Per Nørgård (pronounced[ˈpʰɛɐ̯ˈnɶɐ̯ˌkɒˀ]; 13 July 1932 – 28 May 2025) was a Danish composer andmusic theorist. Though his style varied considerably throughout his career, his music often included repeatedly evolvingmelodies, in the vein ofJean Sibelius, and a perspicuous focus on lyricism.[1] He based music on "infinity series" and other mathematical models. He composed large-scale works, eight symphonies including the choralThird, concertos and operas such asGilgamesh. Hischamber music includes tenstring quartets and music for guitar. Some later works were inspired by the art ofAdolf Wölfli.
Per Nørgård was born inGentofte, a suburb of Copenhagen on 13 July 1932.[2] His father was a tailor, and he grew up with an elder brother. He learned to play the piano as a boy.[3]
In his early compositions, Nørgård was strongly influenced by the Nordic styles of Sibelius,Carl Nielsen, andVagn Holmboe. In the 1960s, he began exploring the modernist techniques of central Europe, eventually developing aserial compositional system based on the "infinity series",[12] which he used in hisVoyage into the Golden Screen, the Second andThird Symphonies,I Ching, and other works of the late 1960s and '70s.[13] His Third Symphony, with a vocal soloist and choir, became popular, performed at the 2018BBC Proms and included in theDanish Culture Canon.[7] Later, Nørgård became interested in the Swiss artistAdolf Wölfli, who inspired many of Nørgård's works, including the Fourth Symphony, the operaDet Guddommelige Tivoli,Papalagi for solo guitar,[14] andWie ein Kind for choir.[15]
Nørgård composed works in all major genres, including six operas, two ballets, eight symphonies and other pieces for orchestra, several concertos, choral and vocal works, many chamber works (among them ten string quartets), and several solo instrumental works. These include a number of works for guitar, mostly written for the Danish guitaristErling Møldrup:In Memory Of... (1978),Papalagi (1981), a series of suites calledTales from a Hand (1985–2001),Early Morn (1997–98), andRondino Amorino (1999). One of his most important works for percussion solo isI Ching (1982), written for the Danish percussionist Gert Mortensen. His piano workMany Returns to Bali was written for the Indonesian pianistAnanda Sukarlan to commemorate the2002 Bali bombings.[16] He also composed several film scores, includingThe Red Cloak (1966),Babette's Feast (1987),[3][16] andHamlet, Prince of Denmark (1993).[16]
Nørgård married Anelise Brix Thomson in 1956.[21] They had two children together.[22] He married his second wife Helle Rahbek in 1966. She died in 2022.[23][22]
Nørgård died after a long illness at a senior citizens' home in Copenhagen, on 28 May 2025, at the age of 92.[7][3][24][25] He was regarded as Denmark's most prominent composer since Nielsen.[4]
Nørgård's music often uses theinfinity series (DanishUendelighedsrækken) toserialize melody, harmony, and rhythm. The method takes its name from the endlesslyself-similar nature of the resulting musical material,[26] comparable tofractal geometry. Mathematically, the infinity series is aninteger sequence. "Invented in an attempt to unify in a perfect way repetition and variation,"[27] the first few terms of its simplest form are 0, 1, −1, 2, 1, 0, −2, 3, −1, 2, 0, 1, 2, −1, −3, 4.[28]
Uendelighedsrækken: chromatic pitches (the first 16 terms) centered around G[30]
Tree of Nørgård's rhythmic infinity series (Fibonacci sequence)
Nørgård discovered the melodic infinity series[27] in 1959 and it inspired many of his works in the 1960s. But only withVoyage into the Golden Screen for small ensemble (1968)—which has been called the first "properly instrumental piece ofspectral composition"[31]—and Symphony No. 2 (1970) did he begin structuring entire works with the series.[32] Theharmonic andrhythmic infinity series[33] were developed in the early 1970s and the three series were first integrated in Nørgård's Symphony No. 3.[2][34]
Jensen, Jørgen I. (January–March 1995). "At the Boundary Between Music and Science: From per Nørgård to Carl Nielsen".Fontes Artis Musicae.42 (1):55–61.JSTOR23508392.
Bjørnum, Birgit (1983).Per Nørgårds Kompositioner: En Kronologisk-Tematisk Fortegnelse Over Værkerne 1949–1982 [Per Nørgård's Compositions: A Chronological-Thematic List of Works 1949–1982] (in Danish). Copenhagen:Wilhelm Hansen.OCLC894559488.
Beyer, Anders, ed. (1996).The Music of Per Nørgård: Fourteen Interpretative Essays. Aldershot: Scolar.ISBN978-1-85928-313-4.
Christensen, Jean (1989). "Per Nørgård – Widening the Framework".Musical Denmark (1). Danish Cultural Institute:3–5.
