Per Nørgård

The Danish composer Per Nørgård was born at Gentofte on 13 July 1932, the son of a draper, and studied in Copenhagen with Vagn Holmboe and in Paris with Nadia Boulanger.

Nørgård's early music was influenced by that of his teacher, Vagn Holmboe, and by that of Jean Sibelius and Carl Nielsen, but in the 1960s he began to experiment with some of the modern European compositional techniques, including his own brand of serialism based on his own 1959 discovery of the melodic 'infinity series'. Later, in the early 1970s, he also developed harmonic and rhythmic infinity series, and used all three techniques in his third symphony.

Besides composition, Nørgård is also a writer of articles about his thoughts on music, both technical and philosophical.

A selection of articles about Per Nørgård

CD Spotlight. Timeless Sandscapes - Symphonies by Per Nørgård impress Gerald Fenech. '... superlative performances ...'

CD Spotlight. Northern Landscapes - Symphonies by Per Nørgård, recommended by Ron Bierman. 'It's hard to imagine a more ideal presentation ...'

CD Spotlight. Sacrificing the 'unmodern' - Music by Julius Röntgen and Per Nørgård, heard by George Balcombe. 'How could any audience resist ... ?'