Jan W. Morthenson

Jan Wilhelm Morthenson (7 April 1940 – 22 October 2024) was a prominent Swedish composer, critic, and writer primarily known for his criticism of music in Sweden and his compositional styles of non-figurative music, music that aimed to avoid any relationship to past compositional techniques, and meta-music, which alluded to historical music genres in order to criticize them. Morthenson’s success as a composer and intellect in Sweden is reflected by the influential positions he has held throughout his career. He was on the board for the Electronic Music Studio from 1973 to 1975, he acted as chairman of the Swedish section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ICSM) from 1974 to 1975, he was vice-chairman of the ISCM council from 1975 to 1978, and he was also the chairman for Fylkingen, a Swedish chamber music society that focuses primarily on new music, from 1975 to 1976. Training Morthenson was born in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden in 1940 and began studying music in Stockholm in 1956 with Runar Mangs, a prominent Swedish music critic. Mangs left a lasting impression on young Morthenson, who would later refer to him in an obituary as one of the most important contemporary mus