being saying that a 'Requiem' is inherently wrong, when that's the title of the piece. And it's not remotely a conventional Requiem, yet you still complain about it being a Requiem... so was there actually the slightest hope that a piece called 'Requiem' was going to meet your requirements? It seems most unlikely.

No, I haven't been near a church for 30 years, however, I do know more about Christian theology and church history than most.

"Requiem" could have been used ironically.

[Scion7]

As far as I have been able to find, very little of Holmboe's piano music has been issued.  I'd like to hear the sonatas some time.

[Turner]

As far as I have been able to find, very little of Holmboe's piano music has been issued.  I'd like to hear the sonatas some time.

Hm - sonatas? The work list doesn´t comprise any, except a sonatina, recorded by Blyme

http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/works/709/27

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/May02/Holmboe_piano.htm

[ptr]

I have a few Danish-pressed Jazz LP's, but never picked up anything Classical back in the day .... today you'd have to pay the big bucks for anything like that on eBay.    I see some re-issues on CD by the Copenhagen String Quartet but not these.

I wouldn't know about prices, never buy anything of auction sites. Have bought most of my "Fona" LP's second-hand in Copenhagen, don't think I paid more then $2-3 each, even for factory sealed ones... There used to be a Danish site who listed all the classical releases on Fona, but my 15 year old bookmark don't seem to work any more... 

/ptr

[Scion7]

Kbd:

Scherzo, pf, 1928;
Sonata pf, 1929;
Sonata, pf, 1930;
3 suites, pf, 1930–33;
.... etc.

- The Grove

[Madiel]

Kbd:

Scherzo, pf, 1928;
Sonata pf, 1929;
Sonata, pf, 1930;
3 suites, pf, 1930–33;
.... etc.

- The Grove

Very, very early stuff. I'm not sure how characteristic it would be. To be honest, most of the stuff that Blyme fills his disc with is not all that memorable. He's got one towering craggy work, Suono da bardo, and then the rest is rather piecemeal.

It's actually rather surprising how little piano music Holmboe wrote once he got as far as opus numbers. There's this huge list in the late 1920s and early 1930s, but then it really peters out.

What I'd like to see is someone having a go at the two works from later on, Moto austero op.88 and I venti op.99.

[Madiel]

The second episode of the "P2 Koncerten" podcast (originally aired back on 9 April 2013) is all about the "Holmboe in Horsens" music festival.

I'm listening both for the music and for some Danish practice. And while my Danish is rudimentary, I swear, halfway through the episode they are interviewing Vagn Holmboe's son.

[Madiel]

A couple of hours ago, I came across not one but two previously unknown Holmboe recordings. One of them large.

So into the discography they go: http://vagn-holmboe-discography.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/new-faroese-discoveries.html

For fans of choral music in Faroese!

[Madiel]

Hi there,

Remember when I said I was going to look at all the Holmboe concertos? Well, sorry about the delay, but it's nothing compared to the 18 or 19 years it took for Holmboe to write another one!

The Cello Concerto turned up in 1974.

[asin]B000027F9P[/asin]

The rather interesting thing about the only recording is that it coincided with the premiere in late 1975 - there are some extraneous noises that suggest this actually comes from the premiere and another performance the following day. Holmboe revised the concerto in 1979, so there isn't yet a recording of the revised version. The recording is not quite up to the best modern standards in my opinion, and I do feel it affects my enjoyment of the piece a little.

The long gap since the last concerto (the 13th and last in the numbered series) is significant, because we've entirely skipped one of the phases of Holmboe's musical development. There aren't any concertos from the relatively experimental period in the 1960s. Now, in the 1970s, he's arguably gone back to something a bit more similar to what he was doing a couple of decades earlier, but with a bit more lyricism and often a more translucent orchestral texture.

The piece itself is continuous, but there are a number of distinct tempo sections/movements: according to BIS it goes Moderato - Andante - Vivace - Tempo giusto - Vivace, though having seen the score there are tempo shifts within some of those main sections.

The orchestra starts with a strong 2-note downward motif that recurs at various points. The cello develops slightly more chromatic, sliding lines. After the opening exchanges there's a 5-note orchestral figure (rising until the last note falls) that also turns up quite a few times. For example, the 5-note figure turns up repeatedly towards the end of the "Andante", and then the 2-note figure returns with gusto for the "Vivace". There are some other repeating features as well.

What really jumps out is the strange turn the structure takes for the last third of the piece. There's an extensive purely orchestral section, with the grandest climax in the work, built around the 5-note figure, and then when the cello returns it completely takes over. The orchestra offers a couple of chords in answer to the cello's first phrase, falls silent for almost 5 minutes, returns near the very end to recall the opening 2-note motif and then lets the cello have the last say.

As much as I enjoy the solo, it does make the piece as a whole feel a little oddly balanced to me. I should emphasise, though, that I enjoyed the work a lot more once I paid closer attention to what was going on and the recurring motifs (including the ways the cello solo recalls a number of previous passages). It helped immensely in grasping the piece. Before that it felt a little aimless.

I do wonder, though, how much the recording has to do with that, and whether the piece would have a stronger musical profile if it was recorded as well as the later violin and viola concertos have been.

So, overall I have slightly mixed feelings about this one, but like so much Holmboe it did reward me more once I had more of a sense of the structure and I intend to get to know it better.