Knudåge Riisager
Knudåge Riisager was a Danish composer mainly known for his ballet music.
Knudåge Riisager was born on 6 March 1897 in Kunda, Estonia, where his father had built and at that time managed a cement factory.
On the death of F.L. Smidth in 1899 Riisager’s father was called home to work in Copenhagen for F.L. Smidth Company, and the family then moved to Frederiksberg, where Riisager lived for the rest of his life. He died 26 December 1974 in Copenhagen.
After his school-leaving exam in 1915, he began studying political science at the University of Copenhagen, and in 1921 he took the cand. polit. degree.
From 1925 until 1950 he worked as a civil servant – for the last eleven years as a Departmental Head in the Ministry of Finance.
Alongside this straightforward administrative career, Riisager was prolifically active as a composer, music writer, and organizer.
He had his first training in theory and composition from Otto Malling, and after the latter’s death in 1915 from Peder Gram.
It was a study trip to Paris in 1923 that were to open the young composer’s eyes in earnest to the new currents in contemporary music.
In Paris, Riisager became a pupil of Albert Roussel and Paul Le Flem, and the French influence can be clearly felt in his compositions from the mid-1920s.
While the works of the years up to 1921 have a Nordic, lyrical, sometimes Carl Nielsenesque tone, the compositions of the years up to the mid-thirties show the influence not only of the Frenchmen Roussel and Satie, but also of Prokofiev, Honegger, Bartók, and not least Stravinsky.
Riisager’s highly personal style is already evident in the works of these years, as expressed for example by the almost provocative use of dissonant seconds, his fondness for bitonality, the humorous element of sheer music-making, and especially Riisager’s own distinctive attitude to an orchestral setting.
This whole development can be heard in works like the Overture for Erasmus Montanus and Songs to texts by Sigbjørn Obstfelder, both from c. 1920, Suite dionysiaque from 1924, as well as Variations on a Theme of Mezangeau and T-Doxc. Poème mécanique, both from 1926.
The last of these works subtitled Jabiru, mechanical poetry, is a musical portrait of what was then a brand-new Japanese airplane type.
The work is quite in the spirit of the ‘machine music’ of the period and is such a fine example of the young composer’s international orientation and will to experiment.
By 1928 Riisager had begun his collaboration with the ballet at the Royal Theatre; that year he composed the music for Elna Jørgen-Jensen’s ballet Benzin (Petrol) with stage designs by Robert Storm Petersen.
The premiere of this work, as far its reception was concerned, must be described as a resounding flop, and when it appeared in 1930 it only managed a total of three performances.
At the end of the 1930s, Riisager resumed his work as a ballet composer, supplying the music for Børge Ralov’s Hans Christian Andersen ballet Tolv med Posten (Twelve by the Mail).
But this was not premiered at the Royal Theatre until 1942, incidentally together with Harald Lander’s Slaraffenland (Fool’s Paradise) and Qarrtsiluni – also with Riisager’s music.
Although he composed a number of significant works in the thirties and forties, it was very much these ballet scores that established Riisager’s name with the general public as one of the leading composers of his generation.
And for the next few years, too, ballet music was to be Riisager’s most prominent field of work.
In 1945 he completed the music for Lander’s Fugl Fønix (The Phoenix), and in 1947 he reworked and scored a selection of Carl Czerny’s piano etudes into his and -Harald Lander’s ballet Etude (later called Etudes).
With this work in particular -Riisager won international recognition, and although there are precedents for the use of orchestrated piano pieces as ballet music (for example Ottorino Respighi’s La Boutique – fantasque (1919)), the combination of the piano etudes and the technical progression of the dance steps has a special dimension which is precisely the point of the work as a whole.
In the 1920s Riisager had been one of the most active champions of the performance of contemporary music in Copenhagen, and was thus one of the founders of Unge Tonekunstneres Selskab (the Society of Young Composers) (chairman 1922-24) and a member of the judging committee of the society Foreningen ‘Ny Musik’.
Finally, in 1937, he became the chairman of Dansk Komponistforening (the Association of Danish Composers) – a post he kept for 25 years.
Riisager’s great initiative and his talent for identifying and solving problems made him an obvious candidate for membership of innumerable society boards, committees, councils, etc. not only in Denmark but also outside the country.
And as we have seen, alongside these activities he kept up his work at the Ministry until 1950, when he retired as Head of Department.
But Riisager refused to rest on his laurels as a senior citizen, so in 1956 he took up the challenge of becoming director of the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen.
This is quite thought-provoking since he had never himself attended the institution. And in fact, as director he devoted himself to the administrative work and never taught in the eleven years he was at the Academy.
After finishing Etude Riisager went to work on his only opera, the one-acter Susanne, to a libretto by his close friend Mogens Lorentzen.
It was no great success: it only saw 17 performances, and when it was revived in 1957 – for Riisager’s sixtieth birthday – it was only on stage six times.
Several major works now followed, including a concerto for the violin virtuoso Wandy Tworek, but as before it was to be ballet music that brought Riisager success.
In the fifties, his compositions included two ballet scores for the -Swedish choreographer Birgit Cullberg: Månerenen (Moon Reindeer), which premiered at the Royal Theatre in 1957, and Fruen fra Havet (The Lady From The Sea), first performed at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in 1960.
Worth singling out from Riisager’s last ten years are Sangen om det uendelige (The Song of the Infinite) from 1964 to a text by the Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi, and the orchestral works Trittico from 1971 and To Apollo, composed in 1972.
Knudåge Riisager combined a full-time job as a civil servant with extensive activities as a composer, and besides making an important contribution to many of the organizations of the musical world he was an extremely prolific writer; in his younger years, especially in music articles, but later as an essayist, as is evident for example from the fine books Tanker i tiden (Thoughts in Time) (1952) and Det usynlige mønster (The Invisible Pattern) (1957).
In these lucidly formulated literary works, too, we experience Knudåge Riisager as a cultural personality with thorough training in the humanities and a broad cultural perspective.
As a composer, Riisager had no pupils or successors, but with his unmistakable personal tone, he succeeded in enriching Danish music with an extra dimension of spirituality and pithiness.
He was a commander of the 1st degree in the Dannebrogordenen and is buried at Tibirkegård.
According to his entry in Grove, “Riisager became the most prominent representative of the French-orientated trend in Danish music of the interwar years”.
His trumpet concertino (1933) is considered a leading example of Danish neoclassical music.
Erasmus Montanus Ouverture op. 1 (1919)
The Swedish composer and conductor Ture Rangström offered to premiere the overture at the Concert Hall in Gothenburg on 15 October 1924.
The overture has a fresh and energetic expression. It soon became one of Riisager’s most popular works in the concert hall.
In the video, the overture is performed by the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky.
T-DOXC (Poème Mécanique), op.13 (1926)
On the first page of the scores: “The plane is the big bird that passes, at regular times, over the summer countryside. You can hear it, or see it emerging, it grows, dies, and disappears, always following the same directions. ”
In the video, the symphony is performed by Aarhus Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bo Holten.
Symphony No. 1, Op.8 (1925).
The music is lively, optimistic, and colorful from the opening. Some energetic passages are cinematic. The harmonic language is always accessible and even “populist” at times.
This symphony is finely composed with silky tones of all strings, brilliant tones of all-metal winds, and, above all, mild tones of all woodwinds. The second movement sounds really lyrical. The brilliant conductor leads the compact and functional orchestra at a well-phrased tempo with the most effective dynamic possible.
I. Allegro ritmico e con brio
II. Andante recitativo [08:50]
III. Allegro focoso [15:39]
In the video, the symphony is performed by Aarhus Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bo Holten.
Symphony No. 2, Op. 14
This is a compact and finely composed symphony with brilliant and perfectly synchronized tones of all instruments. The intelligent maestro conducts the excellent chamber orchestra at an inspiring pace and with the most effective dynamic possible.
In the video, the symphony is performed by Aarhus Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bo Holten.
Symphony No.3, op.30 (1935)
I. Feroce
II. Violento e fantastico [09:13]
III. Tumultuoso [14:22]
In the video, the symphony is performed by Aarhus Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bo Holten.
Concerto for orchestra, op.24 (1931)
I. Moderato e molto sonoro
II. Allegro non troppo [01:41]
III. Grave [07:12]
IV. Allegro vivace [11:15]
In the video, the concerto is performed by Aarhus Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bo Holten.
Concertino for trumpet and strings, Op. 29 (1933)
1. Allegro
2. Andantino simplice (at 4:11)
3. Rondo: Vivace (at 7:27)
In the video, the concertino is performed by Danish State Radio Orchestra conducted by Thomas Jensen.
Slaraffenland, Suites from the ballet Op. 33 (1936/1940)
Slaraffenland, which emerged in 1936 as a purely orchestral suite, is a loose fairytale ballet with grotesque situations where Knudåge Riisager humorously portrays Princess Sukkergodt in a waltz, the lazy drinkers in a massive polka, and the edible daggers in a bombastic procession.
Suite I Op. 33 No. 1 (1936) 00:00-16:30
I. Prelude
II. Departure
III. Princess Sweets
IV. The Lazybones’ Polka
V. The Royal Guardsmen
VI. Fountains of Liqueurs
VII. Procession of Gluttons
VIII. Punctum Finale
Suite II Op. 33 No. 2 (1940) 16:30-30:35
I. Lullaby
II. The Rocking Chair
III. The Three Muskateers
IV. Leaping Dance
V. Pas de deux
VI. The Dance of Dishes.
In the video, the suites are performed by the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Thomas Dausgaard.
Qarrtsiluni op.36 (1938)
Qarrtsiluni bears as its title a Greenlandic word which means the silence that arises while waiting for something to burst. The ballet depicts a Greenlandic settlement waiting for the sun’s first rays after the long winter night.
Knudåge Riisager works in this with the motivic scarcity he has always liked, but sharp rhythms and an elaborate motif work in a fascinating orchestral attire give this work, Riisager’s most significant at all among his markedly serious orchestral works, wider breaths than one usually experiences in his music.
In the video, the music is performed by Aarhus Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bo Holten.
Summer Rhapsody (on Danish Folk Melodies) for orchestra Op. 43 (1943)
In the video, the symphony is performed by Aarhus Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bo Holten.
The Danish freedom song
Denmark’s Freedom Song: “A winter, long and dark and hard”. At the liberation in 1945 from the Greman occupation.
Music by Knudåge Riisager, text by Svend Møller Kristensen.
In the video, the singing is by Aksel Schiøtz.
Etudes (1948)
Harald Landers and Knudåge Riisagers Etudes contain both the brilliant and the romantic.
The music is built on Czerny’s classical piano tunes, and the idea of ballet is the same: from the daily rehearsals to the great art.
Etudes has no action, but a clear line when it follows the dancer from the five positions of the feet and the daily training to the ballerina’s virtuoso steps and variations on stage under the large crystal chandeliers.
Etudes was first performed on 15 January 1948 at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen.
In 1952, Harald Lander staged Etudes at the Paris Opera, and since then the ballet has triumphed all over the world as the most frequently performed
Etudes is an international ballet classic performed in St. Petersburg, Tokyo, Sydney, Paris, New York, and Beijing.
1. Overture – Exercices à la barre
2. I. Tendus – grands battements – fondus – frappés [01:52]
3. II. Ronds de jambe [03:52]
4. III. Sillhouetter – Au milieu [05:46]
5. IV. Adagio [07:01]
6. V. Port de bras et pas de badin [12:16]
7. Va. Mirror dance [15:22]
8. Vb. Ensemble [16:42]
9. VI. Pas de deux romantique [18:30]
10. VIa. Sortie [20:47]
11. VIb. Conclusion [21:53]
12. VII. Pirouettes [22:39]
13. VIII. Relevés [24:20]
14. IX. Piqés et grands pirouettes [25:38]
15. X. Sola prima ballerina [27:29]
16. Xa. Coda [28:30]
17. XI. Small leaps [28:59]
18. XII. Mazurka [33:02]
19. XIII. Tarantel [35:37]
20. XIV. Broad leaps [37:22]
In the video, Etudes is performed by the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky.
Månerenen (Moon Reindeer), Ballet in one act Op. 57 (1956)
The collaboration with Birgit Cullberg resulted in Månerenen, which has been performed worldwide.
Prelude 00:00-02:00
Scene 1 : Skiing Dance – Happy Dance 02:00-06:50
Scene 2: quarter note = 88 – Dance of the Reindeer – Aili’s Dance – Ecstatic Dance – Dance of the Moon Reindeer 06:50-15:15
Scene 3: dotted half note = 44 – The Sami want to catch the Moon Reindeer – Dance of Una and the Moon Reindeer 15:15-21:55
Scene 4: dotted half note = 44 – Love Dance 21:55-28:10
Scene 5: quarter note = 80 – Dance of Nilas and Aili – Aili’s Change – Spear Dance – Conclusion 28:10-47:20.
In the video, the symphony is performed by Aarhus Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bo Holten.
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