poet. On this occasion, Two Dances for string orchestra by the then nineteen year old Jon Nordal were given their first performance. Jon Porarinsson returned from his studies in the U.S.A. with Paul Hindemith in 1947. As a teacher, he used Hinde- mith’s method and theory, and among his pupils was Jon Nordal. His teaching is clearly reflected in the eminently playable Concerto for Orchestra that Jon Nordal wrote in 1949. Filled to the brim with Hindemith, he travelled in the same year to Zurich to study composition with Willy Burkhard and piano with Walter Frey. Jon Nordal was an important pianist for two or three decades and he gave many performances during the 1950’s. After completing his studies in Switzerland, Nordal found himself in a sort of composing crisis. During the following years, he composed very little. However, his production from this time does include a particularly fine Violin Sonata. He once again tried out a national direction in the very popular Seven Songs for male choir to old Icelandic texts. Another example of this style is the incidental music to one of the lesser known plays of Halldor Laxness, The Silver Moon, which he wrote in 1953. The lullaby Hvert orstutt spor from this work is his most well-known piece and is frequently sung and performed in different arrangements. With these works in mind, Bjarkamal, written in 1956, must be regarded as a wonderful show of strength and a synthesis of his past experiences. The work not only contains a genuine orchestral musical language, but also daringly tense and expressive melodic lines, stringent harmonies and thrilling polyphony. He shows here a trait that he often turned to in later works, namely an unwillingness to risk losing his listener’s interest by having pauses between the movements. The Piano Concerto, composed during the winter of 1956-57 is a far more elegant work in the Hindemith tradition. Jon Nordal spent a lot of time abroad during these years. He was in Paris and heard Pierre Boulez; he was in Rome and became familiar with Italian modernism. In the summer of 1957 he traveled to the famous summer course in Darm- stadt in West Germany. There he met Stockhausen, Luigi Nono, Bruno Madema, Gyorgy Ligeti, Bo Nilsson and Theodor W. Adorno. The latter repudiated Hindemith’s theor-

(1) Front Board
(2) Front Board
(3) Front Flyleaf
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(5) Front Cover
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(191) Back Cover
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(193) Rear Flyleaf
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(195) Rear Board
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(197) Spine
(198) Fore Edge
(199) Scale
(200) Color Palette