Harmony - Disharmony
is in fact the direct translation of Symphony- Antiphony. A clash of two contradictory concepts: order, compactness and structure as opposed to the unruly, the untamed, the living.
The first movement - Symphony - lasts scarcely 2 ½ minutes. Here things are under control, cooperation, construction, everything is kept in check. The large symphony orchestra - in excess of 70 players - is held in tight rein. The second movement - Antiphony - goes on 10 times longer. That's just the way things have to be - it takes a long time to be different - in an orderly fashion. But you can't expect all the problems to end in order and harmony, that's the rub. What happens is that the entire piece just fizzles out. The whole thing collapses and all that is left at the end are a few bounding strings, a bit of rattling percussion and one lonely mandolin.
Little, confused fiddle
Some call this sort of music "new simplicity" and there's perhaps something in the term. As soon as the music gets too bombastic, pompous or romantic, you can almost hear Pelle Gudmundsen- Holmgreen clear his throat and wipe the slate clean. It is this reluctance to or dislike of letting himself get carried away that rears up its head at the beginning of Antiphony. A diminutive, very straightforward violin theme makes its appearance as a contrast in the splendid Symphony. And bless my word if the piano doesn't perform exactly the same role with a sniggering little ragtime theme. As composer colleague Karl Aage Rasmussen says on the subject of Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen: The problem is to tell the truth without wanting all the time to say what is true!
Finn Gravesen is an author and editor, his latest work being "Who owns the music?" ("Hvem ejer musikken?") (2006) commissioned by the Ministry of Culture.
Pelle Gudmundsen- Holmgreen with his wife Karin Birgitte Lund, photo: Marianne Grøndahl.