Presented at the Grieg Conference in Bergen May 27, 2000
Rune J. Andersen, Sweden
Assistant Professor
A short introduction to Alf Hurum’s life and work
Alf Hurum does not belong to the most well-known Norwegian composers. He was born in 1882 and was active as a composer from around 1910 to 1930. Even if his number of works are not extensive, his work has historic significance and importance: he was the first Norwegian composer to display an influence from Claude Debussy. Not only that, recent research has shown that he was in fact the first Nordic composer to succumb to the spell of the great Frenchman. This took place in a period when new French music, and especially the music by Debussy, were recognised as extremely radical by the conservative Norwegian music critics. Hurum’s view was that the future of Norwegian music was to be sought for a great part in modern music of France.
Download the whole paper here
Rune Andersen paper 2000