During our visit to the 2024 Nordic Church Music Symposium in Copenhagen, we asked participants to recommend pieces by Nordic women and non-binary composers. These were their choices!
Below are notes on the pieces written by ELNA’s communicator Siri Landgren.
In Calliope, Cecilie Ore lets the music arise out of the text, taken from Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans. The written word passes via whispers and speech as a springboard toward sung notes in high registers. The diversity of techniques creates a richness of timbre through the voice alone, marking off distinct elements that interweave in a kind of polyphony and offer large dynamic contrasts. The work’s phrasal directedness and repetitive structure remind us of Stein’s poetry, often characterized by a rhythmic, minimalist style.
Karin Rehnqvist – Solsången (1994)
“I saw the sun / how she shone / mighty she seemed” – these are some of the words of the Icelandic poem that underlies Karin Rehnqvist’s Solsången (“The sun song”). The music, too, feels mighty, with an introductory movement where the orchestra keeps us in a tight grasp of shivering chords. The intervals are dominated by octaves that create a sense of something monumental, with dissonant clusters instilling a sense of awe or perhaps fear. The work is dedicated to Lena Willemark who has also performed its vocal solo part, and is a prime example of what can be achieved through an intimate collaboration between composer and musician.
Kristina Forsman – Aria Pandemía (2022)
During the peaks of the Covid pandemic, musicians were affected severely by the inability to meet in physical spaces. Kristina Forsman’s Aria Pandemía reminds us of the privilege of being able to breathe the same air – especially notable since the work is centered on vocalists (mezzo-soprano and chorus). The four movements depict different aspects and phases of the pandemic, from initial panic to the dreariness of lockdown, with emotional states ranging from comical to heart-wrenching.
Sollerö långdans efter Reser Anna Larsdotter
Reser Anna Larsdotter stands as a historical example of the gendered music traditions of animal herding songs and other vocal music. She started playing the blowing horn already at age nine, and made a name for herself at some of the first Swedish folk music competitions arranged by Anders Zorn with the aim of integrating traditional music as part of Sweden’s national heritage.
Cecilie Ore – Dead Pope on Trial! (2016)
Cecilie Ore’s Dead Pope on Trial! tells the absurd – but true! – story of Formosus, a 9th century pope who was accused of crimes and had his claim to the papacy challenged after his death. His body was exhumed and dressed in formal garb to be put on trial, in a process that became increasingly grotesque – “But how do you punish a corpse?”. The vocal ensemble suggests a gossiping mob trying to wrap their heads around the bizarre events unfolding around them.
Ingunn Ligaarden – Ur vinterns mörker
Ingunn Ligaarden, born in Sweden but with Norwegian roots, is a composer but also a pianist and organist with a deep connection to sacred music. Ur vinterns mörker (“Out of the dark of winter”) is a Christmas song available in various versions for choir and accompaniment. The piece is available on Spotify, performed by the choir of Swedish Lutherska missionskyrkan.
Paula af Malmborg Ward – Missa Praesentis Dialectica (1999/2021)
In Missa Praesentis Dialectica, Paula af Malmborg Ward lets the old intermingle with the new: Latin and Greek mass texts enter into dialog with poems by Tomas Tranströmer, Wisława Szymborska and other modern authors. The work is extensive both in terms of its ensemble (vocal soloists, choir, trumpet and string orchestra) and its 50 minute duration. Malmborg Ward also shows a stylistic breadth – perhaps echoing the church’s ambition of welcoming all.
Florence Price – Praise the Lord (1951)
Florence Price’s Praise the Lord is a setting of the biblical Psalm 117, whose Hebrew title gives us the word “hallelujah”. Consequently, this is a dynamic composition, with an intimate central portion framed by jubilant exclamations. The gestures are vigorous, daring bold harmonic leaps. The work is written for mixed choir and piano or organ – Price herself was a virtuoso organist.
Sirkku Rintamäki – Once Again I Am So Restless
Sirkku Rintamäki is a church musician in Helsinki, and has written an artistic doctoral thesis on the role of the hymn – historically, in the present and the future. In a post on Katarina Ruderus’ blog, Rintamäki describes how she writes so-called “wild hymns” in an attempt to invigorate the genre beyond the authority of canonization. She sources her lyrics from Finnish poets, and borrows stylistically from both Gregorian chant, impressionism and the folk music of her native Finland.
Agathe Backer-Grøndahl – Piano Suite in G minor op 20 (1887)
In this composition, Agathe Backer-Grøndahl shows an interest in older music symptomatic of the 19th century’s increased awareness of history. The work is structured like a baroque dance suite, featuring movements like the gavotte and minuet often found in 18th-century suites. However, it also renews the genre by incorporating a nocturne, one of the major innovations in piano music of Backer-Grøndahl’s time, and the whole work utilizes the strengths of the piano in ways that were unthinkable to the baroque period’s more instrument-agnostic style of composition.
Mette Nielsen – Contour (2009)
Contour is a sculptural piece where the organ’s homogeneity of tone and articulation is used to highlight harmonic relations. Intervals like minor and major seconds give rise to acoustic beatings that make the notes almost tangible. The work is located strictly in the higher registers, utilizing an unusual 2-foot stop in the pedals to add even more treble to the organist's palette. This makes for a cold, slowly shifting landscape of sound, reminiscent of a frosty fall morning in the Nordics.
Agneta Sköld – Natten skall vika (2019)
Agneta Sköld’s Natten skall vika (“Night shall pass”) stems from a composers’ competition focusing on choral music for use in religious service. The piece is performable by amateurs, with its short duration and absence of virtuosic excess. It is written in an elegant renaissance style, polyphonic and through-composed, which makes it all the more striking that the lyrics (from the Book of Isaiah) are sung in Sköld’s native Swedish rather than Latin, as we might traditionally expect. Natten skall vika stands as an example of the possibility for church music to be artistically complex while remaining accessible to a broad range of musicians.
Liv-Benedicte Bjørneboe – Cortège (2005)
Just like NIelsen’s Contour discussed above, Liv-Benedicte Bjørneboe’s Cortège also uses the organ to create an almost tactile sonic object, although the pieces differ greatly in mood and motion. Cortège, true to its title, makes music that slowly flows by the listener, like a river where eddies and ripples form and vanish, all part of the greater whole. It draws on an impressionist tradition, using ostinatos and modal tonalities rather than strict polyphony and functional harmony to create a sense of something natural, not made by human hands.
Cecilie Ore (b. 1954) studied piano at the Norwegian Academy of Music and in Paris (1974–81), followed by composition at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht and with Ton de Leeuw at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam (1981–86).
In the 1980s, she gained international recognition for works such as Calliope (1984), Helices (1985), and Porphyre (1986). Her electro-acoustic work Etapper (1988) earned both 1st and 2nd prizes at the International Rostrum for Electro-Acoustic Music, and Porphyre was awarded “Work of the Year” by the Norwegian Composers’ Association.
Ore's exploration of time as a musical concept led to two major tetralogies: Codex Temporis (1989–92) and Tempura Mutantur (1997–99), followed by the “cloud” cycle, including Cirrus (2002) and Cirrostratus (2004). In the 2000s, she shifted focus to vocal and text-based works, premiering A – a shadow opera (2001) and Schwirren (2003), and later creating politically engaged pieces addressing themes like capital punishment and freedom of speech.
Her opera Adam & Eve – a Divine Comedy premiered at the Bergen International Festival in 2015. The same year, she received the Lindeman Prize. Other notable works include the satirical Vatican Trilogy (2016–18), and the H2O Trilogy for string quartet (2018–2020), for which she received both the Edvard Prize (2019) and the Music Publishers Prize (2023).
Ore continues to explore the interplay between text and instrumentation in recent works such as Katsu! (2021), Hototogisu! (2022), and Lex Naturae (2023). She was a visiting professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music from 2020 to 2023.
Karin Rehnqvist (born 1957) is one of Sweden’s best known and most widely performed composers. From chamber music to orchestral, stage and vocal works, she has blazed a unique cross-genre trail, exploring the borderland between art and folk music, and evolving a highly distinctive compositional and performance style.
One of her signature motifs is the extraordinary vocal technique of Kulning, the ancient call of Nordic herding girls to drive in their flocks.
A restless innovator, her repertoire is marked by an uncompromising invention, raw emotional power and the icy shock of the new.
Source: https://karin-rehnqvist.se/eng/biography-short-version/
Ingunn Ligaarden is a pianist, organist, and composer based in Sweden. She has an extensive background as a concert musician and accompanist, performing with a wide range of choirs, soloists, opera singers, and pop artists. As a composer, she is particularly recognized for her choral music, with an ever-growing catalogue of commissioned works. Her music has been recorded for CD, broadcast on radio and television, and her sheet music is sold internationally in over 30 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas.
Paula af Malmborg Ward (b. 1962, Stockholm) is one of Sweden’s leading opera composers, known for her distinctive voice and genre-crossing versatility. Her graduation work, Bombpartyt, premiered at the Gothenburg Opera in 1998 and marked a major breakthrough, firmly establishing her in the world of opera. An earlier setting of the final scene from Of Mice and Men had already pointed her in that direction.
With roots in both classical and popular music, af Malmborg Ward studied piano with Professor Gunnar Hallhagen and trained as a music teacher at the Stockholm Academy of Music, where she also developed a deep interest in salsa—a genre then relatively unknown in Sweden. Her career has included work in theatre, television, ensemble performance, and music education. Following a period as conductor at Skottes Musikteater in Gävle, she continued her studies in composition at the Malmö Academy of Music under Hans Gefors.
Her music is known for its spirited energy, rich textures, and playful wit. She describes time and timing as the core of her compositional process: “If I find the right sense of time, I can then wallow in melody, harmony, timbre, and rhythm without losing my grip on the whole.”
Tony Lundman, May 2004
Agathe Backer-Grøndahl (1847–1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist, widely celebrated in her time and considered one of Scandinavia’s foremost musical figures of the 19th century. Born in Holmestrand into a culturally engaged and well-off family, she received her first piano lessons from her parents, both amateur musicians. After the family moved to Christiania (now Oslo), she studied with composer and pianist Halfdan Kjerulf, who quickly recognized her exceptional talent.
Against the conventions of the era, her parents eventually supported her professional ambitions, and in 1865 she began studies in piano and composition at Theodor Kullak’s conservatory in Berlin. Upon returning to Norway in 1868, she made a sensational debut performing Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto under the baton of Edvard Grieg. Her debut as a composer followed shortly, with two orchestral works that were warmly received. She later pursued further piano studies with Hans von Bülow in Florence and Franz Liszt in Weimar.
From the early 1870s, Backer-Grøndahl enjoyed a remarkable career as a concert pianist, touring extensively throughout Scandinavia. In 1875, she was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and married conductor Olaus Andreas Grøndahl, with whom she had three sons. She balanced family life with concertizing, teaching, and composing whenever time allowed.
In the mid-1890s, her health and nerves began to decline, and she withdrew from public performance. However, at the urging of her close friend Edvard Grieg, she returned to the stage in 1890 with a triumphant performance of his piano concerto at the Bergen Music Festival. She continued performing for devoted audiences in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark until her final years.
Agathe Backer-Grøndahl died in 1907 at her home on Ormøya, near Oslo, nearly completely deaf. Her legacy endures as a pioneering female composer and a central figure in Norwegian musical life.
Source
Mette Nielsen (b. 1985) is a Danish composer whose music explores the tension between precision and imperfection. She often works with what she calls the almost unison—a state of subtle friction where microtonal shifts and sonic nuances become vividly perceptible. Her work embraces both structure and unpredictability, as seen in a series of pieces where performers receive real-time instructions via iPods set to shuffle—merging the composer’s voice with chance-driven form.
Nielsen studied composition at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, working with composers such as Simon Steen-Andersen, Jeppe Just Christensen, Niels Rosing-Schow, Hans Abrahamsen, Bent Sørensen, and Hans Peter Stubbe-Teglbjærg.
Her music has been performed by leading ensembles including Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Adapter, Ensemble TM+, SCENATET, FIGURA Ensemble, Athelas Sinfonietta, and the Bulgarian women’s choir Usmifka. She is the recipient of several major honors, including the Pelle-Prisen, Axel Borup-Jørgensen Composer’s Prize, Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Grant, the Anckerske Grant, and the Aksel and Astrid Agerby Memorial Foundation Award.
Agneta Sköld is a Swedish composer, conductor, and church musician. She studied at the Stockholm Academy of Music, graduating as an organist in 1969 and as a cantor and music teacher in 1973. She later trained as a vocal soloist and has sung with both the Swedish Radio Choir and Eric Ericson's Chamber Choir. She has also taught at the Ingesund Academy of Music.
Since 1978, Sköld has worked as a church musician and has held a permanent position at Västerås Cathedral since 1991, serving as assistant cathedral organist with responsibility for the cathedral’s choir program. Under her leadership, the choir has achieved international recognition and success in numerous competitions.
In addition to her work as a conductor and educator, Sköld is an accomplished choral composer. Her contributions to Swedish musical life have been recognized with several awards, including Choir Leader of the Year (1998), the Johannes Norrby Medal, the Gustaf Aulén Prize, and cultural scholarships from both the County Administrative Board and the City of Västerås. She is also a member of the Västmanland Academy, where she holds chair no. 15.
