Death of Denmark’s musical outsider
mainThe death has been announced of the Danish composer Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, aged 83, of cancer. His style, he aid, was ‘new simplicity’.
An outsider to the Danish establishment and the prevalent composing styles, his works include a symphony, Antiphony, Tricolore IV, and Incontri; Plateaux pour piano et Orchestre, Triptykon for percussion and orchestra, and Concerto Grosso for string quartet and orchestra. Plateaux pour deux for cello and car horn was a 1970 sensation.
RIP. I learned of Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen from the Dacapo label, which put out a lot of recordings of his work. I always intended to start collecting those after I had finished with the Per Nørgård and Hans Abrahamsen discs that had drawn me to the label – and to Danish new music in general with its myriad pleasures – but it’s sad that by the time I finally hear the man’s music, he will no longer be among us.
Wow. I just heard a new piece of his on Friday night.
I had no idea he was sick.
This was the project he wrote for:
https://thecrossingchoir.squarespace.com/about-7-responses
(He did the heart.)
And here’s his page for the project:
https://thecrossingchoir.squarespace.com/pelle
Here’s audio of another piece of his from last year:
http://www.crossingchoir.com/listen
It’s top row center – Three Stages.