Finn Mortensen

Finn Einar Mortensen (born January 6, 1922 in Oslo ; † May 21, 1983 ibid) was a Norwegian composer, music critic and university professor.

Life

Finn Mortensen was the son of the publisher Ernst Gustav Mortensen. He graduated from school in 1941 and studied harmony with Thorleif Eken and counterpoint with Klaus Egge at the Oslo Conservatory of Music during the war years . In 1950 Mortensen's first composition, the String Trio op. 3, was premiered. In 1956 Mortensen took composition lessons from Niels Viggo Bentzon in Copenhagen . In 1965 he took part in the Darmstadt summer courses and studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen in the Cologne studio for electronic music . As chairman of the Association for New Music (Ny Musikk, 1961 to 1964 and 1966/67) he invited avant-garde artists to Norway, including Stockhausen and Nam June Paik . In 1967/68 Mortensen was the first director of the Norwegian State Concerts Agency. From 1970 to 1973 he taught composition in Oslo and was the first Norwegian to take up a professorship in composition at the newly founded Norwegian Academy of Music . From 1967 to 1974 Mortensen was President of the Norwegian Composers' Union.

Mortensen's students include Rolf Wallin , Jon Mostad , Lasse Thoresen , Terje Bjørklund , Synne Skouen and Alfred Janson .

Mortensen also worked from 1963 to 1973 as a music critic for the newspaper Dagbladet , and for several years as a correspondent for the German music magazine Melos .

plant

Finn Mortensen's oeuvre comprises around 50 compositions, mostly instrumental works. Six works are set for orchestra: Symphony op.5 (1953), Pezzo orchestrale op.12 (1957), Evolution op.23 (1961), Tone colors op.24 (1962), Per orchestra op.30 (1967) and Hedda op. 42 (1975). There are also three one-movement concertante works: Piano Concerto, Op. 25 (1963), Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 27 (1966), and Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 45 (1977).

His first works are close to neoclassicism and expressionism . Under the influence of Bentzon, he turned to twelve-tone music , which he only used strictly in three works. His Fantasia and Fugue for piano op. 13 (1958) was the first Norwegian composition in twelve-tone technique. In addition, there were aleatoric and serial techniques . From around 1970 he combined elements of serialism and twelve-tone technique in a softened form, which also assigns a more important role to melody, to create a style of composition that he himself characterized as “neoserial” (“nyserial”).

literature

• The New Grove, 2nd edition , article author Elef Nesheim
• CD supplement Simax classics, PSC 1306, Mortensen: Symphony op.5 etc., Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Terje Mikkelsen, 2011, text by Elef Nesheim

Web links

• Biography MIC Norway (Engl.)
• Biography at findagrave.com (Engl.)
• Biography Norsk Biografisk Leksikon (norweg.)