KJ on Music Theory Print

Kjell Habbestad

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Kjell Habbestad (born 13 April 1955 in Bømlo Municipality) is a Norwegian contemporary composer. Career Habbestad studied church music at the Norwegian Academy of Music from 1976 to 1979 and graduated with a diploma from the composition course at the same institution in 1981, having studied with Olav Anton Thommessen, Finn Mortensen and Lasse Thoresen. Habbestad was active as an organist from 1974 to 1987 and, from 2013, is a professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Habbestad’s list of works comprises more than 60 works, including orchestra and chamber works, church music, cantatas, works for organ and piano as well as a number of choir works. His work Mostraspelet – a historic play depicting the Christianization of Norway – has seen annual performances in Bømlo since 1983. As a composer, Habbestad debuted with a first prize for his choir work Magnificat in TONO’s 1978 composition competition. Habbestad’s most central works to date includes the oratory Ei natt på jorda and the operas Hans Egedes natt as well as The Maid of Norway, both featuring librettos by Paal-Helge Haugen. Other key works include the string quartet Quattro Stazioni, the major piano work Hammerklavie’r, Munc

Kjell Mørk Karlsen

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Kjell Mørk Karlsen (born 31 March 1947) is a Norwegian composer and organist. Career Mørk Karlsen was born in Oslo, and at first studied with his father, the composer and organ player Rolf Karlsen. Mørk Karlsen later enrolled at the Oslo Music Conservatory and graduated in 1968. Throughout his career, Mørk Karlsen has focused on medieval, renaissance and baroque music which led him to founding the Oslo Pro Music Antiqua ensemble and leading it until 1974. He has also maintained close ties to the Musica Sacra movement, which has as its aim to renew interest in liturgy and early church music. Mørk Karlsen was also active as an organist throughout his professional career, retiring from the post as Asker Church organist in 2011. Karlsen´s early works are characterised by an ecclesiastical liturgical-musical traditional rooting, while later works display an evolving tonal spectrum and a gradual introduction of dissonance, bringing the composer closer to contemporary styles while retaining traditional musical elements. Following a pivotal year of studies in 1983-84 with Finnish composer Joonas Kokkonen, Mørk Karlsen emerges as a symphonic composer, having penned a number of symphonies an

Kjell Roikjer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Kjell Maale Roikjer (14 June 1901 – 19 September 1999) was a Danish composer and bassoonist. Early life and education Roikjer was born and grew up in Malmö, Sweden, where his parents were photographers. At 17, he moved to Copenhagen and began an apprenticeship as a scene painter, but left it a few years later to pursue music. He had learned violin, but decided instead to become a bassoonist because there was less competition, and studied under Knud Lassen. Career He began his career in 1924 in Sweden, as bassoon soloist in the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. In 1926 he returned to Copenhagen, becoming a member of the Tivoli Concert Hall orchestra and permanent assistant with the new Radio Symphony Orchestra. He became a Danish citizen in 1928. in which he played until 1948. He also worked as an archivist at the Tivoli Concert Hall, assisting in the reconstruction of the sheet music library following the hall’s destruction by the occupying Germans during World War II. Compositions Roikjer composed approximately 100 works, about one third after his retirement. His style was classically-inspired, in the French manner. He wrote mostly for small ensembles, often employing less frequentl

Kjetil Bjerkestrand

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Kjetil Bjerkestrand (born 18 May 1955) is a Norwegian keyboardist, composer, arranger and record producer known as music arranger for artists like Ray Charles, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Keith Emerson, Ian Hunter, Jon Lord, Ute Lemper and a-ha. As a musician, he has participated in recordings with a-ha, Ray Charles, Ute Lemper, Ian Hunter, Dance with a Stranger, DumDum Boys, Jonas Fjeld Band, Marius Müller, TNT, Arve Tellefsen, Bobbysocks, Bjørn Eidsvåg, Carola Häggkvist and Dee Dee Bridgewater. Career As the son and grandson of organists, playing the organ came naturally to Bjerkestrand and he started early to compose music as well. He composed music for several films and television series, many of them in collaboration with Magne Furuholmen under the name Timbersound. He received Gammleng-prisen in 1988 in the class facility, and for the music to the TV series Hotel Oslo he received Edvard Prize 1998 in the class Other form of art, together with Magne Furuholmen. He has produced albums for Anne Grete Preus, a-ha, Lynni Treekrem and Herborg Kråkevik. Along with the saxophonist Tore Brunborg, he has released two albums with Christmas music and hymns. He arranged the music for concerts by