Frederik Magle

Frederik Magle was born in Stubbekøbing, the son of actress and writer Mimi Heinrich and organist, painter and sculptor Christian Reesen Magle (1925–96).

He is the great-nephew of the composer Emil Reesen (his grandmother's brother).

Recognized early as a child prodigy, he appeared on television and in the news media at the age of 9.

Magle was educated as a private student of Leif Thybo (composition and music theory), and Ib Bindel (organ).

He was taught piano, score reading, and music theory from the age of six.

At the age of 16, he was admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Music, where he was taught music theory by Yngve Jan Trede, but after one and a half years he decided to leave the music academy, explaining that he "could not both study at the conservatory and work independently as a composer at the same time."

He later stated that the decision "was difficult, and there was a lot to think through," but that he did not regret it.

Frederik Reesen Magle (born 17 April 1977) is a Danish composer, concert organist, and pianist.

He writes contemporary classical music as well as fusion of classical music and other genres.

His compositions include orchestral works, cantatas, chamber music, and solo works (mainly for organ), including several compositions commissioned by the Danish royal family.

Magle has gained a reputation as an organ virtuoso, and as a composer and performing artist who does not refrain from venturing into more experimental projects – often with improvisation – bordering jazz, electronica, and other non-classical genres.

His best-known works include his concerto for organ and orchestra The Infinite Second, his brass quintet piece Lys på din vej (Light on your path), composed for the christening of Prince Nikolai, The Hope for brass band and choir, his symphonic suite Cantabile, a collection of improvisations for organ titled Like a Flame, and his fanfare for two trumpets and organ The Fairest of Roses.

The first public performance of one of Frederik Magle's compositions took place on Easter morning 7 April 1985, in Stubbekøbing church, where a children's choir performed an Easter hymn he had composed.

Two years later, in 1987, six of his hymns with texts by his mother Mimi Heinrich were performed by actress and singer Annie Birgit Garde at a concert in Lyngby church, and the same year he played on television for the first time.

In 1988, two of his larger works, the cantata We are afraid, and the "mini-musical" A Christmas Child, were premiered in Grundtvig's Church in Copenhagen before an audience of 2,000 people.

He began a collaboration with the violinist Nikolaj Znaider in 1990, and they performed a series of concerts together.

Later, Znaider gave the first performance of Magle's variations for violin and piano in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, with the pianist Daniel Gortler: Journey in time describes a "kind of scenes or musical images" with the use of sharp dissonances, complicated rhythms and dramatic transitions and thematic formations.

He received the scholarship of countess Erna Hamilton in 1993.

In 1993 Magle composed music for the experimental theatre performance Der Die Das by the theatrical group Hotel Pro Forma, directed by Kirsten Dehlholm, which was performed at the 4th international Dance Festival in Munich, Germany.

Other artists involved were the architect Thomas Wiesner, sculptors Anders Krüger and Frans Jacobi, painter Tomas Lahoda, and the costume designer Annette Meyer; it was presented as a contemporary "Gesamtkunstwerk" comprising architecture, art, music, and performance.

In 1994, as an organ soloist, he won the Danish qualification rounds and national final of the Eurovision Young Musicians competition.

He was one of eight winners of the 24 national competitions that year to be selected for the European final, held at the Philharmonic Concert Hall in Warsaw, Poland on 14 June 1994.

He performed Francis Poulenc's Organ Concerto, but was not placed in the top 3.

The Polish organizers originally planned the qualifying round to be held elsewhere, but moved it to the Philharmonic Hall (which contains a pipe organ) to accommodate Magle's participation.

Magle's concerto for organ and orchestra The Infinite Second was given its first performance and recorded in 1994 at the 3rd international music festival in Riga Cathedral, Latvia by the Latvian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Dzintars Josts, with Frederik Magle himself as organ soloist.

The reviewer of Berlingske Tidende, Steen Chr.

Steensen, described the organ concerto as "a long process from darkness to light" tonally "founded in the French school of organ music".

In 1995–96 Magle composed a symphonic Lego Fantasia in three movements for piano and symphony orchestra, commissioned by the Lego Group.

Magle's father died in 1996, shortly before the first performance of Frederik Magle's Christmas cantata A newborn child, before eternity, God!, which is dedicated to him.

It was released on CD in 1996 along with his second symphony for organ Let there be light which had been premiered in Riga Cathedral in 1993.

The culture journalist Jakob Levinsen wrote of Magle's method of structuring the two works:

"...while his music appears quite conventional in terms of the traditional musical parameters, such as a preference for arch forms and a relatively conservative use of free tonality in terms of melody and harmony, what could be labelled the dramatic characters of his music are very definitely developed from the specific possibilities of the church organ itself. That goes for the often occurring contrast between very bright and very dark timbres, between clearly defined melodic lines and closely woven fields of sound, between huge pillars of chords and energetically moving patterns of rhythm. And it goes for his two dominating ways of structuring his music as well (...) the gradual building of dynamic tensions through adding more and more layers of sound, the abrupt changes between light and dark, force and calm, clear and veiled. Including the courage to extend some of the parameters into the extremes – such as when a rhythmic pattern becomes so dense as to almost blurring the contours of the figurations involved, and only the outline of movement remains..."

The Christmas cantata A newborn child, before eternity, God! was given its first performance in 1996, commissioned by Kulturby 96 – the European Capital of Culture 1996.

In 1997 it was released on CD, in a recording made in Messiaskirken in Charlottenlund by the soloists Ingibjörg Gudjonsdottir, soprano, Elisabeth Halling, alto, Gert Henning-Jensen, tenor, Christian Christiansen, bass, two mixed choirs, two children's choirs, brass band, organ and percussion, conducted by Steen Lindholm.

The cantata was described by the reviewer of Jyllands-Posten as hard to classify, with a "religiously narrative robustness".

The work sets text from a kontakion by the 6th century hymnographer Romanos the Melodist, translated into Danish by the theology professor Christian Thodberg, and edited by the priest Kristian Høeg.

Magle was awarded the Freemason's Arts Prize in 2001.

In 2006 he took ownership of the classical music internet forum "Talk Classical".

He has said that he often gets his ideas in dreams and always have a notebook next to him when he sleeps, in case he gets an idea for a "musical phrase or an orchestral build-up" during the night.

This method is often found among great minds, and is similar to the Slumber with the Key method.