Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Aarhus Symphony Orchestra conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes.
I - Allegro fluente (𝅘𝅥 = c. 112) - Meno mosso (𝅘𝅥 = c. 92) - A tempo I (𝅘𝅥 = c. 112) - Pesante - Meno mosso (𝅘𝅥 = c. 92) 0:00
II - Intermezzo I. Quieto (𝅘𝅥𝅮 = c. 96) 8:47
III - Allegro con fuoco (𝅗𝅥 = c. 96) - Con fuoco (𝅗𝅥 = c. 120) - A tempo (𝅗𝅥 = c. 96) - Meno mosso (𝅘𝅥 = c. 108): 12:46
IV - Intermezzo II. Quieto (𝅘𝅥 = c. 96): 19:38
V - Andante austero (𝅘𝅥 = c. 80) - Più mosso (𝅘𝅥 = c. 100) - Poco largamente: 23:41
Holmboe's Symphony No.9 was composed between 1967-8, being commissioned from the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. It was premiered on December 19 of 1968, performed by the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Herbert Blomstedt. The score was subsequently revised in 1969, being dedicated to famous French musician and teacher Nadia Boulanger. In the 1950s she visited Copenhagen on several occasions to give lectures and conduct, and Holmboe met her there. Structured in five movements, the work shows the composer's continued use of the Metamorphosis technique in a more concentred form.
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 Ninth symphony marks the beginning of the last, mature phase in Holmboe's symphonic output, a phase characterised, in the words of his younger Danish fellow-composer Karl Aage Rasmussen, by "a new transparency in the musical architecture and an almost Impressionistic refinement of tone colour". Structured in five movements with two alternating intermezzi, this pattern is similar as the three intemedios of the single-movement Seventh Symphony. It is music that is at once concentrated and expansive, austere and expressive, intensely concentrated and wildly ecstatic.
The first movement is rather free in form. It begins with the exposition of several motives such as pedal notes on oboe and ascending string figures. These gradually coalesce into a rarefied and rather abstract theme, which becomes the subject (or rather its fragmenting motives) of a series of continuous metamorphosic transformations, gradually changing and evolving in nuance, tempo, dynamics and orchestral colours. The music verges between moments of severe austerity (such as the central section) and almost expressionistic passages of great agitation. The allegro ends with an enigmatic coda that seems to recall the opening motives.
The second movement is the first intermezzo for a small set of string and wood soloists. It opens with sinuous and sinister ostinato figures on strings, soon in counterpoint with woodwinds. The music has a certain otherworldliness, remaining always on piano or pianissimo. The movement ends in the same rarefied way it has unfolded.
The third movement is rather diffuse in terms of form. It begins with bass clarinet introducing a motive over tremolo strings, which is the basis of the ensuing allegro con fuoco. As in the first movement, this material is subjected to development based on the Metamorphosis technique. Climaxes of great dissonance and ferocity alternate and contrast with melodic passages of austere expression. An imperious climax is reached near the end, followed by a slow and meditative coda that seems to end in a mysterious way before a sudden crescendo.
The fourth movement is the second intermezzo in form of an arch, otherwise very similar as the first but scored for solo strings. A long-drawn melodic theme is presented and unfolded in pianissimo, becoming more lyrical and expressive as the soloist turn more virtuosic. There is a certain Nordic quality in the music, perceptible beyond the austerity and restraint. An evocative fade-out coda ends the intermezzo.
[Musical analysis continued in the comments section]
Picture: "Reclining Woman" or "The Great Bather" (1922) by Léopold Survage.
Musical analysis written by myself. Source: tinyurl.com/287ddzxo
To check the score: tinyurl.com/28jczska
Aarhus Symphony Orchestra conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes.
I - Allegro fluente (𝅘𝅥 = c. 112) - Meno mosso (𝅘𝅥 = c. 92) - A tempo I (𝅘𝅥 = c. 112) - Pesante - Meno mosso (𝅘𝅥 = c. 92) 0:00
II - Intermezzo I. Quieto (𝅘𝅥𝅮 = c. 96) 8:47
III - Allegro con fuoco (𝅗𝅥 = c. 96) - Con fuoco (𝅗𝅥 = c. 120) - A tempo (𝅗𝅥 = c. 96) - Meno mosso (𝅘𝅥 = c. 108): 12:46
IV - Intermezzo II. Quieto (𝅘𝅥 = c. 96): 19:38
V - Andante austero (𝅘𝅥 = c. 80) - Più mosso (𝅘𝅥 = c. 100) - Poco largamente: 23:41
Holmboe's Symphony No.9 was composed between 1967-8, being commissioned from the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. It was premiered on December 19 of 1968, performed by the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Herbert Blomstedt. The score was subsequently revised in 1969, being dedicated to famous French musician and teacher Nadia Boulanger. In the 1950s she visited Copenhagen on several occasions to give lectures and conduct, and Holmboe met her there. Structured in five movements, the work shows the composer's continued use of the Metamorphosis technique in a more concentred form.
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 Ninth symphony marks the beginning of the last, mature phase in Holmboe's symphonic output, a phase characterised, in the words of his younger Danish fellow-composer Karl Aage Rasmussen, by "a new transparency in the musical architecture and an almost Impressionistic refinement of tone colour". Structured in five movements with two alternating intermezzi, this pattern is similar as the three intemedios of the single-movement Seventh Symphony. It is music that is at once concentrated and expansive, austere and expressive, intensely concentrated and wildly ecstatic.
The first movement is rather free in form. It begins with the exposition of several motives such as pedal notes on oboe and ascending string figures. These gradually coalesce into a rarefied and rather abstract theme, which becomes the subject (or rather its fragmenting motives) of a series of continuous metamorphosic transformations, gradually changing and evolving in nuance, tempo, dynamics and orchestral colours. The music verges between moments of severe austerity (such as the central section) and almost expressionistic passages of great agitation. The allegro ends with an enigmatic coda that seems to recall the opening motives.
The second movement is the first intermezzo for a small set of string and wood soloists. It opens with sinuous and sinister ostinato figures on strings, soon in counterpoint with woodwinds. The music has a certain otherworldliness, remaining always on piano or pianissimo. The movement ends in the same rarefied way it has unfolded.
The third movement is rather diffuse in terms of form. It begins with bass clarinet introducing a motive over tremolo strings, which is the basis of the ensuing allegro con fuoco. As in the first movement, this material is subjected to development based on the Metamorphosis technique. Climaxes of great dissonance and ferocity alternate and contrast with melodic passages of austere expression. An imperious climax is reached near the end, followed by a slow and meditative coda that seems to end in a mysterious way before a sudden crescendo.
The fourth movement is the second intermezzo in form of an arch, otherwise very similar as the first but scored for solo strings. A long-drawn melodic theme is presented and unfolded in pianissimo, becoming more lyrical and expressive as the soloist turn more virtuosic. There is a certain Nordic quality in the music, perceptible beyond the austerity and restraint. An evocative fade-out coda ends the intermezzo.
[Musical analysis continued in the comments section]
Picture: "Reclining Woman" or "The Great Bather" (1922) by Léopold Survage.
Musical analysis written by myself. Source: tinyurl.com/287ddzxo
To check the score: tinyurl.com/28jczska
