Magnus Lindberg

Magnus Lindberg (born June 27, 1958) is a Finnish composer.

Related Topics:
June 27 - 1958 - Finnish

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Lindberg was born in Helsinki. He studied music at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki under Einojuhani Rautavaara and Paavo Heininen, graduating in 1981. He attended summer courses in Siena (with Franco Donatoni) and Darmstadt (with Brian Ferneyhough) and private studies in Paris with Vinko Globokar and Gérard Grisey.

Related Topics:
Sibelius Academy - Helsinki - 1981 - Siena - Darmstadt - Paris

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"Quintetto dell?Estate" (1979) is generally held to be Lindberg's first opus. His first great breakthrough came with "Action-Situation-Signification" (1982), the first work in explored musique concrète. This piece led to the founding, with Esa-Pekka Salonen--a classmate of Lindberg and now a famous conductor--of the experimental ensemble Toimii ("It Works" in the Finnish language). Lindberg is a trained pianist and has performed several of his works as part of Toimii.

Related Topics:
Esa-Pekka Salonen - Finnish language

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"Kraft" (1983-85), written for Tomii, was Lindberg's greatest work to date, with over 70 harmonies and a meter-high score. It uses not only traditional instrumentation, but percussion on scrap metal and spoken word. Lindberg found this large work difficult to follow, and with the exception of 1986's "Ur", he entered an extensive creative hiatus.

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After two years, Lindberg returned with an orchestral trilogy consisting of "Kinetics" (1988), "Marea" (1989-90) and "Joy" (1990). These inaugurated a new style in which emphasis was placed on well-managed harmonic structure. Though Lindberg became less interested in electronic manipulation of sound, he still explored the possibilities of compositional software, and "Engine" displays complex counterpoint generated by computer.

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Among the many prizes his music has won are the Prix Italia (1986), the UNESCO Rostrum (1986), the Nordic Music Prize (1988) and the Royal Philharmonic Society Prize for large-scale composition (1992).

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