Lars Johan Werle (23 June 1926 – 3 August 2001) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Life and career

Werle was born in

Gävle Gävle ( ; ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city in Sweden, the seat of Gävle Municipality and the capital of Gävleborg County. It had 79,004 inhabitants in 2020, which makes it the List of cities in Sweden, 13th-most-populated city in Sweden. I ...

, Sweden, and taught himself how to compose, before going on to study

musicology Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, ...

at the

University of Uppsala Uppsala University (UU) () is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially founded in the 15th century, the university rose to s ...

from 1948 to 1950, and then

counterpoint In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...

with

Sven-Erik Bäck Sven-Erik Bäck (16 September 1919 – 10 January 1994) was a Swedish composer of classical music. He was born in Stockholm. Bäck studied from 1939 until 1943 in the King's Music-Academy and from 1940 until 1945, was a composition student of ...

from 1949 to 1952 He sang in the chorus Bel Canto, was active as a jazz musician, and worked as a producer for

Swedish Radio Sveriges Radio AB (; "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a licensing fee, the level of which is dec ...

from 1958 to 1970, after which he took a professorship at the National Music Drama School, and then at the Gothenburg Music Academy starting in 1977. Werle was known for his avant-gardist, post- Webernian composition ''Pentagram'' for string quartet that won first prize at the Gaudeamus Festival in

Bilthoven Bilthoven is a village in the Netherlands, Dutch province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. It is a part of the municipality of De Bilt. It has a railway station with connections to Utrecht (city), Utrecht, Amersfoort and Baarn. It is home to the Ne ...

in 1960. He became known for his vocal and choral music, as well as his operas, such as ''Drömmen om Thérèse'' and "Resan", the latter of which he made with

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

group

Mecki Mark Men Mecki Mark Men (MMM for short) were a Swedish rock band fronted by keyboardist Claes "Mecki" Bodemark. The group originally formed as a ''dansband'' in the mid-1960s, then called Mecki Mark Five, before adopting elements of psychedelic rock, jaz ...

. Werle also scored the films of

Ingmar Bergman Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film and theatre director and screenwriter. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential film directors of all time, his films have been described as "profoun ...

Persona A persona (plural personae or personas) is a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. It is also considered "an intermediary ...

'' and ''

Hour of the Wolf ''Hour of the Wolf'' () is a 1968 Swedish psychological horror and Folk horror film directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann. The story explores the disappearance of fictional painter Johan Borg (von Sydow), who ...

.''

Selected works

Orchestra

* ''Sinfonia da camera'' (1961) * ''Summer Music'' for piano and strings (1965) * ''Zodiac'', ballet score (1966) * ''Vaggsång för jorden (Lullaby for the Earth)'' (1977)

Chamber

* ''Pentagram'' for string quartet (1960)

Vocal

* ''Nattjakt (Night Hunt)'' for soprano and orchestra (1973) * ''Smultronvisa'' for voice, flute and strings (1976)

Opera

* ''Drömmen om Thérèse (Dreaming about Thérèse)'' (1964) * ''Resan (The Journey)'' with

(1969) * ''Tintomara'' (1973)

References

Sources

*
Work List
1926 births 2001 deaths Swedish composers Swedish male composers Gaudeamus Composition Competition prize-winners People from Gävle Uppsala University alumni Litteris et Artibus recipients 20th-century Swedish male musicians {{Sweden-composer-stub