Bjørn Fongaard

Bjørn Fongaard (1919-1980) was an important experimental composer in Norway during the sixties and seventies, but to some extent overshadowed by fellow Norwegian composer Arne Nordheim. His music was, and still is, seldom performed and few works have been recorded by other than the composer himself. Initially inspired by Hindemith, Schönberg, and Webern, a turning point in his style of composing came in the mid-1960s, when he decided to build a quartertone guitar as a reaction to the symphony orchestras in Oslo and Reykjavik refusing to perform his work. His interest in microtonality led him to further expand the instrument to what is known as the prepared guitar. The prepared guitar and a four track Tandberg recording machine was what constituted his microtonal orchestra “Orchestra Microtonalis" which was his main fo­cus of attention from the mid-1960s. This also functioned as a backing track for his 41 concertos for solo instrument and tape. Unlike many of his contemporaries he never manipulated, cut, or spliced the taped re­cordings, and therefore these tape parts also function as important docu­mentation of his unique soundscapes created with his prepared guitar.