Nature Boy

If you’re a composer from a small country without a long tradition of great classical music—say, Denmark—and you want to reach the kind of heights that the Germans and the French have summited for centuries, there are two radical approaches you might take. The first is that of Carl Nielsen: burrow into yourself until you hit gold, producing an irreducible, sui-generis style that communicates your essential self. The opposite way would be that of Per Nørgård: open yourself to the world and absorb anything you find interesting, but without ever forgetting where you came from.