23 December 1952, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
Danish composer and pianist
Works for Brass Quintet
- Round and In-Between (1972) for brass quintet
Biography
Hans Abrahamsen’s interest in composition and piano began after hearing his father playing piano. His first attempts at “little melodies” were designed to be played with the only two fingers on his right hand that were capable of playing the instrument. After realizing that he would not be able to progress, he shifted his focus to the horn.
From 1969 to 1971, he studied horn, music theory, and music history at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. While at the conservatory, his music was inspired by his mentors Per Nørgård and Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen. In the 1980s, he continued his studies attending seminars with György Ligeti.
Abrahamsen is considered to have been part of a trend called the “New Simplicity”, which arose in the mid-1960s as a reaction against the complexity and perceived aridity of the Central European avant-garde. Abrahamsen’s first works conformed to the tenets of this movement, particularly the circle around the Darmstadt School. For Abrahamsen, this meant adopting an almost naive simplicity of expression, as in his 1970 orchestral piece Skum (Foam).
Around this time, he was also involved with a group called the Gruppen for Alternativ Musik, which was designed to allow musicians to “perform new music in alternative forms,” and “to develop socially and politically committed music.” These ideals can be seen in his Symphony in C which was originally titled Anti-EEC Sats (Anti-EEC Movement). The title was changed “after the composer came to the realization that ‘ music cannot be against.’ His style soon altered and developed into a personal dialogue with Romanticism which can be seen in his orchestral work Nacht und Trompeten. In 1982, he found early success when this piece was performed by the Berlin Philharmonic. The conductor of that performance, composer Hans Werner Henze, soon became a champion of Abrahamsen’s music.
From 1990 to 1998, Abrahamsen completed only one work, a short song. According to the composer, “[he] couldn’t find the way to make what [he] wanted.” The prevailing attitudes about complexity in music caused him to be “paralyzed by the white paper.” Coming out of his hiatus, he began working on new arrangements of Johann Sebastian Bach. The orchestrations of these arrangements included many nods to minimalist composers foreshadowing aesthetic changes in Abrahamsen’s music.
After his return to composition, his music was radically changed. It combined his early artistic attitudes with newer artistic goals with a modernist stringency and economy into a larger individual musical universe.
References