When Leifur Porarinsson’s Trio for flute, clarinet and horn was performed at the Icelandic composers’ own festival in 1957, there was a special note in the programme that the trio was a twelve-tone work. Perhaps the twenty-three year old composer - Leifur Porarinsson was bom in 1934 - wanted to be regarded as a modernist, which he undoubtedly was, at any rate in comparison to most of his Icelandic colleagues. It was precisely in 1957 that he had completed his three years of study in Vienna, where the well-known twelve-tone theoretician and composer Hanns Jelinek had been one of his teachers. Leifur Porarinsson should therefore have been fairly well versed in the Schoenberg school. Icelandic composers were compelled to travel abroad in order to acquire such knowledge. In their own country, neither music nor books on the subject were available. Otherwise Leifur Porarinsson was not very forthcoming with information about himself or his music. When his Violin Sonata was performed at the ISCM festival in Stockholm in 1956, he simply called himself “Leifur” in the programme booklet, and in contrast to his verbose colleagues, he gave no explanation to his listeners. The sonata was at least well- received by some, and was especially praised by Karlheinz Stockhausen, even if it was superficially comparatively traditional. Leifur Porarinsson was actually a violinist. He had studied with the leader of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Bjorn Olafsson, and had for a time been a member of the same orchestra. However, he began to compose at a fairly early age. He studied theory with Jon Porarinsson, and wrote the songs that were performed at the Musica Nova concert in 1960 when he was only 19 years old. In 1954 he wrote a little collection of piano works, Barnalagaflokkur (for children). These show a strong influence from Bartok, although one can suspect a rather arrogant and unruly temperament, even here. The Violin Sonata mentioned above is conventional on the surface. It is in three movements (quick-slow-quick) and makes use of the violin as a romantic instrument. At times it almost tastes of Sibelius. However, it is also a personal work. The first movement is aggressive and unfriendly, the last is striking with its sharp contrasts and its surprisingly quiet ending. The Piano Sonata (1957) was classified by Jon Leifs Leifur Porarinsson 85

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