The Music of Per Norgard: Fourteen Interpretative Essays.

Per Norgard stands firmly in the line of Nielsen, Sibelius and Vagn Holmboe: his interest in organic consistency in musical composition clearly derives from his illustrious predecessors. Sibelius particularly impressed Norgard, though in many works central to his output he has used a personal post-serial means of achieving and ensuring consistency. The 'hierarchies' of his writing, as the present book points out, derive from the 'levels' of rhythmic activity found in Sibelius's Fifth Symphony; this manner of writing - based on the so-called infinity series which he used throughout the 1960s and '70s - is rightly well covered in the present volume, though other stages of his development are not treated in equal depth. The pre-1960s music of the post-Sibelius type - for example the marvellous First Symphony (Sinfonia austera), which is such a remarkable achievement for a 22-year-old - would repay a thorough investigation, though …