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never be played again. The context that gave it its meaning
has vanished.”
When Porkell Sigurbjomsson was presented in Musica
Nova in 1960, one paper pointed out that he was the son of
Sigurbjom Einarsson, the then Bishop of Iceland. His cultural
inheritance and environment was thereby clearly illuminated.
Sigurbjorn Einarsson is a prominent religious historian,
religious poet and initiator of the two largest church building
projects in modern time - Hallgrfm’s Church in Reykjavik
and the new church in Skalholt. Porkell Sigurbjomsson is
thus the product of a rich, cultural environment that gave the
opportunity of gleaning knowledge about the history of
Iceland and its people from every possible angle: historically,
religiously, culturally, economically, musically, literarily and
traditionally. Such a store of knowledge is by no means
unique for Porkell Sigurbjomsson, but it plays a central role
in his music and actions.
At the same time, he is perhaps the most ardent spokesman
for placing Iceland - not least its musical scene - in an
international perspective. “What is independence? There are
two points of view. One is to assimilate the facilities that the
world has to offer to help us survive, as for example the latest
advances in technology, fishing, how to preserve protein,
how to use one’s knowledge so that one has the chance of
exporting it. In the field of music it is extremely important to
look for experiences and knowledge in the world at large.
Pall Isolfsson is a good example of a person who has brought
knowledge back home to Iceland. The other point of view is
to maintain that Iceland is different, to believe that the world
is just waiting for a Messiah from Iceland. Folk music -
blood - earth!”
His own path of education is representative of the first
point of view. As a teenager, he studied piano with the
Danish pianist Wilhelm Lanzky-Otto, who played horn in the
Iceland Symphony Orchestra at the beginning of the 1950’s.
He continued his studies with Ami Kristjansson, and also
studied the organ with Pall Isolfsson, music theory with
Robert A. Ottosson and history of music with Victor
Urbancic. Between 1957 and 1961 he was resident at
different universities in the U.S.A., the most important being
the University of Illinois, where he studied composition with
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