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By Jakob Faurholt
Introduction
Danish films are currently making a strong impression in the international film world, while in Denmark, cinemas have seen a boom which would have been unimaginable a couple of decades ago.
This is particularly due to the new Danish films, which are popular among cinema audiences – films by such directors as Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg.
But what is the current situation of Danish film music?
Jakob Faurholt has investigated this subject, and here presents a summary of Danish film music past and present. |
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In 1983 Ole Schmidt (b. 1928) composed a new score intended for live performances of Carl Th. Dreyer's famous silent movie Jeanne d'Arc (1927) - picture from the film.
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| Focus on film music |
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| In Denmark, it has only been within the last 15 years that attention has been given to the 'third spice' of film, namely music. Before that, film music was largely ignored by the musicologists, and was for the most part the domain of a few enthusiasts who, with their extensive knowledge of both Danish and foreign films, comprised the principal knowledge base in the area. |
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| All this changed with the new millennium. Now there is focus on film music as never before, and Danish recording companies have discovered a market for actual soundtrack albums – a phenomenon was has otherwise been virtually unknown for Danish films since the fifties. In those days, Denmark produced eight or nine film comedies every year, in each of which popular actors sang two or three songs which were released with unswerving predictability immediately after the film's premiere in record and sheet music form. This synergy between film, radio and printed publications was quite unique, and was obviously only made possible by the media selection and the broad consumption patterns of the times. |
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The fifties
In the 1950s, the Danish market for film music was still dominated by the first generation of film composers. Ever since his breakthrough in 1924 with "Du gamle måne" (”Dear Old Moon”; Scala Revue, 1924), Kai Normann Andersen (1900-67) had been the musical trump card for a wide range of revue and theatrical directors, and when the need arose for film music with the arrival of the talkies in 1927, he became a wholesale supplier of this for thirty years, particularly in connection with Danish comedies.
His film debut came in 1932, when he wrote the music for the film ”Odds 777”, starring the actress Liva Weel (1897-1952). One of the film's musical items was the song ”Gå med in lunden” (”Come With Me To The Grove”). This is a fresh melody in the popular foxtrot rhythm of the day which demonstrates Andersen’s fine craftsmanship – craftsmanship which was later utilised to the full in the musical ”Mød mig på Cassiopeia” (”Meet Me On Cassiopeia”, 1951). Andersen's musical universe built upon influences from American entertainment music (such as early jazz), while the years he spent working as a pianist in Paris around 1920 also left their mark. |
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Kai Normann Andersen (1900-67) wrote popular songs for Odds 777 (1932)
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This was in contrast to his contemporary, Sven Gyldmark (1904-1981), who had a classical training in piano and organ playing as well as instrumentation, and thereby a different basis upon which to develop his talents within the new medium. With his extensive knowledge of classical music, Gyldmark’s approach soon began to resemble that of such American models as Max Steiner (1888-1971) and Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957), using background music in the modern sense: music that plays beneath the dialogue, rather than just during ”changes of scenery” – which was otherwise the technique used by the first film composers.
Alongside these ”serious” productions, which however always had a touch of something typically Danish about them – such as the use of motifs from folk song melodies – Sven Gyldmark also wrote many popular songs, both for the film industry and for revues and theatrical productions. Gyldmark’s musical palette stretched from classical expression and 19th-century entertainment music (such as that of the Strausses in Austria and Danish H.C. Lumbye, 1810-1874) to contemporary popular music, making him something of a musical jack-of-all-trades. |
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Twin tracks
Along these two musical tracks, a clear aesthetic division began to emerge in Danish film music during the 1940s, while at the same time the spectrum of Danish film grew wider. While the comedies were still popular, the need arose for music for serious films, too. Perhaps not surprisingly, the directors of serious films chose ”serious” composers, i.e. composers who were known for their production of concertos and symphonies.
Carl Th. Dreyer (1889-1968), for example, used both Poul Schierbeck (1888-1949) and Herman D. Koppel (1908-1998) in his film ”Vredens Dag” (”Day Of Wrath”, 1943). The latter composer also supplied music for the film ”Palle alene i verden” (”Palle Alone In The World”, 1949) and ”Ditte Menneskebarn” (”Ditte, Child Of Man”, 1946).
At the same time, music was being created for the comedies by, amongst others, Kai Normann Andersen, Sven Gyldmark, Erik Fiehn (1907-1977) and Emil Reesen (1887-1964).
In the course of the 1950s new talents arrived on the scene in the form of Bent Fabricius-Bjerre (b. 1924), Ib Glindemann (b. 1934) and Ole Høyer (1927-2002), who, on the basis of jazz – they were all conductors as well as composers – ”modernised” Danish film music and gave the genre an international character which drew especially on the American model (with Henry Mancini, 1924-1994, as their most important source of inspiration).
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The jazzy main theme for the series of 15 Olsen Gang films (1968-98) was composed by Bent Fabricius Bjerre (b. 1924)
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The seventies
During the 1970s Danish film music practically went into hibernation, due amongst other things to the fact that the film genres of the popular comedy and farce had grown out of touch in relation to the social trends and cultural political attitudes of the day. The actual studio system also underwent a drastic change, with many of the old film companies closing or being sold off. Film music ”burst free” of its former ties, and a new generation of composers (both formally trained and self-taught) supplied music for a wide range of films with everyday themes and a social focus, in marked contrast to the many years of flight from reality in the form of the comedies. |
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Composers such as Anders Koppel (b. 1947), Kasper Winding (b. 1956), Gunner Møller Pedersen (b. 1943), Bo Holten (b. 1948), Fuzzy (b.1939), Hans-Erik Philip (b. 1943), Andy Pape (b. 1955) and Per Nørgård (b. 1932) now dominated the scene with their widely differing musical styles.
Coming from a background in rock, Kasper Winding reintroduced the film song in ”Mig og Charly” (”Me And Charly”, 1978), while Anders Koppel, who had experience from the worlds of both rhythmic music (with the group ”Savage Rose”) and classical music (as the son of Herman D. Koppel) provided musical solutions for everything from the animated feature film ”Jungledyret” (“Jungle Jack”, 1980) to the TV series ”Afgrunden” (”The Abyss”, 2003), as well as a wide range of documentary films, with ”Københavnerfortolkningen” (”The Copenhagen Interpretation”, 2004) as the most recent example.
The more classically-oriented composers, such as Bo Holten, Gunner Møller Pedersen, Per Nørgård and Fuzzy, apply their extensive historical and technical knowledge through an equally wide range of approaches. |
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Per Nørgård (b. 1932) wrote the music for Babette's Feast with Stéphane Audran (Gabriel Axel, 1987)
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From 1990 to today
As interest in film music began to rise during the 1990s, there was a corresponding need to widen the aesthetic framework. The need arose to reinterpret the tradition, and as composers acquired new tools in the form of computers and electronic instruments, the field was opened up to even more people.
Concurrently with this trend came a renewed interest in large symphony orchestras, and, using elements drawn from both electronic and acoustic music, composers such as Jacob Groth (b. 1949), Halfdan E. (b. 1965) and Peter Peter (b. 1960) placed their stamp on developments; Jacob Groth with music for many films by Søren Kragh-Jacobsen and for the TV series ”Ørnen” (”The Eagle”) and ”Krøniken” (”The Chronicle”), Halfdan E. with an original mix of samples and orchestral sounds for Per Fly's ”Bænken” (The Bench”) (2000) and ”Arven” (”The Inheritance”, 2003), as well as a number of comedies, and Peter Peter with his fragmented rock universe, notably in Nicolas Winding Refn's ”Pusher” trilogy.
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Søren Hyldgård attracted international attention with the music to Help I'm a Fish (2000)
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Joachim Holbek (b. 1957), with a background in theatrical music, has supplied music for a number of productions by Lars von Trier, including ”Europa” (1991), ”Riget” (”The Kingdom”, 1994) and Lone Scherfig's ”Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself” (2002). Jeppe Kaas (b. 1966) has made his mark with music for a wide range of hard-hitting comedies such as ”De grønne slagtere” (”The Green Butchers”, 2003) and ”Blinkende lygter” (”Flickering Lights”, 2000), the latter in co-operation with Bent Fabricius-Bjerre, as well as in films for children and young people, such as ”Fakiren fra Bilbao” (”The Fakir from Bilbao”, 2004) and ”Kærlighed ved første hik” (”Love At First Hiccough”, 1999).
Finally, Søren Hyldgaard (b. 1962) has gained a national and especially international reputation as one of the big names in the genre. On the international level, Hyldgaard attracted attention with the music to ”Hjælp! Jeg er en fisk” (”Help! I’m A Fish!”, 2000) and ”Till Eulenspiegel” (2003), both of which employed large-scale symphonic scores on the American model. Hyldgaard also masters electronic instruments, as he demonstrated to the full in the horror-thriller ”Midsommer” (”Midsummer”) (2003).
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Jørgen Lauritsen created music for the puppet film success Strings (2005)
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Read more
You can read more about Danish film music at:
The Magazine Film published by the Danish Film Institute featues film music in the #44 issue from June-August 2005. Articles - in Danish - by Peter Schepelern, Birger Langkjær, etc.
Individual composers
Publishing houses
The works of a number of Danish film composers have been published via the publishing houses:
Samfundet (e.g. Gunner Møller Pedersen and Fuzzy)
Edition Wilhelm Hansen (e.g. Kai Normann Andersen, Sven Gyldmark, Anders Koppel, Per Nørgård, Bo Holten, Søren Hyldgaard and Andy Pape)
Kleinerts Musikforlag (e.g. Hans-Erik Philip)
Multitone (e.g. Bent Fabricius-Bjerre)
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Ulla Hjorth Nielsen (ed.): Toner fra Filmen 1932-2002 includes music and text for 100 songs from Danish films (Edition Wilhelm Hansen, 2003)
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