Fartein Valen: Valevåg’s Local Universalist
Sentralen/Gymsalen
15 September, 2 – 4.30 pm
Free entry
‘A famous Norwegian composer’, wrote Dagbladet newspaper when a statue of Fartein Valen was vandalised in Sveio in spring this year. But who was this artist who, despite his silent character, managed to provoke and disturb so many during his lifetime, both in Norway and abroad?
Astrid Kvalbein (UiO), Arnulf Mattes (UiB) and Ivar Roger Hansen will discuss Valen in his own time, and the nationalism and modernism that created waves of opposition between Norwegian composers both before and after the second world war. Why did David Monrad Johansen lambast Valen, his friend and mentor, in Oslo’s Theatrekafeen in 1938, and did he really say that ‘Atonal rhymes with amoral’?
We will also see the film that has been used to promote Valen and his violin concerto internationally, and hear how Britain’s Princess Margaret came to be presented with the work’s score at a big concert in London in 1952.
About the contributors
Arnulf Mattes and Astrind Kvalbein are both connected to the research project Farten Valen – Atonal Pioneer and Modern Traditionalist, at the University of Oslo (as leader/researcher and PhD candidate). Ivar Roger Hansen is the author of the biography of David Monrad Johansen, Mot fedrenes fjell.
Moderator is Bodil Maroni Jensen, journalist.
This event marks the conclusion of a research project begun in 2012, funded by Norsk Forskningsråd. In partnership with UiO.
Lullaby Oslo workshop with Haugerud Strykeorkester
Furuset bibliotek og aktivitetshus
15 September, 2 – 5 pm
Free entry
Supriya Nagarajan will conduct workshops with the young people of the Haugerud string ensemble led by Mari Ystanes Fjeldstad. The ensemble will play a composition specially composed for them by Nagarajan and the afternoon will end with a special participative rendition of a soothing Japanese lullaby. Duncan Chapman will support Nagarajan at this workshop.
In collaboration with Furuset bibliotek og aktivitetshus and Haugerud Strykeorkester
Ultima Academy is supported by Norwegian Society of Composers.
