Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Aarhus Symphony Orchestra conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes.
I - Allegro con fuoco (𝅘𝅥 = c. 148) [0:00] - Intermedio primo in tempo andantino, poco tranquillo (𝅘𝅥𝅮 = ca. 160) [4:05] - Adagio. L'istesso tempo (𝅘𝅥 = c. 78-80) [5:06] - Poco più mosso (𝅘𝅥 = c. 100) - (𝅘𝅥 = c. 110) - Pochettino più mosso (𝅘𝅥 = ca. 112) - Adagio (𝅘𝅥 = c. 69) - Intermedio secondo in tempo andantino [10:57] - Presto leggiero (𝅗𝅥. = c. 72) [11:58] - Meno presto - Presto - Presto ma non troppo - Poco meno presto - Meno mosso - Allegro moderato (𝅗𝅥 = ca. 88) - Poco a poco più largamente - Poco moderato - Poco adagio - Poco più mosso - Poco adagio - Intermedio tertio in tempo andantino [18:34] - Andante [19:45] - Andante tranquillo - Allegro ma non troppo - Adagio
Holmboe's Symphony No.7 was composed in 1950, being premiered in Copenhagen on October 18 of 1951, performed by the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nikolai Malko. Structured in a single movement subdivided in multiple sections, the work shows the composer's peak in the Metamorphosis technique alongside the eighth symphony.
Holmboe's Metamorphosis is an original structural principle in which the material is continually being transformed from one state to another, gradually reaching a "total change", without losing its identity or its fundamental characteristics. The correspondence with nature's continuous transformation of matter is striking, and the material which Holmboe introduces into the process of change is most usually a musical "embryo", a thematic, motivic or rhythmical idea. Throughout a lifelong development he unwaveringly kept to a modal-diatonic basis (twelve tone music and serialism appealed little to him) but the principle has striking similarities with the constructive principles employed by Schoenberg and his pupils.
The trend towards an ever tighter integration of the musical material which finds expression in both details and the overall structure of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies is taken to a logical conclusion in the Seventh, which is in one long movement. In his disposition of the 25 minutes of music Holmboe succeeds in combining the traditional symphony's varying tempi and expressive modes in a simple passage, combining unity and multiplicity in an original manner. The symphony consists of three main sections which alternate with three so-called intermezzi whereupon a coda ends the movement. The musical material is derived from the same scale that formed the basis of the Sixth Symphony's second movement.
The symphony starts with a markedly rhythmic motif which, Iike the motto in the second movement of the Sixth. Symphony, pervades the whole work. It works as an initial figure, a starter, and appears again at the links between the various sections. The introductory Allegro con fuoco is dominated partly by lively scale-passages in triplets and partly by sweeping melodic lines. After the first intermezzo which works with a simple chorale-like motif, a broadly painted Adagio follows introducing new melodic material. After the second intermezzo, there is a scherzo section which gradually exposes the motivic relationships of the two preceeding sections through the use of the rnetamorphic principle which finds its full development here. The symphony is concluded with the third intermezzo and a coda which recalls the signal-like beginning of the work.
Picture: "Aktæon" (1937) by Danish artist Axel Salto.
Source: tinyurl.com/2xqnmanb
To check the score: tinyurl.com/22mzf6h3
Aarhus Symphony Orchestra conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes.
I - Allegro con fuoco (𝅘𝅥 = c. 148) [0:00] - Intermedio primo in tempo andantino, poco tranquillo (𝅘𝅥𝅮 = ca. 160) [4:05] - Adagio. L'istesso tempo (𝅘𝅥 = c. 78-80) [5:06] - Poco più mosso (𝅘𝅥 = c. 100) - (𝅘𝅥 = c. 110) - Pochettino più mosso (𝅘𝅥 = ca. 112) - Adagio (𝅘𝅥 = c. 69) - Intermedio secondo in tempo andantino [10:57] - Presto leggiero (𝅗𝅥. = c. 72) [11:58] - Meno presto - Presto - Presto ma non troppo - Poco meno presto - Meno mosso - Allegro moderato (𝅗𝅥 = ca. 88) - Poco a poco più largamente - Poco moderato - Poco adagio - Poco più mosso - Poco adagio - Intermedio tertio in tempo andantino [18:34] - Andante [19:45] - Andante tranquillo - Allegro ma non troppo - Adagio
Holmboe's Symphony No.7 was composed in 1950, being premiered in Copenhagen on October 18 of 1951, performed by the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nikolai Malko. Structured in a single movement subdivided in multiple sections, the work shows the composer's peak in the Metamorphosis technique alongside the eighth symphony.
Holmboe's Metamorphosis is an original structural principle in which the material is continually being transformed from one state to another, gradually reaching a "total change", without losing its identity or its fundamental characteristics. The correspondence with nature's continuous transformation of matter is striking, and the material which Holmboe introduces into the process of change is most usually a musical "embryo", a thematic, motivic or rhythmical idea. Throughout a lifelong development he unwaveringly kept to a modal-diatonic basis (twelve tone music and serialism appealed little to him) but the principle has striking similarities with the constructive principles employed by Schoenberg and his pupils.
The trend towards an ever tighter integration of the musical material which finds expression in both details and the overall structure of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies is taken to a logical conclusion in the Seventh, which is in one long movement. In his disposition of the 25 minutes of music Holmboe succeeds in combining the traditional symphony's varying tempi and expressive modes in a simple passage, combining unity and multiplicity in an original manner. The symphony consists of three main sections which alternate with three so-called intermezzi whereupon a coda ends the movement. The musical material is derived from the same scale that formed the basis of the Sixth Symphony's second movement.
The symphony starts with a markedly rhythmic motif which, Iike the motto in the second movement of the Sixth. Symphony, pervades the whole work. It works as an initial figure, a starter, and appears again at the links between the various sections. The introductory Allegro con fuoco is dominated partly by lively scale-passages in triplets and partly by sweeping melodic lines. After the first intermezzo which works with a simple chorale-like motif, a broadly painted Adagio follows introducing new melodic material. After the second intermezzo, there is a scherzo section which gradually exposes the motivic relationships of the two preceeding sections through the use of the rnetamorphic principle which finds its full development here. The symphony is concluded with the third intermezzo and a coda which recalls the signal-like beginning of the work.
Picture: "Aktæon" (1937) by Danish artist Axel Salto.
Source: tinyurl.com/2xqnmanb
To check the score: tinyurl.com/22mzf6h3
