# Hans Abrahamsen (1952- )



## SeptimalTritone

Everyone should experience the modern masterpiece Schnee for mid-sized chamber ensemble!






An article for those technically-minded:

http://musicofourepoch.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/discovering-recent-masterworks-abrahamsens-schnee/


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## Blancrocher

In addition to Schnee, I'd recommend two recent works: the Double Concerto, and "Let Me Tell You." In any case, for those interested in exploring this composer further, I've included links to all of his pieces that I've been able to find on Youtube (though who knows how long they'll last). Most of the remaining works not included here are brief pieces and arrangements of other composers' works. Of the latter, I'm especially interested in hearing the orchestral version of Nielsen's haunting "Commotio"--if anyone tracks that down, please send me a PM!

Selected works, in chronological order:

1969 - Arrangement of Carl Nielsen, Fantasistykker, op.2, for oboe quartet 





1973 - 10 Præludier, for string quartet 





1973 - Flowersongs, for recorders 





1978 - Canzone, for accordion





1978 - Winternacht 





1978 - Walden

















1984 - Märchenbilder 





1987 - Lied in Fall









1994 - Bach arrangements:
BWV 1072: 



BWV 1073: 



BWV 1074: 



BWV 1075: 



BWV 1076: 



BWV 1077: 



BWV 1078: 



BWV deest: 




1998 - Ten Studies, for piano 





2000 - Concerto for Piano and Orchestra 





2004 - Four Pieces for Orchestra

















2005 - Three Little Nocturnes, for accordion & string quartet





2006 - Air, for accordion





2008 - Schnee





2009 - Traumlieder, for piano trio

























2009 - Wald





2010 - Liebeslied





2011 - Double Concerto 





2011 - Orchestral Arrangement of Claude Debussy: Children's Corner 





2012 - String Quartet No. 4 





2013 - Let me tell you 





A brief interview:


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## Richannes Wrahms

Good technique. Naive sentimentality. Perhaps too much of that to my taste, save exceptions. He's somewhat like Benedict Mason, another of Ligeti's students. Can we speak of a 'late Ligeti school'?


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## PeterFromLA

Last month, Mr. Abrahamsen received the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for his song cycle "Let me tell you." Paul Griffiths, whose text inspired the work, wrote a really nice overview of the composer's work: http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/long-bio/Hans-Abrahamsen

A recording of the work is set to be released in January.


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## janxharris

SeptimalTritone said:


> Everyone should experience the modern masterpiece Schnee for mid-sized chamber ensemble!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> An article for those technically-minded:
> 
> http://musicofourepoch.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/discovering-recent-masterworks-abrahamsens-schnee/


Initially I thought Schnee (Snow) was interesting - but that didn't last. Perhaps I am missing something? I'm yet to enjoy anything modern beyond Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring'...

Any suggestions?


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## Guest

janxharris said:


> Initially I thought Schnee (Snow) was interesting - but that didn't last. Perhaps I am missing something? I'm yet to enjoy anything modern beyond Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring'...
> 
> Any suggestions?


All I can suggest is that you don't listen _for_ anything, or have any expectations of the music, but let it come to you.

Have a look at these threads janx:

http://www.talkclassical.com/47037-21st-century-classical.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/49825-21st-century-listening-chain.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/50761-contemporary-music-current-listening.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/16411-contemporary-opera.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/53126-exploring-contemporary-composers.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/35288-most-innovative-radical-music.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/31712-new-generations.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/31548-recording-technology-used-musical.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/16477-some-some-guys-favorite.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/35911-your-favorite-new-compositions.html


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## Janspe

janxharris said:


> Initially I thought Schnee (Snow) was interesting - but that didn't last. Perhaps I am missing something? I'm yet to enjoy anything modern beyond Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring'...
> 
> Any suggestions?


Please, _please_ listen to Abrahamsen's _let me tell you_ for soprano and orchestra. It is truly one of the most beautiful and moving scores I've ever heard in my life. There's a recording of it on Spotify, and a video of a live performance on Vimeo.


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## janxharris

Janspe said:


> Please, _please_ listen to Abrahamsen's _let me tell you_ for soprano and orchestra. It is truly one of the most beautiful and moving scores I've ever heard in my life. There's a recording of it on Spotify, and a video of a live performance on Vimeo.


Will do thanks.


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## janxharris

Janspe said:


> Please, _please_ listen to Abrahamsen's _let me tell you_ for soprano and orchestra. It is truly one of the most beautiful and moving scores I've ever heard in my life. There's a recording of it on Spotify, and a video of a live performance on Vimeo.


Unfortunately I am not fan of this type of singing. The vibrato is so overpowering that it's hard to ignore it in judging the piece (I listened three times).

Anyway - you have the greatest composer ever imho - Sibelius.


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## violadude

Lately I've been listening to my composer playlists in alphabetical order (by last name). Next on the list is the Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen. What I've listened so far:

*Wind Quintet 1 "Landscapes" (1972) * Abrahamsen's first Wind Quintet is a very short, concise piece. 3 movements total but only 7 minutes long. Abrahamsen is considered part of the "new simplicity" movement and that really comes through even in these early pieces. Much of the music here is made from repetitions of simple phrases that are built on each other in complex ways. The music here is quite stoic or phlegmatic, in fact the first two movements are literally marked "sans expression". Rather, the music brings to mind "landscapes" of tangled roots that grow out and intersect at various points. In fact, in my opinion it sounds as though the piece starts having already started, as if we've just stumbled on some natural occurrence that was already taking place before we got there. The first movement introduces us to three planes, the first one is a web of simple melodies passed between the three high woodwinds, second is a pulsating rhythmic figure that underpins harmonically dense music on top. This section sounds the most "tangled" and "blurry" The Third is made of opaque, slow moving chords that stand cold and motionless in a "landscape" much more barren than the previous two. The second movement brings us back to the "pulsating" figures, but much sharper and more energetic this time around as various instruments pass around a bouncy version of the pulsating theme in a simple but weirdly complex-sounding way. After a brief return the "opaque" landscape Abrahamsen introduces a new sound, a flurry of quick high woodwind figures. This comes off not as erratic or violent but a natural "growing out" of what has come before. The third movement is the most energetic and fun (although some people might find it annoying and I can see that). It consists of a simple and rather banal "Nursery Rhyme" sounding melody, but hocketed back and forth between the low and high woodwinds so that the melody falls on different accents for the different instruments. This builds in energy until eventually the low woodwinds drop out and the high woodwinds continue the melody but in various 2 against 3 rhythmic arrangements (or at least that's what it sounds like to me, I haven't seen a score). The low woodwinds then bring back the "flurry" landscape from movement two, but descending to the depths of the sound this time. The piece ends inconclusively, like it began, as if whatever we were listening to continues on after we left.

First movement: 



 Second Movement: 



 Third movement: 




S*tring Quartet 1 "10 Preludes" (1973)* As the title suggest, this first string quartet consists of 10 preludes for string quartet. It was originally written just as that, but was retroactively titled as the first string quartet after Abrahamsen wrote more. This piece I find very interesting. As you might expect, each prelude explores a different idea or concept, but there is lots of "connective tissue" between the movements, not necessarily thematic connections like one would expect but certainly many movements and moments within movements parallel each other in certain ways. The first and last prelude are connected in the sense that they are the complete opposite, the first being the most complex and avant-garde sounding (a lot of it sounding reminiscent of the Ligeti String Quartets, elements of both of them actually), the last being a literal straight up early Baroque dance type movement. In this sense, we make a journey from complex to simple throughout the duration of the piece. Prelude 5 and 8 are connected in that they both explore the concept of a pedal tone with shifting harmony that continually changes the context of that tone (an idea that is subtly foreshadowed near the end of prelude 2). Prelude 2 and 7 both begin with scrubby, agitated sixteenth note figures that are punctuated by pizzicato accents. Prelude 6 and 9 both primarily explore slow, meditative melodies in unisons and octaves. The 9th is actually entirely made up of a melody in octaves, something that is "foreshadowed" or built up to by many moments throughout the prelude where the instruments suddenly break into a unison/octave melody. Then there's the folk dance thread running through the preludes. I already mentioned the 10th prelude which has a early baroque dance suite feel whose simplicity is quite reminiscent of folk music. But then there's the 7th prelude which suddenly breaks into some sort of bizzare off-kilter English fiddling(?). I apologize I'm not intimately familiar with European folk music tradition but that's what it sounds like to me. The 4th prelude also has an air of dance music, although very relaxed/melancholic dance music. The third prelude stands out to me as having not many connective strands to the others, but it's the only one of the ten with long, breathed out lines of passion filled lyrical melody.





 (The Arditti quartet has the best recording but I can only find links for the separate movements and I don't want to post 10 different links)

*Flowersongs for three flutes (1973)* This piece was written for three flutes, but the recording I have on my playlist (which, as far as I understand, is the only recording) is played on a recorder ensemble instead, which lends a fantastic haunting sound to the atmosphere of the piece. This is one of my favorite pieces of the bunch although I don't have much to say about it. It's a piece built of repetitive and complex rhythmic and melodic patterns in a style reminiscent of the early minimalists, but rather than slowly evolve the patterns, Abrahamsen abruptly shifts them, dragging us through a variety of atmospheres throughout the piece. The atmosphere created by the combination of these patterns are is just fantastic, it's sometimes magical and mystical sounding, sometimes haunting, sometimes creepy, sometimes overwhelmingly bright and childlike (the end, in particular) and sometimes downright insane sounding (insane as in the music's "threshold of sanity" is close to breaking, I'm thinking of a passage about 3 minutes into the piece in particular). I do wonder now what it sounds like on actual flutes because I think the recorders provide an excellent timbre to the piece.






*Stratifications for orchestra (1973-75)* I have to admit, this is a piece I have not wrapped my head completely around yet, but think the pulsating theme in the first woodwind quintet (the second movement's version in particular) but expanded out into a full orchestral score. The entire score is underpinned by a basic pulse that is always there, but the sections of the orchestra are all "playing to the beat of their own drum", so to speak. There's a constant agitation, a constant sense of "tug of war" present throughout the nearly 9 minutes of the piece. This results, according to the composer's own words, in "The music (being) in a night-mare condition, where it is not getting anywhere in spite of a great dynamic display". Staying true to the "new simplicity" style all the individual parts of the orchestra are still quite simple repetitive figures, but combined together in rhythmic disunity, creates a giant, complex monstrosity of sound. Again in the composers own words, the piece reaches a resolution by "finally is liberating itself and rising 'in triumph'." This refers to the way that the piece ends by slowly disintegrating, or dissolving, into the upper registers of the orchestra. It's a pretty cool piece that is continuing to grow on me. Oh also it has an insanely intrusive (not in a bad way) part for a lion's roar.






*Canzone for solo Accordian (1978) *This is a nice little accordion piece that I quite enjoyed. As far as I can tell it's in a ternary form with the outer sections being quaint and peaceful, reminding one of small village life or something to that effect. The middle section is more agitated and reaches a climax on a fantastically powerfully sounding tremolo, similar to those used a lot by Gubaidulina, to those who know her music. It does end a bit hauntingly in a way that kind of puzzles me though. The melody at the beginning is reused for another accordion piece written much later called "Air", which is in turn, is used as the basis for the first movement of his 3rd string quartet.


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