an ecstatic outsider: rued langgaard, 1893—1952

AN ECSTATIC OUTSIDER: RUED LANGGAARD, 1893—1952Author(s): Bendt Viinholt NielsenSource: Fontes Artis Musicae, Vol. 42, No. 1 (January-March 1995), pp. 36-50Published by: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres(IAML)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23508389 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 01:43

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres (IAML) is collaboratingwith JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Fontes Artis Musicae.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.73.177 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 01:43:46 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=iaml

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=iaml

http://www.jstor.org/stable/23508389?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


AN ECSTATIC OUTSIDER: RUED LANGGAARD, 1893-1952

Bendt Viinholt Nielsen*

Rued Langgaard war ein ungewöhnlicher Mann, ein introvertierter Einzelgänger, der

vom Musikgeschehen um ihn herum ausgeschlossen war. Seine Musik, in höchstem

Maß idiosynkratisch, verband ultra-konservative Elemente mit einer in Form und Klang

höchst progressiven Einstellung, die manchmal absurde Grenzen erreichte. Eine wilde

Vielfalt an Stilen charakterisiert seine Werke, die, in ästhetischer Hinsicht, im Grunde

romantisch sind. Der Verfasser geht Langgaards Leben und Werk nach und beschreibt

die Schwierigkeiten, einen Katalog der Werke zu erstellen.

Rued Langgaard fut un personnage hors du commun, un solitaire introverti banni du

milieu musical traditionnel. Sa musique fut également idiosyncrasique, mêlant des élé

ments ultra-conservateurs à une conception extrêmement progressiste de la forme et

du son qui frôle parfois les limites de l'absurde. Ses oeuvres, fondamentalement roman

tiques par leur approche esthétique, se caractérisent par une grande diversité de style.

L'auteur retrace la vie et l'oeuvre de Langgaard et expose les difficultés que posent la

rédaction d'un catalogue de sa musique.

The composer Rued Langgaard is the "problem child" of Danish musical life. Nevertheless he stands as a distinctive and interesting figure in Danish music of the twentieth century.

Langgaard has been called the tragic case of our country's music history, because in spite of his fantastic musical gifts, he never found a natural place in the musical life of his day. One reason was that Langgaard was an unusual person, an introverted, touchy, and unpredictable loner who had absolutely no talent for

"selling himself." And his uncompromising artistic position brought him into conflict with the anti-romantic aesthetics, influenced by Carl Nielsen, which became absolute in Denmark around the time of Nielsen's death in 1931. Lang gaard held fast to an artistic point of view whose main ingredients were Roman ticism and Symbolism. He fought against the tide like a man obsessed. As a

composer and musician (he was a phenomenal organist), Langgaard was, to a

great extent, neglected by the musical establishment and thus did not receive true

recognition during his lifetime. With his peculiar appearance he became regarded as an original, who struggled with purely personal problems rather than issues of artistic relevance. In short, people found it difficult to take Langgaard seriously.

*Bendt Viinholt Nielsen is at the Danish Music Information Center and the author of the thematic

catalogue and biography of Rued Langgaard. The article was translated by Anna Hedrick Harwell.

36



AN ECSTATIC OUTSIDER 37

' ■* •

mm

FIGURE 1. Rued Langgaard, February 1918 (at the age of 24).

Photo:

The

Royal

Library,

Copenhagen.

And Langgaard felt alone, set-aside, persecuted, and betrayed by both his own

generation and the various musical institutions.

Forgotten after his death in 1952, Rued Langgaard was discovered in both Denmark and Sweden in the last half of the 1960s. A wave of enthusiasm for Mahler and Bruckner created a sympathy for the "overlooked" late romantics; and Langgaard, the "ecstatic outsider" as the Swedish musicologist Bo Wallner labelled him in 1968, got a second chance. Although a number of his compositions were premiered and performed at that time (especially by the Danish state radio), it has only recently become possible to get an understanding of the composer's output.

Stylistically, Langgaard's music is surprisingly irregular. His obvious eccen

tricity in certain works and the strong derivativeness in others impedes a more



38 FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE 42/1

impartial artistic assessment of the music. During the last three to four years, however, a foundation has been laid which enables us to judge Langgaard and his music. A detailed catalogue of works was published in 1991,1 seven CDs contain

ing Langgaard's sixteen symphonies and a number of other orchestral works were released in 1992 (more than 100 of his compositions can now be found on either CD or LP), and on the centennial of Langgaard's birth (1993), the composer received a great deal of attention which included the appearance of the first

biography.2 A number of the composer's important works have recently been

published for the first time.

A Biographical Outline

Rued Langgaard was an only child. Both of his parents were pianists: his father, Siegfried Langgaard (1852-1914), devoted himself to pedagogical activities (he taught at the Copenhagen conservatory for 33 years), while his mother, Emma

Langgaard (1861-1926), gave private piano lessons. Siegfried Langgaard was also a composer of piano music and songs and somewhat of a thinker, greatly con cerned with a philosophy of music which had a theosophically-colored religious conviction as its basis.

Langgaard's parents quickly ascertained that their son's musical gifts were

quite unusual; in fact they literally regarded him as a genius. Everything was

organized for his intellectual development to happen naturally and with complete freedom. Private tutors attended to his education while lessons in music theory and aesthetics were primarily the responsibility of the father himself. Thus Rued

Langgaard did not experience a normal childhood. Instead he received an isolated and goal-oriented upbringing in a home where music reigned supreme.

This isolation during his childhood marked Langgaard's personality and cast a shadow over the composer's entire personal and professional life. The abstract and immaterial artistic world became, as it were, more real for Langgaard than the

challenges and demands of reality itself. He regarded his artistic work as a duty and calling. Although Langgaard's attitude was often that of an intellectual aris tocrat, in reality he was not an intellectual type, but rather an impulsive artist who allowed his moods and emotions to guide him.

In 1905 Langgaard made his debut at age eleven as an organist and improvisor in Copenhagen. However, organ playing did not interest him as much as compo sition, and in 1908 a large work for soloists, choir, and orchestra was premiered. This was cut down by Copenhagen music critics whose relationship with Lang gaard remained strained and openly critical throughout the composer's life.

One should not underestimate the contempt of the press for Langgaard when

trying to determine why the composer constantly experienced difficulties in getting his compositions performed. Problems concerning performances began with his impressive first symphony, completed in 1911. After attempting in vain to get the hour-long work premiered in Copenhagen and Stockholm, the Lang

1. Bendt Viinholt Nielsen. Rued Langgaards Kompositioner; Rued Langgaard's Compositions: An Annotated Catalogue of Works. Odense: Odense University Press, 1991.

2. Bendt Viinholt Nielsen. Rued Langgaard: Biografi. Copenhagen: Engstrpm & Spdring, 1993.




gaard family (with support from patrons) managed to get the symphony performed in Berlin in 1913 at a completely Langgaard concert with the Berlin Philharmonic

conducted by Max Fiedler. The performance was a success, and the concert marked the culmination of Langgaard's career as a composer.

The opportunities to have large demanding compositions performed in Copen

hagen were few and far between in those days, and it is a sad fact that the works

Langgaard himself considered to be some of his most substantial, Sinfonia interna

(1915-16), Sfserernes Musik (The Music of the Spheres; 1916-18) and the opera Antikrist (Antichrist; 1921-23), were not performed in Denmark during the

composer's lifetime. In the beginning of the 1920s things apparently brightened internationally for

Langgaard. A couple of orchestral works and his second, fourth, and sixth

symphonies were performed in Darmstadt, Essen, Stuttgart, Heidelberg, Karl

sruhe, Berlin, and Vienna (often with himself as conductor), and his chamber and

piano music was heard in Karlsruhe, Paris, and Prague. Langgaard appears to

have had an especially attentive young audience in Karlsruhe, where the perfor mance of his experimental sixth symphony was received with great enthusiasm—

quite a different reaction compared to the scandal which arose after the sympho

ny's 1923 premiere in Copenhagen by the famous Blüthner Orchestra from Berlin.

However, Langgaard's success in Germany was sporadic and shortlived. After

1924 he set foot outside Denmark only for summer vacations in Sweden.

The big turning point in Langgaard's life came in 1924/25. After having been, for years, one of several young Nielsen-inspired avantgarde Danish composers,

Langgaard changed his mind and fell back to a derivative late romantic style. At

the same time he renounced modern music and all of its ways. (This did not,

however, include his own progressive works!) In 1927 Langgaard began publicly to polemize against Nielsen, the undisputed leader of modern music, and his

followers. At the same time he founded a society called "The Music Society for

Boring People," a form of protection against the incursion of jazz. This new

society soon folded. Langgaard's isolation and fate in Danish music culture was

firmly determined within a few years. His life became marked by despair about his

position as a "cultural composer" (as he labelled himself) for an unsympathetic,

hard-headed, and spiritless age controlled by materialism, objectivity, and societal

concerns. From this point on, performances of Langgaard's works were given

only by the Danish state radio which felt a certain obligation toward the composer. The most tragic aspect of Langgaard's life during these years was his failure to

attain his greatest wish, a position as a church organist. The fact that one of the

most gifted organists Denmark has ever known was unable to get a church job, even though he applied, year after year, for almost every available position shows

both a pronounced absence of magnanimity in Denmark's musical culture of the

1930s and the period's lack of respect for the romantic tradition represented by

Langgaard. In 1940 Langgaard, then 47 years old, finally received his first and only

permanent position as organist and cantor at the cathedral in Ribe, a little

provincial town in Southern Jutland. Although the composer was pleased with the

position, being sent so far from Copenhagen must have made him feel like an




exile. In Ribe Langgaard concentrated on his ecclesiastical duties and composi tional activities.

Rued Langgaard died shortly before his 59th birthday in 1952, leaving more than 400 compositions: sixteen symphonies, numerous other orchestral works, an opera in various versions, a number of vocal works with orchestra, string quartets, and violin sonatas, a large quantity of piano and organ compositions, and well over a hundred songs.

Langgaard's Music

Langgaard's approach to music was anti-academic. He was an artist who was

completely dependent upon inspiration and he preferred to follow his ear and his intuition rather than academic formulas and good form. He was "haunted" by inspiration during two periods, 1914-18 and 1947-49, when large and small works alike incessantly pushed themselves upon him. Problems concerning com

positional techniques were unknown to Langgaard; entire symphonies were drafted in a matter of days.

This impulsive manner was one reason why Langgaard's artistic development was anything but regular. Both stylistically and in respect to his relationship to music as a whole, three marked changes stand out in the composer's oeuvre. The years 1916, 1924, and 1946 divide Langgaard's musical output into four phases which could be called respectively: an objective (late romantic) phase, a personal (experimental) phase, an anonymous (classical) phase, and a private (absurd) phase.

From the beginning Langgaard was oriented toward the traditions of the German-speaking area (as was normal for the period before the First World War). His music was never decisively touched by what one might call a Danish or Nordic sound. Instead the inheritance from Schumann, Liszt, Wagner, and Richard Strauss clearly distinguished itself throughout the whole of Langgaard's compo sitional career. The years 1916-1924 were Langgaard's "modern" period when he created a bold, visionary, and static music such as Sfxrernes Musik, as well as works characterized by an antagonistic apocalyptic universe like the sixth sym phony Det Himmelrivende (Heavens Asunder), the opera Fortabelsen (Antikrist) Damnation (Antichrist) and his String Quartet No. 3. During these years Lang gaard often abandoned the romantic musical language and adopted a more ex pressive, modernistic style.

While other composers found security in neo-classicism during the turbulent and unpredictable 1920s, Langgaard searched for "pure truth" in an unproblem atic, almost anonymous neo-romantic style that he adopted in 1924/25. According to Langgaard, the future of music could now only be based on Romanticism, especially the late works of Niels W. Gade and Wagner. The radical change in Langgaard's compositional style can perhaps best be heard through a comparison of his third and fifth string quartets. Although only one year separates these two works, stylistically they sound as if they are separated by at least half a century. At the same time a period was introduced in Langgaard's life and production which could be called "the twenty lean years."




Auffiihrungsrecht vorbeh&lten. Spharenmusik.

4 efCjLxtky vj cot

3 CCewiAitkUt -iw35.

7 CosWA, -ytv t)~.

eX-v*vvpxi-vj-v f <i«UVm )

5. 6.

$\CLnol

THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES. - L'HARMONIE DES SPHERES.

CO JTttOSSO- ji*58 D , r , , , Wu W4;«fW.v.

Rud Emanuel Langgaard. Zt/re suntearns on a co/fi/e tfoeoralea rvitA ■r.-ivvs' -sua //ins f/o^m Cow"K ito Je oJ-Ce-vC -ant wit j.' c ■' oi.u niv-j.

''"Sec. .>H1 *)■£»•* <!■ •r/,t> foafy /vrtA tAo strings of at piano £« av« .Ce-.> .aAt&csi -pi<z

Copyright 1919 by Wilhelm Hansen. Leipzig.

FIGURE 2. First page of the printed score to Sfxrernes Musik (The Music of the Spheres) composed 1916-18. At the sight of this score György Ligeti exclaimed (in 1968): "I had no idea that I was actually an epigon of Langgaard!". Langgaard's unusual work has many striking parallels to Ligeti's Atmospheres from 1961. Copyright: Edition Wilhelm Hansen, Copenhagen.




Except for the two-hour-long organ work, Messis ("Harvest" in Latin), Lang gaard composed almost no new music in the 1930s. Instead his time was spent editing and reworking earlier works and composing a piano concerto based on some of his father's compositions.

Langgaard's arrival in Ribe in 1940 helped his productivity. In the mid-1940s he entered into his final, almost manic phase of production with the bizarre, seven

minute-long Symphony No. 11 (requiring five tubas!). During the following years Langgaard composed a series of strange, absurd, and irregular works expressing desperation, helplessness, and protest. (For example: ultra-short or "wild" move

ments, circular compositions, music without conclusions or designed to be played "indefinitely").

These works provide an unexpected but essential contribution to our under

standing of Langgaard's split universe, which, in a paradoxical way, brings Ro manticism's dream of beauty, goodness, and truth face to face with the twentieth

century's alienation, destructiveness, dissolution, and absurdity.

Problems Concerning a Catalogue of Works

Luckily Rued Langgaard's widow, Constance Langgaard, took good care of the

papers her husband left behind. Shortly after his death she got in contact with Denmark's national music collection at the Royal Library in Copenhagen. Conse

quently the composer's music manuscripts, important papers concerning music, photographs, and personalia were bequeathed to the library after Constance

Langgaard's death in 1969; hence all principal sources for Langgaard's compre hensive production are now held in the Royal Library.

Constance Langgaard did everything she could to make sense of her husband's

music manuscripts, but she was unable to get a clear overview of Langgaard's complete production due to the amount and the character of the source material.

Composers like Langgaard, those who are able to toss off one composition after

another, are usually characterized as quickly forgetting what has just been

completed in order to focus upon something new. However, this description does not fit Langgaard. His impulsive and hectic qualities were coupled with a habit of never apparently abandoning a composition; old ideas always floated around in his mind (his musical memory was legendary). Thus Langgaard's entire output is characterized by repeated revisions, reworkings, title changes, and the recycling of earlier works in new contexts. Consequently, it can be very difficult to define and demarcate a particular work with respect to its music and manuscripts, especially when that work is part of an intricate complex of compositions.

Only a small number of Langgaard's 432 registered compositions were pub lished during his lifetime, among these some of his most interesting music, Sfserernes Musik and the Symphony No. 6. His impulsive working method often entailed unorganized and inconsistent corrections in both his manuscripts and published works. In addition, dates were often added and corrected post factum. Consequently, Langgaard's manuscripts are filled with imprecise dates, incorrect information concerning performances (recorded according to memory), and other information that is seemingly correct, but has been proven to be unreliable. Langgaard was fond of changing the titles of his works (sometimes as many as ten




to twelve times for a single piece). In addition he sometimes used the same titles for various compositions—one can imagine the bibliographical problems involved. This situation is not made any better by the fact that a great many sketches are

missing. It is almost unnecessary to point out that Langgaard did not keep a diary or other written record of his composing activities and/or the performances of his works. In other words, attempting to compile a catalogue of this strange man's

compositions is a bit of a challenge—to say the least. It took this writer the better part of fourteen years to work through the

sources. All the connections between the various manuscripts had to be sur

veyed, and an attempt had to be made to identify all the sketches. It soon became

apparent that not only the primary sources, the autograph music manuscripts, but also a number of secondary sources such as letters, concert programs, reviews, and private papers had to be consulted in order to unravel the circumstances around the creation and publication of Langgaard's compositions.

An unusual aid which has proved helpful in elucidating the chronology of

Langgaard's output is the composer's penmanship. Langgaard had a very complex personality which was reflected in his handwriting. The character of his writing style changed many times; by comparing dated letters and other documents with

the handwriting found in music manuscripts one can often determine, sometimes with the margin of a few months, when a given manuscript was completed and when additions and/or corrections were made. Of course one must be cautious not to make rigorous conclusions solely on the grounds of handwriting.

The following example illustrates what was meant above by the term "complex of compositions" and how essential it is to set out a detailed chronology of

Langgaard's output.

• In 1917-18 Langgaard composed an orchestral work titled Sommersagns drama (Summer Legend's Drama). It was premiered in Copenhagen in 1919

and revised shortly thereafter by the composer (Score 1).

• In 1920 Langgaard re-used a large part of the composition in a new work entitled Symfonisk Festspil (Symphonic Festival Play). This piece was per formed in Copenhagen, Berlin, and Vienna (Score 2).

• In 1925 the composer shortened the revised original and included it (Score 3) in his series of symphonies, first as Symphony No. 6 and shortly after as

Symphony No. 5. This version was performed in 1927 in Copenhagen.

• Around 1930 Langgaard changed the title of the 1920 version (Score 2:

Symfonisk Festspil) to Symphony in F Major (No. 5). However, he was not

satisfied with incorporating this work in the symphony series, for in 1931

he used this music as the starting point for the "final" version of Symphony No. 5, which, after a number of proposals, was finally entitled Steppenatur

(Sommersagnsdrama) (Nature of the Steppe (Summer Legend's Drama))

(Score 4). This version was premiered on the Danish state radio in 1937.

• Langgaard had not, however, given up the earlier version of Symphony No.

5 (Score 3); around 1933 he added "Version 1" to the manuscript and at the

same time labelled the 1931 version "Version 2."




• Finally in 1940-41 Langgaard reconstructed and revised the first version of the work from 1917-18 (Score 5). After a number of various title proposals Langgaard decided in the end to call this as yet unperformed version Saga blot (A Thing of the Past). In Langgaard's personal papers this version is sometimes called "1st Version of Symphony No. 5"—and with that the confusion is shown in its totality!

Where one version of a piece ends and the other begins, and what one should

interpret as parallel versions of a piece as opposed to new versions that take the

place of an older version, are, as one can imagine, vital questions with respect to

Langgaard's output. It is of no use to try to guess what Langgaard did in fact intend in every case. However, the problem often solves itself as all the pieces of the many complexes fall into place and the chronology becomes clarified. I found that the best way to deal with this problem was to use only two principal categories in the Langgaard catalogue: "revision" and "reworking."

A revision is defined as the sum of minor changes to a composition. It is assumed on principle that the revised version replaces the original version, and the work is therefore catalogued chronologically according to the date of the

original composition. On the other hand, a reworking involves more extensive

changes such as the addition of new material or an essential abridgment. Changes such as these effect the form, character and/or length of the original composition. The reworked versions of a composition are described as independent entries, thus they are catalogued chronologically according to the date of the reworking.

If two versions of a piece bear identical titles, this is indicated by an additional

designation, for example "[version 1942]." Completely different works bearing the same title are distinguished by the addition of a Roman numeral, for example "[I]," "[II]," etc.

The compilation of the Langgaard catalogue of works required a structure in

agreement with the nature of the existing source materials, but unfortunately a useful model for such a catalogue structure was not at hand. From the start it was clear to me that merely registering the data found in the manuscripts would lead to the presentation of much misleading information which could only be used by someone with access to the primary sources who could then differentiate what was original and what had perhaps been added and/or changed at a later date. All the data concerning each work had to be thoroughly studied and interpreted in order to draw valid conclusions about the work. However, using standardized, edited terminology (that does not necessarily agree with what one sees in the primary sources) requires some sort of an elaboration or explanation. In Lang gaard's case a comprehensive set of annotations was required to present data on variants and irregularities and to give information such as previous titles, song text sources, important performances, and a number of other things.

The methodology behind the solutions to Langgaard's many detailed biblio graphical problems is too broad a topic to be dealt with here. I have written about it in the catalogue of works. Although this catalogue is in Danish, an English introduction as well as a comprehensive Danish-English word list have been included.




Langgaard Today

One might get the impression that, all in all, too much fuss has been made over this composer, whose significance may be inferior due to his lack of influence on his contemporaries and whose importance and artistic appearance are still puz zling, even though much of his music is now known. Therefore, I think it proper to close this introductory article with a brief description of a few of the features that draw attention to Langgaard today.

One need not hear many of Langgaard's compositions before one realizes that musical "style" serves as an important parameter in his music. Langgaard's works contain a wide variety of styles and in many cases stylistic juxtaposition can be

found within a single movement. Langgaard was obviously conscious of style as a musical device in itself. Even though his compositions often sound like romantic

or late-romantic works, the structure and time sequences in his music do not

conform to similar principles. Langgaard generally composed in blocks or mod ules. Each block is individualized by its own musical "character" or its own "mood" or "sound." Concepts such as these were more important for Langgaard than

thematic or motivic significance. Langgaard was not interested in musical "devel

opment" or the arrangement of musical material within a framework of, for

example, a sonata or variation form. He experimented especially with the single movement form (eight of his sixteen symphonies are one movement works—and

eight are in F Major!), and his music generally has a complex, rhapsodic, or even

improvised character. The absence of musical processes in Langgaard's "block

constructed form" along with the extreme brevity of a number of his compositions

(including orchestral works as short as one minute in length) lend his music a

breathless, restless character, which is far from the breadth of expression found, for example, in the works of Bruckner—one of Langgaard's idols. If one looks at

Langgaard's sixteen symphonies this decisive difference is clear: Langgaard's longest slow movement is only nine minutes in length, and his longest scherzo

lasts a mere four minutes! Motives and themes do not hold a Langgaard composition together, but rather

a style which is connected to a specific world of sound. Each work forms its own

"soundspace." Often a personal, symbolic value lies within the choice of style; for

example Langgaard felt that the Danish composer Niels W. Gade (1817-90) was

of special importance, and he often referred to Gade in his compositions. Lang

gaard's music is also reminiscent of such composers as Schumann, Wagner, Richard Strauss, early Schönberg, Debussy, and Carl Nielsen. But now and

then the music suddenly sounds as if it could have been written decades after

Langgaard's own time: tone clusters, collage music, open form, minimalism, New

Age . . . Even though his contemporaries considered him anything but progressive, and

even though his musical language (if not his concept of form) was often notoriously

ultra-conservative, Langgaard was an artist with a visionary imagination. In his

own unique way he anticipated phenomena which did not become part of music

history until after his death.




Sf.jwc.

2iU.

j. » f -t - 1

FIGURE 3. Four elaborately deleted measures in a score to Langgaard's opera entitled (in its 1930

version) Fortabelsen (Antikrist) (Damnation (Antichrist)).

Langgaard ascribed crucial importance to the spiritual and religious message of music. His spiritual baggage—made up primarily of his father's philosophical "system," a cosmic-religious vision of the world in which music is understood as a spiritual factor of power contributing directly to the salvation of man—was the

starting point for his characteristic, but diffuse world of thought. This world




partially formed the background for his process of composition (one could say that

Langgaard considered himself somewhat of a medium) and served as the frame work within which he interpreted his own music.

Langgaard's compositions often carry descriptive titles that are tied either to Danish history, nature, or an apocalyptic, religious universe: Afgrundsmusik (Music of the Abyss), Flammekamrene (The Flaming Chambers) and Vanvids

fantasi (Rage Fantasia) (all for piano), Begravet i Helvede (Buried in Hell) (for organ), Undertro (Belief in Wonders) (Symphony No. 13) and Syndflod afSol (A Flood of Sun) (Symphony No. 16).

The intensity of expression and direct musical pleasure which often radiates from these works impress most listeners. There is something insistent about this

music; the spiritual power behind it makes itself felt.

Langgaard did not trouble himself about banality or borrowing from other

composers. Cool contemplation and artistic planning were never part of his style; irrationality rather held a prominent place in his art. His music is a fearless and ecstatic artist's sonorous imaginings, free of intellectual reflection. Thus the music is not easily measured by a compass or ruler; for the most part it defies logic and eludes rational assessment. Consequently musicologists will fail if they apply conventional tools. A similar case is Charles Ives (1874-1954), whose music and world of ideas contain certain parallels with those of Langgaard. With Langgaard music also often seeks to hold on to memories from the unspoiled world of childhood. An interpretation of his music therefore calls for untraditional methods, in which the concept of Symbolism seems to be a key.

One of the most fascinating things about a composer like Langgaard is the

presence of the irrational, the bizarre, and the unpredictable. This is clearly shown in one of Langgaard's last and (for good reasons) never performed com

positions, Sondagssonate (Sunday Sonata), a fifteen minute-long piece for violin,

piano, organ, and large orchestra, in which the orchestra does not participate until the last sixteen measures (in tempo Presto)! Is this art or simply raving non sense? It is at least music which challenges the mind and exceeds the aesthetic

boundaries of art. It is actually what one calls meta-music: music that debates the issue of music as an artform—its means and goals.

Because life and work were almost inseparable for Langgaard, his importance stretches, in a strange way, beyond the person and his biography, beyond the narrow assessment of the artistic autonomy and quality of the individual work. In

Langgaard's music nineteenth-century ideals come face to face with the reality of

the twentieth century. The result is not necessarily the production of artistically successful or clearly defined works, on the contrary the result often produces

thought-provoking works brimming with expression. Rued Langgaard was indeed

an outsider, but his life and output cast an interesting, although perhaps not

directly flattering, light on Danish music history.




__—- ^

FIGURE 4. Among Langgaard's personal papers is this comic strip cut out of a newspaper and supplied

with the following comments by Langgaard regarding his relationship to the Danish state radio: "Idea"

(frame 1), "The Act of Composing" (frame 2), "Writing the Score (Instrumentation)" (frame 3)—but

with what "Result"? (frame 4): It is all rejected and returned to the sender again!




Bibliography

Nielsen, Bendt Viinholt. Rued Langgaards Kompositioner; Rued Langgaard's Compositions: An Annotated Catalogue of Works with an English Introduc tion. Odense: Odense University Press, 1991; 561 pp. ISBN 87 7492 780 9.

Nielsen, Bendt Viinholt. Rued Langgaard: Biografi. Copenhagen: Engstrom &

Spdring, 1993; 334 pp. ISBN 87 87091 607.

Selected articles

Marschner, Bo. "Rued (Immanuel) Langgaard," The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. London, 1980.

Nielsen, Bendt Viinholt. "Pettersson und Langgaard. Zwei 'komplementäre Aus senseiter.' " In Allan Pettersson Jahrbuch 1987. Wupperthal: Internationale Allan Pettersson Gesellschaft. Abridged English version published in: Nordic Sounds. March 1988.

Holm, Sven. "Fanfare for a Danish Outsider" Nordic Sounds 3 (1993).

Nielsen, Bendt Viinholt. "Rued Langgaard—A Paradoxical Danish Composer," Musical Denmark 47 (December 1992). Copenhagen: The Danish Cultural Institute and The Danish Music Information Center.

Music:

In recent years a number of Langgaard works (choral music, organ and piano music, chamber music) have been published for the first time by the following Danish music publishers: Edition Egtved, Edition Wilhelm Hansen, and Samfundet

(The Society for the Publication of Danish Music).

Rued Langgaard on CD

Antikrist (Antichrist). Various soloists, Roskilde Koret and Sjaellands Symfo niorkester (Copenhagen Philharmonic) conducted by Ole Schmidt. EMI/HMV

7496642. 2 CD set (1988). Also includes: Symphony No. 6.

Symphony Nos. 10, 14. The Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir

conducted by Ole Schmidt and Michael Schon wandt. Danacord DACOCD 302

(1987).

Symphony Nos. 4, 6, The Music of the Spheres. Edith Guillaume (soprano), The

Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir conducted by John Frandsen.

Danacord DACOCD 340-341 (1989). 2 CD set.

Symphony Nos. 4, 5, 6. The Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra

conducted by Neeme Järvi. Chandos CHAN 9064 (1992).

The Complete Symphonies Vols. 1-7. Various soloists, Artur Rubinstein

Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir conducted by Ilya Stupel. Danacord

DACOCD 404-410 (1992). 7 CD's. Also includes: Drapa, Heltedod, Interdikt,

Sfinx, Prelude to Antikrist.

Symphony No. 1, Era Dybet. The Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra

and Choir conducted by Leif Segerstam. Chandos CHAN 9249 (1994).




String Quartets. The Kontra Quartet. Dacapo 9302 (1993). 2 CD set.

Danish Golden Age Piano Trios. Tre Musici. Dacapo DCCD 9310 (1993). Includes: Langgaard: Fjeldblomster (Mountain Flowers).

Piano Music (The Works for Keyboard Vol. 1) Bengt Johnsson, piano. Dana cord DACOCD 369 (1994).

Gensyn med Danmark. Danish Partsongs. Radiokammerkoret conducted by Per Enevold. Danacord DACOCD 308 (1988). Includes: Langgaard: Rosen

gârdsviser.

Romantic Danish Songs. Peder Severin, tenor; Dorte Kirkeskov, piano. Dacapo DCCD 9114 (1992). Includes: 6 songs by Langgaard.

Early Songs. Birgitte Lindhardt, soprano; Ulla Kappel, piano. Olga CD 93060

(1993).

Lieder. Anne Margrethe Dahl, soprano; Ulrich Stark, piano. Dacapo 8.224011

(1994).



an ecstatic outsider: rued langgaard, 1893—1952

Documents