Concerto for Timpani and Orchestra is a timpani concerto by Marcus Paus, written for the 250th anniversary of Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. It was first performed by Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andrew Litton on 19 February 2015. The premiere was broadcast by NRK. [1] [2]
A timpani concerto is piece of music written for timpani with orchestral accompaniment. It is usually in three parts or movements.
Marcus Nicolay Paus is a Norwegian composer and one of the most performed contemporary Norwegian composers. He is noted as a representative of a reorientation toward tradition, tonality and melody, and his works have been lauded by critics in Norway and abroad. His work includes chamber music, choral works, solo works, concerts, orchestral works, operas and symphonies, as well as works for theatre, film and television. In 2010, he was artistic director of the Oslo Opera Festival. Marcus Paus has several times collaborated with his famous father, Ole Paus.
The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra is a Norwegian orchestra based in Bergen. Its principal concert venue is the Grieg Hall.
The concerto was extensively debated in the music journal Ballade in 2015 after it was attacked by atonal modernist composer Olav Anton Thommessen for not being atonal or modernist. The concerto was defended by the composer Ragnar Søderlind, who considered the concerto a good starting point for the debate about 21st century (classical) music, and argued that the atonal modernist movement has become "smug and controlling." [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center, or key. Atonality, in this sense, usually describes compositions written from about 1908 to the present day where a hierarchy of pitches focusing on a single, central tone is not used, and the notes of the chromatic scale function independently of one another. More narrowly, the term atonality describes music that does not conform to the system of tonal hierarchies that characterized classical European music between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. "The repertory of atonal music is characterized by the occurrence of pitches in novel combinations, as well as by the occurrence of familiar pitch combinations in unfamiliar environments".
Olav Anton Thommessen is a Norwegian contemporary composer. Thommessen is known for his defence of modernist and atonal music and criticism of younger composers' revival of non-modernist and tonal music.
Ragnar Søderlind is a Norwegian composer. He has written ballets and operas, and for the concert hall, programmatic works based on poems.
