Mogens Winkel Holm


Mogens Winkel Holm was a Danish composer.
Holm was born in Copenhagen; his father was the architect Tyge Holm. He studied orchestration with Jørgen Jersild at the Royal [Danish Academy of Music] and oboe with Mogens Steen Andreassen, then for some years was assistant oboist with the Danish Orchestra">Denmark">Danish Orchestra and worked in the music department at Danmarks Radio. From 1965 to 1971, he was also the music reviewer for Politiken and Ekstra Bladet. He also held a number of posts in music organisations, including president of Det Unge Tonekunstnerselskab and for almost 20 years, of Dansk Komponist Forening. In 1999 he was elected to membership of the Royal [Swedish Academy of Music].
Holm was a prolific composer in a wide range of genres, but ballet was his speciality. In collaboration with, among others, his brother the dancer and choreographer Eske Holm, he originated a long series of ballets, both at the Royal Danish Theater and on Danish and Swedish television between 1964 and 1984. His music has been described as dramatic and often very gestural. Paradoxically enough, it is experienced as a record of improvisation. At the same time, it is constructed on a framework, in a pre-established format. "The framework protects me from being completely absorbed by the material, but it also protects the material from being absorbed by me," the composer himself said. But he also said: "You see with your ears, you hear with your eyes. A spring day, a vision, a sound: A lark singing high in the dazzling sky, a dot. Hold on! If you look away for just a moment, you will never find it again."

Compositions (incomplete list)

  • Op. 3 string quartet
  • Op. 5 chamber concerto Chamber Concerto Abracadabra Momento a ballata Kleine Hotel Suite
  • op. 12 Concerto piccolo St. Annaland Composition for soloist, choir and school orchestra
  • op. 13 Aslak
  • op. 14 Tropismer
  • op. 17 choral fragment
  • op. 19 Brev til stilheden Cumulus
  • op. 25 sonata
  • op. 26 Ricercare Oktobermorgen Kontradans
  • op. 29 Sonata for 4 operasangere Cradle song
  • op. 31 Fordi jeg er ensom Galgarien Overtoninger Annonce Transitions II Musik for 2 lurer Tarantel Feens slott for 6 lige stemmer Aarhus Med næb og kløer Tarantel Eurydike Tøver Gærdesanger under kunstig stjernehimmel Aiolos Til Blåskæg Adieu Note-book Cries Wie kann man den Gesang unserer Waldfögel verschönern? Concerto for 10 ensembles Fiat Lux Hellig tre konger Zwei Stimmen für einen cellospielenden Sänger Scars Aeneas alene 7 Breve til Stilheden Prison Music III: To Eros Piping Down Syster, min Syster Prison Music IV: The King's Sorrow Aria 4 songs Troglodyte Prison Music IIIb
  • ''Glasbjerget''