Magnar Åm
Magnar Åm (1952) was born in
Trondheim. He received
his education as an organist at the Bergen Conservatory of Music, and studied
composition with Ketil Hvoslef in Bergen as well
as with Ingvar Lidholm at the National College of Music in Stockholm.
Magnar Åm had his debut as
an organist in 1971, and his breakthrough as a composer came with the work Prayer
(1972) for strings, choir and soprano soloists. He is now a full-time composer
and lives in Volda (Western Norway), where he every autumn also teaches
“Intuitive composition/improvisation and music filosophy” at Volda University
College. This is a
15-points subject which can either be a part of a BA at Volda University
College or be taken as an
independent further education course.
Magnar Åm receives the State
Guaranteed Income for Artists. He writes frequently in a polyphonic, freely
dissonant or free-tonal style with a condensed expressive, yet ascetic
introspective tone language - where melodic and experimental work coexist, and
where the movements of the musical elements in the concrete, three-dimensional
room play an increasingly important role. In recent years, in his search for a
more ideal mediation of musical energy, he has often allowed the works to
contain elements that exceed the conventional rituals of the concert hall.
Examples of this are A Cage-bird's Dream, a multi-media work where
choral groups constantly pass the audience in different directions, carrying
their sounds with them, på en stol (on a chair), a visual concert (not
excluding humour) for mime, tape and four instrumentalists (with text by Torun
Lian), fritt fram, a chamber work for which the musicians have not
arrived when the piece begins, Tonebath, a multi-media room of
experience for one person at a time (by appointment!) with text by Liv Holtskog
and visual installations by Astri Eidseth Rygh, as well as his musical
reflections, an improvisational project with a long-perspective where the
listeners can come to the composer individually and have a piano piece
dedicated to them, inspired by themselves and their personal radiation then and
there. Åm says:
"Time
and space structured as music is a formidable tool for one who seeks to make
conscious his deepest essence and meaning, whether one creates, performs, or
listens. But the pleasure of allowing things become habit is a tempting veil
and a hindrance for all searching, also here. This is why I undertake the task
of delving into old ways of mediating music quite frequently - partly to
awaken, partly to develop new rituals that can better strengthen the deeper
functions of music."
Magnar Åm's production ranges from
vocal and chamber music via electroacoustic music, to large orchestral works
and multi-media. From his recent production, one can mention the oratory tree
of tenderness (1999), the bassoon concerto lonely/embraced (2004), the harp concertos be the purpose (2005) for harp and string sextet and this our virgin now (2005) for harp and
girls’ choir, the violin concerto stalagmite
time (2004) with excerpts of Fartein Valen’s sketches for a fifth symphony “exposed”
in the work and the oratory/opera God’s I’s
– arias of innocence and growth (2007). The orchestral work ‘tisn’t the snow falling, it’s us leaving
the ground obtained the audience’s price for best contemporary work at
Young Euro Classics in Berlin 2006.
Translation: Palmyre Pierroux,
March 1993
Updated 04 August 2008