New Romanticism in Danish Music: about the Artistic Method of Bent Sørensen

Abstract

At the center of the article’s attention lies the music of contemporary Danish
composer Bent Sørensen, who was awarded the prestigious Gravemeyer Awards in 2018. The
author reveals the sources of compositional inspiration, the peculiarities of the figurative system,
and the artistic ideas sustaining the musical compositions demonstrate the characteristic techniques
which determine the descriptive topos of his music (an abundance of glissandi, sound repetitions,
use of tapering of sound, special performance techniques, etc.). Special attention is given to two of
Sørensen’s compositions – the triple concerto L’isola della сittà (2015), the second movement of
which reevaluates the finale of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata opus 110, and the concerto for accordion
and string instruments It is pain flowing down slowly on a white wall (2010), which contains a
revised version of the idea of the musicians departing from the stage, similar to Haydn’s “Farewell
Symphony.” On the basis of their analysis the particularities of the composer’s interaction with
the past and with tradition are shown. A complex of specific features intrinsic to Sørensen’s
artistic method is revealed: the programmatic character of the music; the poetics of silence; the
aestheticization of the processes of decay; the specific figurative system focusing itself on “the
evanescent” or “the absent”; the combination of tonality and atonality, sound and noise elements;
the allocation of dialogue with the composer’s predecessors by means of stylistic allusions and the
reevaluation of their architectonic constructions. In conclusion, emphasis is made of the connection
between Sørensen’s musical thought and romantic aesthetics.

Keywords: Bent Sørensen, Danish music, new romanticism, poetics of silence, aesthetics of
decay, L’isola della сittà, It is pain flowing down slowly on a white wall