Fartein Valen

Olav Fartein Valen ( born August 25, 1887 in Stavanger, † December 14, 1952 in Valevåg ) was a Norwegian composer.

Life

Fartein Valen was born the son of a missionary couple who worked in Madagascar, on a visit to Norway. The family moved back to Madagascar in 1889 and moved again in 1893 to Stavanger. He got there piano lessons and composed some small pieces. In 1906 he began a philology and music studies in Copenhagen, but soon only dealt with the music. He studied music theory with Catharinus Elling in Christiania, put 1909 his organist exams from 1909 to 1911 and attended the Berlin Academy of Music, where Max Bruch (composition) and Charles Leopold Wolf (theory) were his teachers.

In 1916 returned Valen back to Norway. He lived until 1924 in Valevåg in Haugesund, then moved to Oslo and from 1927 was director of the Norwegian music collection of the University Library. He also taught music theory. After a winter residence 1932/33, on Mallorca, which gave him great creative impulses, his compositional output was slowly recognized in public. So Valen 1935 received a state pension artist, although his internationally oriented music displeased the representatives of the growing nationalism in the 30s. 1938 so he moved back to Valevåg, where he spent the rest of his life.

In his early works Valen is still influenced by late German Romanticism, but soon he discovered the polyphony of Bach and Palestrina for his work. His studies of consonances and dissonances took him to a atonal technique of counterpoint, which did not follow the twelve-tone technique of Schoenberg and his circle, although Valen Zwölftonmelodien used. Its very independent dissonant polyphony works with small motivic changes in the scope of the classical canon of forms.

Works

  • Symphonies Symphony No.1 op.30 ( 1937-39 )
  • Symphony No.2 op.40 ( 1941-44 )
  • Symphony No.3 op.41 ( 1944-46 )
  • Symphony No.4 op.43 ( 1947-49 )
  • Symphony No.5 (1951, unfinished)
  • Pastoral op.11 ( 1929-30 )
  • Sonnets of Michelangelo op.17 No.1 ( 1932)
  • Canticle di ringraziamento op.17 No.2 ( 1932-33 )
  • Nenia op.18 No.1 ( 1932)
  • An die Hoffnung op.18 No.2 ( 1933)
  • Epithalamion op.19 (1933 )
  • Le cimetière marin op.20 ( 1933-34 )
  • La isla de las calmas op.21 (1934 )
  • Ode to Solitude op.35 (1939 )
  • Violin Concerto op.37 (1940 )
  • Piano Concerto op.44 ( 1949-51 )
  • String Quartet No. 0 (without opus number )
  • Violin Sonata op.3 (1916 )
  • Piano Trio op.5 ( 1917-24 )
  • String Quartet No.1 op.10 ( 1928-29 )
  • String Quartet No.2 op.13 ( 1930-31 )
  • Serenade for Wind Quintet op.42 ( 1946-47 )
  • Op.1 Legend (1907 )
  • Piano Sonata No.1 Op.2 (1912 )
  • 4 Piano Pieces op.22 ( 1934-35 )
  • Variations op.23 ( 1935-36 )
  • Gavotte and Musette op.24 (1936 )
  • Prelude and Fugue op.28 (1937 )
  • 2 Preludes op.29 (1937 )
  • Intermezzo op.36 ( 1939-40 )
  • Piano Sonata No.2 op.38 ( 1940-41 )
  • Prelude and Fugue op.33 (1939 )
  • Pastoral op.34 (1939 )
  • Psalm 121 (1911) (without opus number )
  • Hvad est du dog Skion op.12 (1930 )
  • Two motets for female choir op.14 (1931 )
  • Two motets for male choir op.15 (1931 )
  • Two motets for mixed choir, op.16 ( 1931-32 )
  • Com regn fra det høje. Motet for female chorus op.25 (1936 )
  • O store konge, David sønn. Motet for male choir op.26 ( 1936-37 )
  • Vaagn op, min själ. Motet for mixed choir op.27 (1937 )
  • Ave Maria, Opus 4 ( 1917-21 )
  • Mignon. 2 Poems of Goethe op.7 ( 1920-27 )
  • 2 Chinese poems op.8 ( 1925-27 )
  • Darest thou now o soul op.9 ( 1920-28 )
  • La noche oscura del alma op.32 (1939 )
  • 3 Poems of Goethe op.6 ( 1925-27 )
  • 2 Songs op.31 (1939 )
  • 2 Songs op.39 (1941 )
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