Hans Abrahamsen

"The beginning is music that—almost minimalistically—could continue indefinitely. But instead, it comes to a halt after just 30 seconds."

This is how Hans Abrahamsen described his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1999/2000). The opening is characteristic of Abrahamsen's compositional style, with its intricate filigree of mechanical motion. The music coming to a stop is a tangible reference to how, when he wrote the concerto, the composer could look back on more than a decade with hardly any completed works.

The 1998 encounter with pianist Anne Marie Abildskov —Hans Abrahamsen's wife— prompted him to complete the 10 Studies for Piano (1983-86/1998), which in a carefully structured sequence reflects various piano traditions. Afterwards, he composed the concerto, which moves from well-tested conventions and the abrupt stop, to the introduction of new elements followed by a rush of joy in the third movement's scherzo, which, in the composer's words, becomes "almost operatic." Notably, he made this comment before cementing his international status in the 2010s with the opera Snedronningen/The Snow Queen.

The Piano Concerto looks both forward and backward in Abrahamsen's oeuvre, as new works emerge in a continuous dialogue with his earlier compositions. Initially, Abrahamsen worked within the framework of the 1970s' New Simplicity, which demanded radical transparency. The early works either unfold a diversity of musical material such as the orchestral work Skum ("Foam") (1970) and the first of Abrahamsen's four string quartets, 10 Præludier for strygekvartet ("10 Preludes for String Quartet") (1973), or, they can process a single idea according to mechanical principles, as seen in EEC-Sats ("EEC-Movement") (1972) for orchestra, written just before the referendum on Denmark's entry into the European Community.

Regardless of this, fixed structures and rules always underpin Abrahamsen's music. The composer has never been able to simply say, "now I will express feelings." There needs to be an objective starting point, and it all began with New Simplicity, minimalism, and concretism. However, in Stratifications (1973/1975) for orchestra, the "cool images of music" break down. The music overheats, and the objectivity transforms into compressed presence.

Accordingly, Abrahamsen entered a new phase in the latter half of the 1970s where romantically inspired German titles reflect music that transitions from the purely concrete to the mood-bearing. Nevertheless, the practice of starting from objectivity is not abandoned. For instance, in Winternacht (1976-78) for seven instruments the starting point is three descending chromatic scales. The poetic expression is achieved by the composer removing some of the notes.

Hans Abrahamsen has said that his music "arises in a great dialogue with the material." Märchenbilder (1984) for chamber ensemble, with its six images in three movements, is a poetic example of the composer's strong awareness of proportions and musical rules. At the same time, he possesses a "very strong sensitivity" to whether what he writes is reminiscent of existing music. This sensitivity and adherence to musical structures became increasingly burdensome, and after Lied in Fall (1987) for cello and 13 instruments, a gradual pause in his output ensued. This period marked the beginning of the extended phase—a fermata, as Hans Abrahamsen refers to it—where, during the 1990s, he focused on orchestrating music by composers such as Carl Nielsen, Schönberg, and his teacher Per Nørgård.

This practice continued after the fermata pause, with Abrahamsen orchestrating works by other composers as well as his own. For example, 10 Stykker for Orkester ("10 Pieces for Orchestra") (2001-2020) is a version of his 10 Studies for Piano. After the pause, with a newfound openness, Abrahamsen could "be with" the similarities to other composers' music that "emerge" in his own work. Such as when a melody appears in the horn in the piano concerto, and Abrahamsen, as a tribute to another of his teachers, has written "Hommage à Ligeti."

The nearly hour-long Schnee (2006-2008) for nine instruments is a key work, consisting of ten canons where "notions of snow and white polyphony" are conveyed by instruments that repeatedly tune down a fraction of a tone throughout the piece.

Let me tell you (2012-2013) for soprano and orchestra gives voice to a contemporary Ophelia character. Here, the first canon from Schnee plays a significant role. Alongside music from Märchenbilder and other works, elements from Schnee also make their way into the piano concerto for the left hand, Left, alone (2014-15). This work's ambiguous title refers both to a childhood memory of standing by an icy pond, unable to join the skating children, and to the composer's relationship with the piano. Born with cerebral palsy on the right side, Abrahamsen began playing the French horn early on, as the right hand is only used to support the instrument. His first publicly performed piece, Oktober ("October") (1969, rev. 1976), was originally for horn and piano for the left hand before he revised it for piano left hand alone. At the start of the last movement of the left-hand concerto, a phrase from Oktober appears.

Along with the Concerto for Horn and Orchestra (2019) and the orchestral work Vers le silence (2020-21), the left-hand concerto constitutes a "personal trilogy," according to Abrahamsen. The third movement of Left, alone forms the basis for the first movement of the horn concerto, and with its title Vers le silence thematizes how Abrahamsen, rather than becoming a performing musician, had to become an "inward” performer, as he describes life as a composer.

In 2019, the operatic efforts hinted at in Abrahamsen's first piano concerto were realized with the premiere of his first opera, Snedronningen /The Snow Queen (2018), based on H.C. Andersen's fairy tale. As a consequence of his practice, much of Abrahamsen's earlier music has found its way into the opera, where the composer does not shy away from either high C's or splashes of Wagnerian power.

The structural, rule-bound aspect of Abrahamsen’s music has not been abandoned. Instead, it has become the basis for a richer, more fertile, and simultaneously sensitive and precise method of composing. Against this backdrop, great expectations arise as Hans Abrahamsen works on his second opera, The Dreamers, based on Karen Blixen's story of the same name.

Thomas Michelsen