Church music has spearheaded major
new developments in music in Norway throughout the post-war period, in terms
of both musical innovation and institutional renewal. At the same time
church music composers have enjoyed growing popularity among musicians and
listeners alike. Trond H.F. Kverno has been an exponent of this tradition
since the 1970s, and his compositions are today among the finest and most
frequently performed in Norway.
Trond H.F. Kverno was born in Oslo in 1945. He took his degree in church
music from the Oslo Conservatory of Music in 1967. The following year he
took a degree in music theory and choir direction. He was ordained deacon of
music in 1975, and has served as an organist in a number of churches in Oslo
and elsewhere.
After beginning his teaching career at the Oslo Conservatory of Music in
1971, Trond H.F. Kverno transferred to the Norwegian State Academy of Music
in 1973, the year of its founding, where he has been a prominent figure in
the teaching of music theory. Since 1978 he has been senior lecturer in
church music and composition theory. He has been particularly involved in
the more creative, performance-oriented aspects of the latter, focusing on
liturgical organ playing, improvisation and composition for use in church
services. Since the introduction of a graduate programme in church music at
the Academy in 1983, he has also taught within the fields of liturgiology
and hymnody. In 1994 he was appointed professor in church music, with church
music composition as his main subject.
Trond H.F. Kverno has also gained national recognition in the latter field.
He was a member of the liturgical commission (1976-78) appointed to reform
the liturgical books of the Church of Norway. He has drawn on his experience
from the commission in the fields of composition and practical liturgy in
positions connected to the Oslo Cathedral and Gamle Aker Church, Oslo. Norsk
Høymesse 1977 (The Norwegian Morning Service) includes several melodies
composed by Kverno in its general series.
The liturgical commission was also responsible for laying the groundwork for
Norsk Salmebok (Norwegian Hymn Book), written in 1983. Kverno finds it
especially challenging to compose for gatherings with no particular musical
expertise, and regards every melody which is included in a songbook or
hymnal as a small triumph. In this respect he has a good deal to be proud
of: Norsk Salmebok of 1983 includes 27 of his hymns, and his compositions
are also to be found in hymnals in Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Germany.
Trond H.F. Kverno regards his career primarily in terms of his church music
accomplishments. In his view, the concept "absolute music" is a rare
occurrence, as most works are generally part of an ideological or aesthetic
context. The individual work may also reflect the person who commissioned
it, its users or its listeners. In Kverno's opinion, music performed in a
church differs significantly from that played in a concert hall: "The
performer is the entire congregation where everyone sings, or where some
sing while others pray. The congregation is also an instrument. The music
resounds through the faith of the universal church as an sacrifice to the
Holy Trinity. The goal is the congregation's prayer, rather than aesthetic
pleasure. The essential point is that the music hears us and interprets us
before the throne of God, not that we hear the music. This is the
fundamental assumption on which my work is based. I would liken my work to
that of the painter of icons, where each icon is a window to a reality other
than that which surrounds us."
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