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Frederik Magle

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Frederik Magle conducting

Frederik Magle (born 17 April 1977) is a Danish composer, concert organist, and pianist. He writes contemporary classical music as well as fusion of classical music and other genres. His compositions include orchestral works, cantatas, chamber music, and solo works (mainly for organ), including several compositions commissioned by the Danish Royal Family.

Life

Frederik Magle was born in Stubbekøbing, the son of actress and writer Mimi Heinrich and organist, painter and sculptor Christian Reesen Magle (1925–96). He is the great-nephew of the composer Emil Reesen (his grandmother's brother). Recognized early as a child prodigy, he appeared on television and in the news media at the age of 9.[1][2] He has gained a reputation as an organ virtuoso.[3][4]

Magle was educated as a private student of Leif Thybo (composition and music theory), and Ib Bindel (organ). He was taught piano, score reading, and music theory from the age of six. At the age of 16, he was admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Music, where he was taught music theory by Yngve Jan Trede, but after one and a half years he decided to leave the music academy, explaining that he "could not both study at the conservatory and work independently as a composer at the same time." He later stated that the decision "was difficult, and there was a lot to think through," but that he did not regret it.[5]

He received the scholarship of countess Erna Hamilton in 1993.[6] In 1994, as an organ soloist, he won the Danish qualification rounds and final of the Eurovision Young Musicians competition and reached the European final, which was held at the Philharmonic Concert Hall in Warsaw, Poland on 14 June 1994. The Polish organizers originally planned the qualifying round to be held elsewhere, but moved it to the Philharmonic Hall (which contains a pipe organ) to accommodate Frederik Magle's participation.[7]

Magle's father died in 1996, shortly before the first performance of Frederik Magle's Christmas cantata A newborn child, before eternity, God!, which is dedicated to him.[8] Magle was awarded the Freemason's Arts Prize in 2001.

He has said that he often gets his ideas in dreams and always have a notebook next to him when he sleeps, in case he gets an idea for a "musical phrase or an orchestral build-up" during the night.[9]

Music

The first public performance of one of Frederik Magle's compositions took place on Easter morning 7 April 1985, in Stubbekøbing church, where a children's choir performed an Easter hymn he had composed. Two years later, in 1987, six of his hymns with texts by his mother Mimi Heinrich were performed by actress and singer Annie Birgit Garde at a concert in Lyngby church, and the same year he played on television for the first time.[8] In 1988, two of his larger works, the cantata We are afraid, and the "mini-musical" A Christmas Child, were premiered in Grundtvig's Church in Copenhagen before an audience of 2,000 people.[10] He began a collaboration with the violinist Nikolaj Znaider in 1990, and they performed a series of concerts together. Later, Znaider gave the first performance of Magle's variations for violin and piano in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, with the pianist Daniel Gortler: Journey in time describes a "kind of scenes or musical images" with the use of sharp dissonances, complicated rhythms and dramatic transitions and thematic formations.[11]

In 1993 Magle composed music for the experimental theatre performance Der Die Das by the theatrical group Hotel Pro Forma, directed by Kirsten Delholm, which was performed at the 4th international Dance Festival in Munich, Germany. Other artists involved were the architect Thomas Wiesner, sculptors Anders Krüger and Frans Jacobi, painter Tomas Lahoda, and the costume designer Annette Meyer; it was presented as a contemporary "Gesamtkunstwerk" comprising architecture, art, music, and performance.[12]

Magle's concerto for organ and orchestra The Infinite Second was given its first performance and recorded in 1994 at the 3rd international music festival in Riga Cathedral, Latvia by the Latvian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Dzintars Josts, with Frederik Magle himself as organ soloist. The reviewer of Berlingske Tidende, Steen Chr. Steensen, described the organ concerto as "a long process from darkness to light" tonally "founded in the French school of organ music".[13] It was released on CD in 1996 along with his second symphony for organ Let there be light which had been premiered in Riga Cathedral in 1993. The culture journalist Jakob Levinsen wrote of Magle's method of structuring the two works:

...while his music appears quite conventional in terms of the traditional musical parameters, such as a preference for arch forms and a relatively conservative use of free tonality in terms of melody and harmony, what could be labelled the dramatic characters of his music are very definitely developed from the specific possibilities of the church organ itself. That goes for the often occurring contrast between very bright and very dark timbres, between clearly defined melodic lines and closely woven fields of sound, between huge pillars of chords and energetically moving patterns of rhythm. And it goes for his two dominating ways of structuring his music as well (...) the gradual building of dynamic tensions through adding more and more layers of sound, the abrupt changes between light and dark, force and calm, clear and veiled. Including the courage to extend some of the parameters into the extremes – such as when a rhythmic pattern becomes so dense as to almost blurring the contours of the figurations involved, and only the outline of movement remains...

— Jacob Levinsen[14]

The Christmas cantata A newborn child, before eternity, God! was given its first performance in 1996, commissioned by Kulturby 96 – the European Capital of Culture 1996. In 1997 it was released on CD, in a recording made in Messiaskirken in Charlottenlund by the soloists Ingibjörg Gudjonsdottir, soprano, Elisabeth Halling, alto, Gert Henning-Jensen, tenor, Christian Christiansen, bass, two mixed choirs, two children's choirs, brass band, organ and percussion, conducted by Steen Lindholm.[15] The cantata was described by the reviewer of Jyllands-Posten as hard to classify, with a "religiously narrative robustness".[16] The work sets text from a kontakion by the 6th century hymnographer Romanos the Melodist (translated into Danish by the priest Kristian Høeg)

In 1995-96 Magle composed a symphonic Lego Fantasia in three movements for piano and symphony orchestra, commissioned by the Lego Group. It was premiered on 24 August 1997 at a concert in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by David Parry, with Magle himself on piano.[17] In 1998 the same performers recorded the work for a CD released by the Lego Group. Also in 1998 he was commissioned to write a work for Amnesty International: he composed Flammer for Frihed ("Flames for Freedom) for solo piano. The piece was printed in a book of the same title containing essays by 24 Danes (including then prime minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, former prime minister Poul Schlüter, Tøger Seidenfaden, Ghita Nørby, and others). Edited by Monica Ritterband, the book was published on the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.[18] On 22 November 1998 Magle's Cantata to Saint Cecilia for soloists, choir, children's choir, and chamber orchestra was given its first performance at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen. The following year it was recorded and released on the album Cæciliemusik (Music for Saint Cecilia) by the Danish Cæciliekoret (The Cecilia Choir) conducted by Gunnar Svensson with the soloists Birgitte Ewerlöf (soprano), Tuva Semmingsen (alto), and Jørgen Ditlevsen (bass). The cantata's text is by the author Iben Krogsdal; based on the story of Saint Cecilia, who died in a gruesome way for her Christian faith, it has been described as "moderate modernism" with a special "Danish tone" and a transparent chamber musical instrumentation.[4]

The Frobenius-organ in Jørlunde church

In 2001 his work, The Hope, for brass band, choir, organ and percussion, was given its first performance during the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Copenhagen. The composition was commissioned by the Admiral Danish Fleet in cooperation with the Reformed Church in Copenhagen, where the premiere performance took place on 1 April.[19] The Hope was subsequently recorded and released by the Royal Danish Navy on the album Søværnet Ønsker God Vind (The Royal Danish Navy Wishes Godspeed) in 2005.

Magle created the specifications and tonal design for a new pipe organ in Jørlunde church that was inaugurated in October 2009, and in 2010 he released a double album of free improvisations on the instrument, Like a Flame. Reviews of the album were predominantly favorable,[20][21][22][23] but his improvisations were also criticized, especially in a scathing review in the Danish organ magazine ORGLET which argued for the use of traditional fugal and choral forms instead of the free improvisation. One critic complained about the length of the album, finding it too long at more than two hours.[24] The organist, jazz-pianist, and composer Henrik Sørensen defended Magle's free improvisational form in an article in Danish organ-magazine Orgelforum.[25]

Works for the Danish Royal Family

Further information: Cantabile (symphonic suite)

Magle played the organ at the christening of Prince Nikolai at Fredensborg Castle in 1999 and gave the first performance of his composition Lys på din vej ("Light on your path") for organ and brass quintet, with the Brass Ensemble of the Royal Danish Guards, as postlude.[26] Lys på din vej was released on an album with the same title the following year. At the christening of Prince Felix in Møgeltønder church in 2002 another work by Frederik Magle was also premiered as postlude.[27] He composed a symphonic suite Cantabile, based on poems by Prince Henrik of Denmark (the Prince Consort) of which the first movement "Souffle le vent" was first performed in 2004,[28] and the remaining two movements "Cortège & Danse Macabre" and "Carillon", in June 2009 in the Koncerthuset (Copenhagen), on both occasions by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Thomas Dausgaard.[29] The score specifies a real giraffe thigh bone as a percussion instrument in the Cortège & Danse Macabre movement.[30][31]

Fusion/crossover

Magle's first CD, Sangen er et eventyr – Sange over H.C. Andersens eventyr ("The song is a fairytale – Songs based on fairytales by Hans Christian Andersen"), of 1994 was recorded with the jazz double bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, the jazz-pianist Niels Lan Doky, the percussionist Alex Riel, Trio Rococo, and vocalist Thomas Eje. He also participated on the 2005 avantgarde-album Hymn to Sophia by the jazz saxophonist John Tchicai, where he improvised on pipe organ with Tchicai and the percussionist Peter Ole Jørgensen.[32] In 2011 Magle composed symphonic music for the album Elektra by the Danish hip hop group Suspekt.[33]

Selected works

  • 30 hymns (1985)
  • 20 songs based on fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen (1986–92)
  • We Are Afraid Cantata for choir, flute, clarinet, percussion, strings, piano, and organ (1988)
  • Symphony for organ No. 1 (1990)
  • Symphony for organ No. 2 Let there be light (1993)
  • Concerto for organ and orchestra The infinite second (1994)
  • Symphonic Lego Fantasia for piano and orchestra, commissioned by the Lego Group (1995–96)
  • "A newborn child, before eternity, God!" Christmas cantata, for brass band, choir, soloists, organ and percussion (1996)
  • Cantata to Saint Cecilia for soloists, choir, children's choir, and chamber orchestra (1998)
  • "Light on your path" for organ and brass quintet, written for the christening of Prince Nikolai (1999)
  • The Hope for brass band, choir, organ and percussion, written in memory of the battle of Copenhagen (2001)
  • "Phoenix" for mixed choir and organ or piano four-hands (2003)
  • Symphonic suite "Cantabile" consisting of three symphonic poems for orchestra, choir, and soloists (2004–2009)

Discography

  • 1993 Sangen er et eventyr ("The song is a fairytale"). Thomas Eje, The Danish Boys' Choir, Trio Rococo, Niels Lan Doky, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Alex Riel. BMG 74321 24537-2
  • 1994 The Infinite Second. Latvian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Dzintars Josts, Frederik Magle (The organ in Riga Cathedral). EMI Classics 5555972
  • 1997 Et nyfødt barn, før evighed, Gud! ("A newborn child, before eternity, God"). Christmas cantata. EMI Classics 5565942
  • 1998 Symphonic Lego Fantasia. London Philharmonic Orchestra, David Parry, Frederik Magle (piano). Released by the Lego Group.
  • 1999 Cæciliemusik ("Music for Saint Cecilia"). Danacord DACOCD 520
  • 2000 Lys på din vej ("Light on your path"). Frederik Magle (piano and organ), The Brass Ensemble of the Royal Danish Guards, Danish National Chamber Orchestra, Frans Rasmussen. EMI Classics 5571152
  • 2004 Kosmos. ClassicO CLASSCD 478
  • 2005 Søværnet Ønsker God Vind ("The Royal Danish Navy wishes godspeed"). The Royal Danish Naval Band. Released by the Royal Danish Navy (2005)
  • 2005 Hymne til Sofia ("Hymn to Sophia"). John Tchicai, Peter Ole Jørgensen, Frederik Magle. Calibrated CALI012
  • 2010 Like a Flame. Frederik Magle (organ improvisations). Proprius Music PRCD 2061
  • 2011 Elektra. Featured symphonic music by Frederik Magle on the Suspekt-album. Universal Music/Tabu Records.

References

  1. ^ "Frederik er en gave". Berlingske Tidende (in Danish). 29 March 1987.
  2. ^ "9-årig komponist i TV". B.T. (in Danish). 27 March 1987.
  3. ^ "Fantasy og himmelstræbende mildhed i ny orgeludgivelse" (in Danish). SNYK - ny musik. 20 December 2010. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
  4. ^ a b "En bemærkelsesværdig cd - og et par til" (in Danish). Udfordringen. 5/2004. Retrieved 28 April 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ Garnæs, Mikael (18 November 1998). "På vej mod komponisternes første division (Interview)". Kristeligt Dagblad (in Danish).
  6. ^ Gade, Jonna (4 October 1993). "Orgel-geni får 50.000 kroner af millionøse". Ekstra Bladet (in Danish).
  7. ^ "En udsædvanlig deltager". Berlingske Tidende (in Danish). 14 June 1994.
  8. ^ a b "Biography and timeline of Frederik Magle". magle.dk. Retrieved 2012-04-28.
  9. ^ Moe, Helene (16. juni 2004). "Drømmeorgel for verden". Kristeligt Dagblad. Retrieved 15. august 2012. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  10. ^ Moe, Helene (20 December 1988). "Frederik og drømmen". Kristeligt Dagblad.
  11. ^ Rothschild, Mette (29. januar 2001). "Mesterligt samspil". Berlingske. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Møller, Henrik Sten. Dans og grammatik (Politiken) 18. maj 1993
  13. ^ Steensen, Steen Chr. Mange følelser i hans orgelmusik. (Berlingske Tidende) 3. april 1996
  14. ^ Levinsen, Jacob. I orglets rum. Liner notes to the CD The infinite second (1996)
  15. ^ Watz, K.E (4. december 1997). "Frederiks julekantate på cd". Lolland-Falsters Folketidende. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ Christiansen, John (14 December 1997). "Julemusik på cd - Dansk Julekantate". Jyllands-Posten.
  17. ^ Ambeck-Madsen, Peter (2007). "Symfonisk LEGO Fantasi - for klaver og orkester". Klodshans. 25 (6). LEGO: 26–29. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  18. ^ Andersen, Jakob. Flammer for frihed (Ekstra Bladet) 20. november 1998
  19. ^ Nielsen, Lise Lotte (13. marts 2001). "Søhelt får ny musik". Berlingske Tidende. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ MusicWeb International. "MAGLE - Like a Flame Proprius PRCD 2061 (Byz): Classical Music Reviews". Retrieved 8 November 2011.
  21. ^ Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review. "Frederik Magle's Tradition in Modernity: the Classic Art of Organ Improvisation on "Like A Flame"". Retrieved 26 November 2011.
  22. ^ Östgöta Correspondenten. "Backmans klassiska cd-tips" (in Swedish). Retrieved 8 November 2011. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  23. ^ Orgelforum. "CD-anmeldelse, "Like a flame, Frederik Magle, orgel"" (PDF) (in Danish). Retrieved 8 November 2011.
  24. ^ ORGLET 1/2011 ISSN 0106-1011
  25. ^ Orgelforum. "Orgel og Improvisation" (PDF) (in Danish). Retrieved 8 November 2011.
  26. ^ Danmarks Radio, Bonanza. "Barnedåb - Prins Nikolai". Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  27. ^ Danmarks Radio, Bonanza. "Barnedåb - Prins Felix". Retrieved 28 November 2011.
  28. ^ "Komponist for prins Henrik". Berlingske Tidende (in Danish). June 10, 2004. Retrieved 2010-09-07.
  29. ^ "Prins Henrik fejrer sin 75 års dag i DR Byen" (in Danish). DR Danish Broadcasting Corporation. 2009. Retrieved 2011-05-22.
  30. ^ "FødselsdagsKoncert For Prinsgemalen". 11 June 2009. Event occurs at 19:30. DR (broadcaster). DR P2. {{cite episode}}: Missing or empty |series= (help)
  31. ^ "Cantabile - A Symphonic Suite by Frederik Magle". magle.dk. Retrieved 2012-01-02.
  32. ^ Levinsen, Jakob. Klassiske plader. Review in Jyllands-Posten, 9-2-2006
  33. ^ Gaffa (magazine). "Suspekt lufter albumdetaljer" (in Danish). Retrieved 1. september 2011. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
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