Magnus Lindberg

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Magnus Lindberg (born June 27, 1958) is a Finnish composer.

Lindberg was born in Helsinki. He studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki under Einojuhani Rautavaara and Paavo Heininen, beginning with piano.

He attended summer courses in Siena (with Franco Donatoni) and Darmstadt (with Brian Ferneyhough). After graduating from the Sibelius Academy in 1981 he travelled widely in Europe, attending private studies with Vinko Globokar and Gérard Grisey in Paris, and observing Japanese drumming and punk rock in Berlin.

While at 16 Lindberg wrote a large orchestral work called Donor, this was considered impossible to perform, and several subsequent works were considered juvenalia. 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 explored musique concrète. This piece was written for and premiered by the new-music ensemble Toimii ("It Works" in the Finnish language), which Lindberg founded during the summer of 1980. Lindberg is a trained pianist and has performed several of his works as part of Toimii.

Kraft (1983-85), another piece written for Toimii, was Lindberg's largest work to date, with over 70 harmonies and a meter-high score. It uses not only traditional instrumentation, but percussion on scrap metal and spoken word. Lindberg found this large work difficult to follow, 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 travels in Indonesia.

Kraft made use of a chaconne-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 still explored the possibilities of compositional software, and Engine displays complex counterpoint generated by computer.

Among the many prizes his music has won are the Prix Italia (1986), the UNESCO Rostrum (1986), the Nordic Music Prize (1988) for Kraft, and the Royal Philharmonic Society Prize for large-scale composition (1992).

[edit] Works

Musik för två pianon (Music for Two Pianos) (1976)
Arabesques for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn (1978)
Quintetto dell' estate for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano (1979)
Linea d'ombra (1981)
"...de Tartuffe, je crois..." for piano quintet (1981)
Action-Situation-Signification (1982)
Tendenza for 21 players (1982)
Ablauf (1983)
Ground for harpsichord (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 (1990)
Clarinet Quintet (1992)
Duo Concertante for solo clarinet and cello (1992)
Corrente for chamber orchestra (1992)
Corrente II for symphony orchestra (1992)
Decorrente (1992)
Kiri (1993)
Songs from North and South" for chorus a cappella (1993)
Coyote Blues for large chamber ensemble (1993)
Away for solo clarinet (1994)
Aura (in memoriam Witold Lutoslawki) for orchestra (1994)
Concerto for piano and orchestra (1994)
Zungenstimmen (1994)
Arena for orchestra (1995)
Arena II for orchestra (1996)
Engine (1996)
Related Rocks (1997)
Feria
Cantigas (1997-1999)
Concerto for cello and orchestra (1999)
Parada
Fresco
Corrente - China Version (2000)
Jubilees for piano (2000)
Partia for cello solo (2001)
Dos Coyotes (2002)
Bubo bubo (2002)
Bright Cecilia: Variations on a Theme by Purcell for orchestra (2002)
Chorale for orchestra (2002)
Concerto for orchestra (2003)
Mano a mano for guitar (2004)
Ottoni for brass ensemble (2005)
Sculpture for orchestra (2005)
Concerto for violin and orchestra (2006)
"New work" for cello and piano (2006)

[edit] Sources

Stenius, Caterina. 2006. Chaconne: En bok om Magnus Lindberg och den nya musiken. Med verkförteckning av Risto Nieminen. Helsinki: Söderströms. ISBN 9-515-22356-3