Launy Grøndahl

Launy Valdemar Grøndahl (* June 30, 1886 in Ordrup near Copenhagen, † January 21, 1960 in Frederiksberg, buried in Gentofte ) was a Danish composer and conductor.

Life and work

Launy Grøndahl was a natural. Thanks to its wide musical talent, he worked his way up from humble to the highest positions. At eight, he learned to play the violin in his school director, the composer Ole Jacobsen ( composed, among others, the popular Danish song "Den lille Ole med paraplyen " - The Little Ole with the umbrella ). Soon he was able to perform together with his teacher on the social circuit, such as the age of twelve in the village inn of Ordrup.

After his confirmation he began regularly taking lessons at the Royal Kapellmusiker Anton Bloch (violin ) and the regimental band conductors J. Norup (trumpet ). After 1906, just 20 years after the Copenhagen Casino Orchestra found ( he worked there until 1919 ), he studied violin with Axel Gade and composition and music theory with Ludolf Nielsen. In the following years he worked both his skills in violin performance as well as in the composition. He earned universal acclaim with a string quartet (1913 ) and Violin Concerto (1917 ), both of which had been performed by the Danish Concert Association with Peder Møller as a violinist and later brought regularly his symphonic fantasy "Pan and Syrinx " (1915 ) and his String Quartet No. 2 ( 1922) on the lecture.

Include the following works: the " Symphonic Variations on an old jütländisches folk song", four solo concerts, extensive and often quite large-scale radio music (mostly for radio play recordings) and acclaimed arrangements of folk music. More concerts followed suit, such as his Symphony Op. 9 in Paul of Klenau " Philharmonic Danish society" with Peter Gram as a conductor. In 1924 Grøndahl thanks to a grant from the Copenhagen Orchestervereinigung the opportunity in Vienna, France (Paris ) and Italy ( Rome) to study. After his return, he worked for a short period as chairman of the " Society of Young Musicians ". In October 1925 he was appointed on the initiative of the head of " Statsradiofonie ", chamber singer Emil Holm, the permanent conductor of the newly formed Radio Orchestra, a position that Grøndahl, who had already conducted the concerts of the Danish Concert Association for several years since 1919, gladly accepted and up to its adoption in 1956 held. Grøndahl began with 11 musicians in a small studio in the Købmagergade, called in the population " icing ". Together with Nikolai Malko ( who replaced him in 1956 as conductor) and Emil Reesen he was actively involved in the development of broadcasting in Denmark. Launy Grøndahl was at the forefront of what has now grown to 100 persons National Radio Symphony Orchestra of Denmark to the last. In this multi-year work he claimed to all areas both in the daily work when Overview and ingenuity were required, as well as the great symphony concerts, the required artistic and musically qualified use. Much credit earned Grøndahl with his performances of Danish music. Another focus was on works less well-known composers ( Louis Glass, Hakon Børresen, Herman Sandby, Rudolf Simonsen, August Enna, Ludolf Nielsen, Victor Bendix, Fini Henriques ).

The Rundfunkorchester developed in the 30s to Denmark s most important professional orchestra and one of the most exciting new orchestras in Europe with solid guest conductors such as Fritz Busch. Launy Grøndahl felt with time somewhat in the shade provided by foreign conductors and enthusiastic Danish Kapellmeisters like Thomas Jensen and Erik Tuxen. But his commitment to the Danish tradition of music was like this soon out.

He assured by its position in broadcasting the heritage of the Danish Concert Association, the Music Association and other musical societies that threatened to drown in the competition with the new medium of radio. Thanks Grøndahls commitment to new Danish music a number of symphonic works by composers such as Rued Langgaard was ( with the Grøndahl a detailed, and public correspondence led ), Ludolf Nielsen, Louis Glass and many others listed in concerts and in the studio for radio broadcasts. As a composer Grøndahl shaped the early history of radio not only with the production of his own symphonic works but also as a " composer in residence " with music for radio plays and the like. Besides, he appeared as a guest conductor in Berlin, Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo, Prague, Amsterdam, repeatedly on in Warsaw and at various concerts in Danish provincial towns. He possessed great experience and a strong musical flair that made ​​him famous in other European cities as a conductor. But he never disappointed his Danish audience, traveled as keen to Silkeborg or Kolding how to Berlin or Helsinki. Grøndahl was a modest man. The German conductor Fritz Busch emphasized frequently the great empathy, edited by Grøndahl the material of classical symphonies from the Danish archives for the Radio Orchestra. His interpretations of the works of Carl Nielsen were in his time as an ideal. After the end of World War II, Grøndahl involved in the performance of the Symphony No. 4 of Carl Nielsen with the Danish Radio Orchestra ( 1951). By 1959, he was involved in some radio recordings.

Compositional priorities

Although Grøndahl and songs, piano and chamber music was created, was considered to be substantial interest in the composer solo concerts. He wrote 1916-1955 four concerts for violin, trombone, bassoon and horn. Of these, the Trombone Concerto (1924 ) is part of the standard repertoire and is often played in the orchestra competitions. It is a multiple -hold before both the version for symphony orchestra and for solo trombone with chamber orchestra and takes on average 16 minutes. Grøndahl was during the time when he composed this concerto, in Italy, where he had also print the piano for his Trombone Concerto. It was the end of his studies. He dedicated the piece, written in the romantic gesture of his good friend in Copenhagen Casino Orchestra, trombonist William Aarkrogh.

In the 20s Grøndahl had begun to separate from the type of the Romantic virtuoso concerto, and already the trombone concerto belongs stylistically rather to Neoclassicism. His trip abroad in 1924 to Paris, Rome and Vienna brought him into contact with the current trends of European composition. This acquaintance with a new French and East European music of composers such as Debussy, Ravel, Bartók and Kodály and Prokofiev reflected in, inter alia, in his Trombone Concerto with distinctive syncopations, rhythms and a 7/8-Takt resist in the second set. Also record technically, the concert takes off: The trumpet continues to set and does not strive for an integration in the orchestra. The Soloist is in front of the orchestra motives with which it is intended to accompany him. This approach reached Grøndahl in 1942 in his bassoon concerto again and refined it. The Trumpet Concerto is in terms of orchestral mood and melody, also many similarities with various pieces of music of the Swedish composer Kurt Atterberg, a contemporary Grøndahls. It consists of three movements: Moderato assai (ma molto maestoso ), Quasi una leggenda (Andante grave) and final ( Maestoso ).

It is worth noting that parts of the soundtrack to the silent film " Häxan " ( "witches" ) from the year 1922 by Launy Grøndahl come. The full-length feature film excited at the time, causes a stir with his unusual depictions of Satanic cults.

Family

Parents: milk supplier Carl Frederik Ferdinand G. (1835 - 1903) and Ane Kirstine Jensen (1846 - 1920). Marriage 2 February 1913 Dagmar Liddi Clothilde Louise Adelaide Heggemann, born on September 8, 1887 in Fredensborg, died on January 31, 1962 in Skodsborg, daughter of master tanner Ferdinand Heggemann Valdemar (1860 - 1940) and Adelaide Josephine Johanne Becker (1852 - 1914)