Folke Strømholm

Born in 1941, belongs to the generation that began to make itself heard in the mid-sixties. In addition to studying composition privately with Kolbjørn Ofstad, Strømholm received his fundamental education in music at the Oslo Conservatory of Music and the University of Oslo. He has also studied electronic music in London and The Hague, but he himself has never composed for the electronic medium. In his tone language he has adopted ideas from avant-garde music — especially elements of contemporary notation — but by and large he has been highly critical of many aspects of contemporary modes of musical expression. For several years Strømholm was the regular music critic of the Oslo newspaper Verdens Gang. Of his 36 compositions more than one-third are for solo piano, but he has also written various vocal works, chamber music — including two wind quintets — a piano concerto, and several orchestral works. It was in the years from 1966 to 1969 that Strømholm first made the acquaintance of the Sámi joik: this was while he was teaching music at the Tromsø Teachers Training College. ”Norwegian folk music” in the artistic sense is generally synonymous with songs and Hardanger-fiddle music from southern Norway. Gradually, however, an interest has developed in typical Sámi folk music, and Strømholm was the first composer to make appreciable use in his works, and in a personal and distinctive manner, of the Sámi chant, the joik. He has made use of the joik in several of his compositions —the first of them Sámi Overture (1969)— and the monotone character of this chant has subsequently exercised an abiding influence on Strømholm´s own style.