Composition, Music Theory and Music Technology Department

What is recognized as the Norwegian composer Fartein Valen’s international breakthrough took place at the 1947 festival of ISCM (International Society for contemporary Music) in Copenhagen. This article investigates what this alleged breakthrough, followed by performances of Valen’s music at the ISCM festivals also in 1948, 1951 and 1953, implied, and the role of the chairman of the Norwegian section, Pauline Hall, in promoting Valen’s music and supporting him in opposing to the nationalist trends among Norwegian colleagues.  Considering the reception of Valen in the ISCM and the support he gained especially in Britain, the text also suggests possible reasons for why his music seems to be best received in the North-western parts of Europe as well as Canada and the USA and less so in musical cultures where Austro-German modernism was hegemonic.

We shall try in the following to describe a possibly navigatable route, with respect to the use of technology in the creation of music, a Third Way, that we choose to call computer-AIDED composition. The term springs from the question of how the computer can be used as an aid in writing instrumental music.

The last fifty years has witnessed an enormous development with regard to sound production, and has opened a new world of novel aural experiences. In order to be able to articulate and discuss these experiences there is a need for a corresponding novel set of terms and ...

Abstract This paper will present methods for the analysis of form-building patterns in general, formulating analytical principles across stylistic borders. We will demonstrate the use of two selected analytical tools on a specific work by the Swedish composer Åke ...