SR XLVII: "CLEAR!"

Musical career

In 1906, Valen moved to Oslo to study Norwegian literature and language but also took classes with Catharinus Elling (1858 - 1942) at the Oslo conservatory of music, graduating with a degree in organ playing. In 1909 he moved to Berlin to study composition at the Music Academy with Max Bruch who subsequently retired. While in Berlin, he worked on exercises in both tonal and atonal counterpoint and began to develop a polyphony similar to Bach's, but based on motivic working and dissonance rather than harmonic progression.

In 1916, he returned to Norway and took up residence at his family estate with his mother and sister in Sunnhordland where he started the most productive phase of his career, churning out more than 25,000 piano etudes (though they are not among his official works), while continuing to refine his own dissonant counterpoint. The counterpoint has similarities to that of J.S. Bach and Arnold Schoenberg, though evidence reveals that they were developed independently.

After his mother's death, Valen travelled to Rome and Paris during the 1920's gaining much inspiration from the wealth of art and architecture there. His work became more controversial among many conservative critics, much to Valen's disappointment. In 1924 he returned to Oslo and from 1927 to 1936 worked as a musical archivist at the University of Oslo. In 1935 the government gave him a semi-permanent grant for composers. He quit teaching and moved back to Sunnhordland into the care of his sister and began to compose full time.

After 1948, his work began to gain greater recognition, both within Norway and outside. Among others, pianist Glenn Gould became a great admirer of Valen and said at the recording of Fartein Valen's piano sonata no 2, "For the first time in many years I have found a looming personality in the 20th century's music". Valen never married. He died in 1952 at Haugesund.