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Jon Porarinsson
its mark on the new modernistic poetry - “atom poetry” - that
came to the fore during the years immediately following the
war. These poets include Steinn Steinarr, Jon ur Vor, Stefan
HorSur Grimsson and Hannes Sigfusson. In painting and
music the new situation meant a turning away from
Scandinavia (and Germany) to the U.S.A. Musicians and
young composers now travelled to America to complete their
education. It is, however, meaningless to interpret this devel-
opment as a well-thought-out political standpoint. The choice
of places of study was governed to a large extent by financial
considerations. After the war, it had become both easier and
cheaper to travel to the U.S.A.
Even during the war years the American presence had
played an important role in the Icelandic musical scene. The
American soldiers owned gramophone records with Ameri-
can jazz. This meant that the music of such artists as Benny
Goodman, the Dorsey brothers, Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw,
Count Basie and Glenn Miller had been spread around the
island. But perhaps the influence of the different jam session
groups, some of which played modem jazz, played an even
more important role. In 1945, the Icelandic National Broad-
casting Service began broadcasting a regular jazz programme.
At about the same time, the alto sax player Kristjan Kristjans-
son started a sextet, which can be regarded as Iceland’s first
jazz group. Among its most famous members was the young
saxophonist Gunnar Ormslev. The development of jazz in
Iceland during the following decades lies outside the scope of
this book. The purpose here is merely to show that the
American occupation affected the musical scene as well as
the younger generation’s life style.
Jon Porarinsson (bom 1917) was one of the first composers
to travel to the U.S.A. He came from SeySisfjorbur in Eastern
Iceland but had studied music with Pall Isolfsson, Franz
Mixa and Victor Urbancic at the Reykjavik College of Music
during the 1930’s. When he wanted to travel abroad and
widen his perspectives, it was the middle of the war and the
traditional places of pilgrimage, Copenhagen and Leipzig,
were completely out of the question. Urbancic knew, how-
ever, that Paul Hindemith was working at Yale University at
that time, and suggested him as teacher. Jon Porarinsson
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