Performers & composers

Hans Abrahamsen

Hans Abrahamsen was born in 1952. He started by playing the French horn, but even at a very young age he showed a remarkable talent for composition. In 1969 he began to study French horn at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, but already in 1970-71 he had his first lessons in composition with Niels Viggo Bentzon. In 1971 he studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music in Århus where he was taught composition by Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen. He has also studied with Per Nørgård and György Ligeti. From 1975-81 he went back to Copenhagen to study music history and music theory. Since 1995 Abrahamsen has himself taught instrumentation and composition at the Academy of music in Copenhagen. He has received among other honours Carl Nielsen og Anne Marie Carl-Nielsens Hæderspris (1989) and the Wilhelm Hansen Prize (1998).

In his early career Hans Abrahamsen was a key figure in the Danish New Simplicity movement which reacted against the complexities of the Darmstadt school. Works from this period, such as his 10 Preludes for string quartet (1973) were characterized by poly-stylism, minimalism and above all objectivity and clarity of expressionism. As his style developed, a more subjective expression entered the tightly organized musical form, with more images and echoes of an almost romantic character as a piece like Winternacht (1976-78). Despite the small scale and brevity of many of his works, his music often has an epic quality, creating the impression that behind the scarcity of material lie expansive concepts and dense thought.

Hans Abrahamsen’s music is in constant, continuous development, no matter how independent each new work may sound in relation to its predecessor. The music is in a constant, developmental dialogue with itself – as is the composer with himself.

Three Little Nocturnes (9')

Premiered 20 Nov 2005 at Huddersfield Contemporary Music festival 2005.

THREE LITTLE NOCTURNES was commissioned by the Cikada Ensemble, with support from NOMUS, and written for Frode Haltli and the Cikada String Quartet.

In the first nocturne a slow, falling music emerges on an irregular pulse, filled with high harmonics in the strings. The second nocturne is fast and unrestful music, with a lot of passion, which in a moment runs into a glimpse of a tango. In this movement the accordion is employed in its traditional fashion, using the chord bass, with its “oom-pah-pah” standard chords. The third nocturne is again slow, indeed very slow, and it has German tempo and expression markings. The piece ends with a lullaby in the accordion, played with an unusual technique, imitating the string portato. This is accompanied by high harmonics in the strings, while the first violin slowly and softly plays a melody from the second nocturne.