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Conrad Baden (31 August 1908 – 11 June 1989[1]) was a Norwegian organist, composer, music educator, and music critic.[2] He had an extensive production of orchestral works, chamber music, vocal works and church music.

Conrad Baden 1966. Photo: Bergens Tidende
Conrad Baden 1966. Photo: Bergens Tidende

He is considered one of the most important Norwegian composers of the 20th century.[3]


Biography



Studies


He received his first music lessons from his organist father who died when Conrad was 17 years old and about to complete business school. He devoted himself to music and studied piano and organ with the local organist Daniel Hanssen. The young talent soon played to services and oratories. 19 years old, Baden was given organist position in Strømsgodset church.[citation needed]

Instead of studying at the Music Conservatory in Oslo, he proceeded to a private exam as organist in 1931 and with excellent grades.[clarification needed] In 1931-32 he studied church music at the Leipzig Conservatory and got strong impressions of the Bach tradition. Fellow students were later Nidaros cathedral organist Ludvig Nielsen and composer Geirr Tveitt.

Coming home he studied counterpoint with Palestrina expert Per Steenberg and instrumentation and composition with the composer Bjarne Brustad.[1]


Debut


In 1936 he gave his debut concert as an organist at the Oslo Cathedral. He eventually became known as an organist and composer of organ works, motets and hymns. During the 1950s Bden was a strong and radical voice amongst discussions concerning a departure from the late romantic style in favour of Lutheran and neobaroque style.

In 1943 he changed his organist position to his father's old church Strømsø in Drammen. In 1946 he appeared as a professional composer in Oslo with a chamber music program. In 1961 he moved with wife and two sons to Oslo and a position in Ris church until 1975.[4][1] This concluded serving as an organist during 47 years.


Work styles



Neoclassicism of the 1950s

Baden's earliest works were penned in a national-romantic style, while his church music works display a close bond to the prevalent Palestrina style of the period. His works from 1950 onwards, were heavily influenced by French Neo-classicism, and in the 60s Baden would also employ twelve-tone techniques, with an increasing use of dissonance. Spring 1965 saw Baden travelling to Vienna to meet Hanns Jelinek, a student of Schönberg and Berg – a visit that led to a stylistic liberation for the Norwegian composer. The following year, this liberation came into fruition in his sole twelve-tone work Hymnus per alto, flauto, oboe e viola with a text from the Latin hymn Vexilla Regis.[5]

A breakthrough as an orchestral composer came in 1955 with the performance of Symphony No. 1. A unique neoclassical work is the Fairytale Suite for Orchestra (1960), inspired by Norwegian traditional stories.


Modernism

In the 1960s, younger composers like Egil Hovland and Knut Nystedt pioneered a more radical tone language inspired by the twelve-tone technique. Baden had already in 1958 criticized "the gap between church music and concert music ..., a church ideal which, as time goes on, is increasingly distancing itself from the musical practice of the present".[citation needed]

Baden was himself influenced by the increasing radicalization of contemporary music. He began to use themes from the twelve-tone technique, and with a bolder use of dissonances. The need for a new orientation led in 1965 to studies in Vienna with Hanns Jelinek, a student of the twelve-tone pioneers Arnold Schönberg and Alban Berg. Despite experiencing him as "a terrible calculator,"[clarification needed] the visit contributed to a lasting stylistic liberation.[citation needed]


Composer


Baden composed works in a number of forms, bar opera and electronic music. As a composer, he was highly active. In addition to his vocation as a professional organist through 47 years, he composed a mass for soloists, choirs and orchestra, 200 songs for soloists and choirs, suites and sonatas for piano and other instruments, motets and 11 cantatas. In Baden's compositional output, his church music occupies an equal role to that of his orchestral works – he would write five concertos and smaller orchestral works as well as six symphonies.[6] In addition to his career in composition and as an organist, he taught counterpoint, harmony and composition at the Music Conservatory in Oslo. As a music critic, Baden's reviews were featured in newspapers Drammens Tidende, Vårt Land and Morgenbladet.


Compositions

While holding positions as an organist, music critic and educator, he composed 146 works in most forms. Among his 20 orchestral works are solo concerts for clarinet, viola, piano, bassoon and cello, and he composed six symphonies 1952 - 1980. 2)3)4)5)

Among choral works are a Mass (1949) with the classic Latin text and 11 cantatas for special occasions in cities and churches. Many Norwegian church choirs have sung some of his 45 motets for the service. Adaptations of Norwegian religious folk tones make up a large part of his numerous songs for choir and solo songs.

His 35 chamber music and piano works include suites and sonatas, also for children. Among his 33 organ works, there are 11 variations on folk tunes and on chorales. In free organ works such as sonatas (the first in 1939) and suites for organ, the tone language moves parallel the development of contemporary music, from late romanticism through neoclassicism to expressionism. The suite Pezzi concertante (1966) is described by the organ performer Harald Herresthal as "expressive and almost volcanic emotional”. outburst"

The more radical tone language of the 1960s is evident in the orchestral work Variazioni (1963). There he tries out the twelve-tone style, and this is most strongly expressed in Hymnus for song and three instruments (1966). Such a sonic liberation combined with classical forms characterized him for the rest of his life, through the latter half of his total sixty years of compositional work. He is described as a stylistically diverse composer.[citation needed]


Educator and critic


From 1947 he was a teacher in counterpoint, harmony and composition at the Music Conservatory in Oslo. After a transition of the conservatory in 1973 to the Norwegian Academy of Music he served as an associate professor until 1978. He was central to theory teaching for thirty years. Among his numerous students are Harald Herresthal, Trond Kverno and Ragnar Söderlind. Also students who wanted to compose differently than the traditional classical style, like Arne Nordheim and jazz musicians such as Jan Garbarek, had lessons in harmony and counterpoint (also called "Conrad point"!) with him.[citation needed]

Even if being a serious educator, he was known for his humour. Composition professor Finn Mortensen puts it this way: “Behind the smoking pipe and the serious features it hides an ability for unique punchlines and an ability for whimsical humming with a dry-whitish cut.”[citation needed]

He was a music critic in newspapers and magazines since 1935, and his commentaries give important response to Norwegian musical life through fifty years.


Selected works


Compositions not published are available in the National Library, Nasjonalbiblioteket


Orchestral works



Concertos


Works for chorus, soloist and orchestra


Cantatas



Chorus with and without accompagnement, also congregational hymns



Chamber music



Piano



Organ



Solo songs



3 melodies in Norwegian Hymnal 2013



Discography



Orchestra



Chamber Music



Organ



Vocal music



Literature


National Library of Norway has collected sheet music, critics, programmes and other documents after Conrad Baden.


References


  1. Howard Gamble (12 October 2002). "Conrad Baden - Biography". Listen To Norway. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  2. Biography of Conrad Baden Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Elef Nesheim, Norsk biografisk leksikon, En av 1900-tallets betydeligste norske komponister
  4. Guttorm Ihlebæk (September 1988), Conrad Baden at 80, Norsk Kirkemusikk
  5. "Bio from SNL (in Norwegian)". nbl.snl.no. Retrieved 2017-03-13.
  6. "Bio from record label Grappa". grappa.no. Retrieved 2017-03-13.

{Elef Nesheim Norsk biografisk leksikon>1 "En av 1900-tallets betydeligste norske komponister"

^ Elef Nesheim (1985) History of Music (translated): “The symphonies represent the stylistic development of Baden. He has always held on to a tonal basis and builds on the classic forms. The sonic element has gained an increasingly prominent place in a very expanded tonality.”2

^ Grinde, Nils (1981). History of Norwegian Music (translated) “Throughout most of his production there is a strong sense of musically balanced form and a solid textural technique with a main emphasis on polyphony. Though mainly composing in neoclassical tradition, he is occasionally experimenting. On the whole, solidity is a trait that one would gladly associate with Baden’ music.» 3

^ Harald Herresthal in Aftenposten. «here is a summing up of a lifetime of craftmanship and musical experiences in an elaborate and solidly molded work»4

^ Jarle Søraa in Verdens Gang: «one of the finest symphonies i Norwegian contemporary music ever» 5




На других языках

[de] Conrad Baden

Conrad Baden (* 31. August 1908 in Drammen; † 11. Juni 1989 in Oslo)[1] war ein norwegischer Komponist und Organist. Er hatte eine umfangreiche Produktion von Orchesterwerken, Kammermusik, Vokalwerken und Kirchenmusik. Er gilt als einer der bedeutendsten norwegischen Komponisten des 20. Jahrhunderts.[2]
- [en] Conrad Baden


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