Fartein Valen
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Olav Fartein Valen (August 25, 1887 – December 14, 1952) was a Norwegian composer and musical theorist, notable for his work within atonal polyphonic music.
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[edit] Background
Valen was born in Stavanger, Norway in 1887 into a deeply Christian religious family and maintained his religious beliefs all his life. His parents were missionaries, and he spent five years of his childhood in Madagascar. In addition to his aptitude for music, he was also a polyglot, mastering at least nine languages. He earned his examen artium with the highest grades in all subjects except mathematics. He loved cats, nature and literature, cultivated roses (even developed an award winning hybrid), and after losing them in a devastating freeze took up growing cacti.
[edit] Musical career
In 1906, Valen moved to Oslo to study Norwegian literature and language but also took classes with Catharinius Elling at the Oslo conservatory of music, graduating with a degree in organ playing. In 1909 he moved to Berlin to study composition at the Music Academy with Max Bruch who subsequently retired. While in Berlin, he worked on exercises in both tonal and atonal counterpoint and began to develop a polyphony similar to Bach's, but based on motivic working and dissonance rather than harmonic progression.
In 1916, he returned to Norway and took up residence at his family estate with his mother and sister in Sunnhordland where he started the most productive phase of his career, churning out more than 25,000 piano etudes (though they are not among his official works), while continuing to refine his own dissonant conterpoint. The counterpoint has similarites to that of J.S. Bach and Arnold Schoenberg, though evidence reveals that they were developed independently.
After his mother's death, Valen travelled to Rome and Paris during the 1920's gaining much inspiration from the wealth of art and architecture there. His work began to become more controversial among many conservative critics, much to Valen's disappointment. In 1924 he returned to Oslo and from 1927 to 1936 worked as a musical archivist at the University of Oslo. In 1935 the government gave him a semi-permanent grant for composers. He quit teaching and moved back to Sunnhordland into the care of his sister and began to compose full time.
After 1948, his work began to gain greater recognition, both within Norway and outside. Among others, pianist Glenn Gould became a great admirer of Valen and said at the recording of Fartein Valen's piano sonata no 2, "For the first time in many years I have found a looming personality in the 20th century's music".
Valen never married. He died in 1952 at Haugesund.
[edit] References
- Ola Tjørhom: Fartein Valen : vestlandspietist og modernistisk banebryter. Oslo, 2004. Genesis publishers. ISBN 82-476-0312-8
- Bjarne Kortsen: "Fartein Valen: life and music". 3 Vol. Oslo, 1965. J. G. Tanum. ASIN: B0006BWF24
- Berit Kvinge Tjøme: "The Articulation of Sonata Form in Atonal Works of Fartein Valen". Unipub 2002. ISBN 82-7477-097-8
[edit] Further reading
- Paul Rapoport: "Opus est : six composers from Northern Europe." New York : Taplinger Pub. Co., 1979, c1978. ISBN 0-8008-5844-1.
