Magnus Lindberg is a
Finnish composerA composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and pianist. He is currently the composer-in-residence at the
New York PhilharmonicThe New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
.
Education
Lindberg studied at the
Sibelius AcademyThe Sibelius Academy is a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It also has an adult education centre in Järvenpää and a training centre in Seinäjoki. The Academy is the only music university in Finland. It is among the biggest European music universities...
in Helsinki under
Einojuhani RautavaaraEinojuhani Rautavaara is a Finnish composer of contemporary classical music, and is one of the most notable Finnish composers after Jean Sibelius.-Life:...
and
Paavo HeininenPaavo Heininen is a Finnish composer and pianist. He studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where he was taught composition by Aarre Merikanto, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Einar Englund, and Joonas Kokkonen...
, beginning with piano. He attended summer courses in
SienaSiena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...
(with
Franco DonatoniFranco Donatoni was an Italian composer.Born in Verona, he started studying violin at the age of seven, and frequented the local Music Academy...
) and
DarmstadtDarmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
(with
Brian FerneyhoughBrian John Peter Ferneyhough is an English composer. His music is characterized by the extensive use of complex rhythmic tuplet notation which features in all his works...
). After graduating in 1981, he travelled widely in Europe, attending private studies with
Vinko GlobokarVinko Globokar is a French avant-garde composer and trombonist of Slovene descent.His work is noted for its use of unconventional and extended techniques, closely allying him to contemporaries Salvatore Sciarrino and Helmut Lachenmann...
and
Gérard GriseyGérard Grisey was a French composer of contemporary music.-Biography:Gérard Grisey was born in Belfort, France on 17 June 1946. He studied at the Trossingen Conservatory in Germany from 1963 to 1965 before entering the Conservatoire de Paris...
in
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and observing Japanese drumming and
punk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
in Berlin.
Compositions and style
Lindberg's juvenilia include the large orchestral work
Donor, composed at age 16.
Quintetto dell’Estate (1979) is generally held to be Lindberg's first opus. His first piece performed by a professional orchestra was
Sculpture II in 1982, the second part of a trilogy whose first and third sections were long unwritten. His first great success came with "Action-Situation-Signification" (1982), the first work in which he explored
musique concrèteMusique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
. This piece was written for and premiered by the new-music ensemble
ToimiiToimii is an ensemble for new music founded in the spring of 1980 by Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg with several other young composers and instrumentalists connected with the Sibelius Academy...
("It Works" in the
Finnish languageFinnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
), which Lindberg founded during the summer of 1980. Also around the same period, Lindberg founded an informal grouping known as the
Ears Open Society including Lindberg and his contemporaries Eero Hämeeniemi,
Jouni KaipainenJouni Kaipainen is a Finnish composer.Kaipainen was born in Helsinki. He studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki under Aulis Sallinen and Paavo Heininen.- Works for the Stage :...
,
Kaija SaariahoKaija Saariaho is a Finnish composer.Kaija Saariaho studied composition in Helsinki, Freiburg and Paris, where she has lived since 1982. Her studies and research at IRCAM have had a major influence on her music and her characteristically luxuriant and mysterious textures are often created by...
and
Esa-Pekka SalonenEsa-Pekka Salonen is a Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. He is currently Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London and Conductor Laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.-Early career:...
. Lindberg is a trained pianist and has performed several of his works as part of Toimii.
Kraft (1983-85), another piece written for Toimii, is Lindberg's largest work to date, with harmonies of over 70 notes and a meter-high score. It uses traditional instrumentation as well as percussion on scrap metal and spoken word. After finishing it Lindberg found it hard to compose, and with the exception of 1986's
Ur, which he called "
Kraft in chamber form", he entered an extensive creative hiatus which was to last for over two years. During this time he was not only rethinking his style but also recovering from a tropical disease contracted during travel in Indonesia.
Kraft made use of a
chaconneA chaconne ; is a type of musical composition popular in the baroque era when it was much used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line which offered a compositional outline for variation, decoration, figuration and...
-type structure where the progression of the piece is based on a repeated chain of chords. It was this idea that served as the basis for Lindberg's next style. He returned with an orchestral trilogy consisting of
Kinetics (1988),
Marea (1989-90), and
Joy (1990). Though Lindberg became less interested in electronic manipulation of sound, he continued to explore the possibilities of compositional software, and
Engine displays complex computer-generated counterpoint. Since
Joy, Lindberg has shown a gradual refining of his style, orchestrations and harmonies. This showed itself first in the work for chamber ensemble,
Corrente (1992) (and its subsequent orchestral version,
Corrente II from the same year), and
Duo Concertante (1992). In these works, Lindberg showed influences ranging from
Pierre BoulezPierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
and
Tristan MurailTristan Murail is a French composer. His father, Gérard Murail, is a poet and his mother, Marie-Thérèse Barrois, a journalist. One of his brothers, Lorris Murail, and his younger sister Elvire Murail, aka Moka, also write, and his younger sister Marie-Aude Murail is a French children's writer...
to
Igor StravinskyIgor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
and
MinimalismMinimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
. His symphonic work
Aura (1994) reflects a newer, more eclectic style.
Since then, Lindberg has built upon these developments, further refining his style, which now leans toward a type of new tonality hinted at in works such as
Joy and
Aura. This development has culminated in one of his most popular scores to date, his
Clarinet Concerto (2002), which has a folk-like melody and rich orchestration.
Awards and honors
He has received a number of composition prizes, including the
Prix ItaliaThe Prix Italia is an international Italian television, radio-broadcasting and Website award. It was established in 1948 by RAI - Radiotelevisione Italiana in Capri...
(1986), the UNESCO
International Rostrum of ComposersThe International Rostrum of Composers is an annual forum organized by the International Music Council that offers broadcasting representatives the opportunity to exchange and publicize pieces of contemporary classical music...
(1986), the Nordic Music Prize (1988) for
Kraft, and the Royal Philharmonic Society Prize for large-scale composition (1992).
Lindberg became the new composer-in-residence at the
New York PhilharmonicThe New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
with the 2009-2010 season, at the invitation of the incoming music director
Alan GilbertAlan Gilbert is an American violinist and conductor. He is currently the Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, making his debut performance as the orchestra's music director on September 16, 2009.-Early years:...
. The September 2009 opening night gala of the Philharmonic, which was Gilbert's debut as music director, featured a well-received new work by Lindberg,
EXPO.
Works
- Musik för två pianon (Music for Two Pianos) (1976)
- Arabesques for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn (1978)
- Quintetto dell' estate for flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, clarinetThe clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
, violinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
, celloThe cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
and pianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
(1979)
- Linea d'ombra (1981)
- "...de Tartuffe, je crois..." for piano quintet (1981)
- Sculpture II (1981)
- Action-Situation-Signification (1982)
- Tendenza for 21 players (1982)
- Ablauf (1983)
- Ground for harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
(1983)
- Kraft (1983-85)
- Metal Work (1984)
- Stroke for cello (1984)
- UR (1986)
- Twine for solo piano (1988)
- Kinetics (1988-89)
- Marea (1989-90)
- Joy (1989-90)
- Moto (1990)
- Steamboat Bill Jr. (1990)
- Jeux d'anches for solo accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
(1990)
- Clarinet Quintet (1992)
- Duo Concertante for solo clarinet and cello (1992)
- Corrente for chamber orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
(1992)
- Corrente II for symphony orchestra (1992)
- Decorrente (1992)
- Kiri (1993)
- Songs from North and South for children's chorus a cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
(1993-2008)
- Coyote Blues for large chamber ensemble (1993)
- Away for solo clarinet (1994)
- Aura (in memoriam Witold Lutosławski) for orchestra (1994)
- Piano Concerto (1994)
- Zungenstimmen (1994)
- Arena for orchestra (1995)
- Arena II for orchestra (1996)
- Engine (1996)
- Related Rocks (1997)
- Feria (1997)
- Cantigas (1997-1999)
- Campana In Aria for horn and orchestra (1998)
- Cello Concerto (1999)
- Gran Duo for wind orchestra (1999-2000)
- Parada
- Fresco
- Corrente - China Version (2000)
- Jubilees for piano (2000)
- Partia for cello solo (2001)
- Etude I for piano (2001)
- Dos Coyotes (2002)
- Bubo bubo (2002)
- Bright Cecilia: Variations on a Theme by Purcell for orchestra (2002)
- Chorale for orchestra (2002)
- Clarinet Concerto (2002)
- Jubilees for chamber ensemble (2002)
- Counter Phrases for chamber ensemble (2002-2003)
- Concerto for orchestra (2003)
- Mano a mano for guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
(2004)
- Tribute for orchestra (2004)
- Etude II for piano (2004)
- Ottoni for brass ensemble (2005)
- Sculpture for orchestra (2005)
- Violin Concerto (2006)
- Konzertstück for cello and piano (2006)
- Seht die Sonne for orchestra (2007)
- Trio for clarinet, cello and piano (2008)
- Graffiti for chorus and orchestra (2008-2009)
- EXPO for orchestra (2009)
- Al largo for orchestra (2010)
- Souvenir for large ensemble (2010)
Sources
- Stenius, Caterina. 2006. Chaconne: En bok om Magnus Lindberg och den nya musiken. Med verkförteckning av Risto Nieminen. Helsinki: Söderströms. ISBN 951-52-2356-3
External links