Format : Partitions
Fanfarer-Danmarks Radio for Orchestra BVN 351 was composed by Rued Langgaard in 1948. Instrumentation: 3.2.2.2/4.3.3.1/timp/2 perc/org/str. Parts are available on hire: hire@ewh.dk This extremely short orchestral piece was composed 7 May1948 in Ribe. Exactly between 5:45 and 6:45 in the morning(“normal time”). Rued Langgaard indicates the time of dayin both the sketch for the composition and the fair copy of thescore. Fair-copying of the score took place on 10 May 4:30 to6:00 in the morning (“summertime”) after it should be noted Langgaard had taken his obligatory morning constitutional inRibe (he suffered from insomnia and arose in the early morninghours). After the work’s final measure Langgaard wrote:“Short razor-sharp line of thought in music excluding allextraneous ‘developmental’ fussiness and with lightning fastmovement in all the parts”. The same day 10 May he sent thescore as program suggestion to the State Broadcasting Servicein Copenhagen under the title Denmark’s Radio Fandfare forGrand Orchestra – “fandfare” as a sarcastically meant spellingmistake with an allusion to “the Devil” (fanden = the Devil inDanish). Langgaard had as is known an ambivalent relationshipwith the State Broadcasting Service. The work was not acceptedand the score was therefore returned to Langgaard whonevertheless submitted it again. The State Broadcasting Serviceclearly regarded the piece as a joke from the composer’s side.When Langgaard died in 1952 the unperformed score was tobe found in broadcasting corporation’s music
