Arne Nordheim taught us that it was possible to be a composer in Norway! He was, anything but self-effacing Norwegian and modest, where with fluttering hair and a slightly engaged and excited sonorous tenor voice, he, squeezed into NRK's black-and-white TV frame, once in the early 70s, would at all costs go up and in between organ pipes and place large wooden blocks on the organ keys in order to coax out unheard sounds from the venerable but now increasingly plagued instrument. This was the first time I heard a grown man with a tie say with interest and authority that one could get INTO sound, yes, actually experience it from the inside!! A defining experience for a young person.
/ 09/06/2010 / codex"The universe of the Nordic mind" was an expression coined by your friend, the Danish composer and cultural figure Per Nørgård, in an article in 1956. He tried to explain the necessity of holding on to values in Nordic culture that can help make our music unique.