Bo  Gunge
Photo: Helga Theilgaard

Bo Gunge

(1964-)

“Music and the non-verbal arts hold a knowledge of the world that can be useful tools in handling the inevitable and partly irrational intensities of life”.
— Bo Gunge

Bo Gunge occupies his own, singular space in Danish musical life characterized by music with attitude in both technique and language. Usually tonal and often melodic,  it is just as often spiked with refracted elements of the avant-garde and governed by rigorous principles. 

“Music must be able to move across historical periods and act in the present”, he once wrote;  “there must be a courtesy that goes beyond the personal and the historical, so that listeners can receive the music on their own terms.”

Commentators have long cited the expressive clarity in Gunge’s music, as if the ‘idea’ in question can be as much an emotional one as a musical one. That duality hints at some of Gunge’s working processes and structures, but it also tells us something about his own view of his role as a composer. “Music and the non-verbal arts hold a knowledge of the world that can be useful tools in handling the inevitable and partly irrational intensities of life”.

Bo Gunge’s earliest orchestral work, Passages (1999) was awarded at the Nordic Composers’ Workshop and premiered by Stavanger Symphony Orchestra in 2000. Since then his orchestral works have been performed by among others the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra and the Southern Jutland Symphony Orchestra. He has written three operas, several choir works as well as popular songs. His chamber music works include the award-winning Uden titel (2001) and 12 Studies (2014) written for three different instrumentations. 12 Studies was recorded and released at Dacapo Records in 2017.

Bo Gunge holds an MA in music and drama and graduated with a diploma in composition from the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus with Hans Abrahamsen, Per Nørgård, Karl Aage Rasmussen, Bent Lorentzen and Bent Sørensen among his teachers.

 

 

 

 

Available Works

  1. Studies – for saxophone & harp

    2014 • Bo Gunge

    2-6 Instruments

    Alto saxophone & harp

  2. 12 Studies – for violin & accordion

    2014 • Bo Gunge

    2-6 Instruments

    30 minutes

    Violin & accordion

  3. 12 Studies – for solo piano

    2014 • Bo Gunge

    Solo

    30 minutes

    Piano solo

  4. (Uden titel)

    2001 • Bo Gunge

    7+ Instruments

    10 minutes

    1.1.1.1/1.0.0.0/1.1.1.1.1

  5. Passage

    1999 • Bo Gunge

    Orchestra

    12 minutes

    3.3.3.3/4.3.3.1/timp/2 perc/arpa/12.10.8.6.4

  6. Bevæggrunde

    1994 • Bo Gunge

    7+ Instruments

    16 minutes

    fl, cl, perc, pno, gui, vl, vlc

  7. 3 etuder for strygekvartet

    1991 • Bo Gunge

    2-6 Instruments

    4 minutes

    String Quartet




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News

  1. New publications: 12 studies by Bo Gunge

    releases

    New publications: 12 studies by Bo Gunge

  2. Work Grants from the Danish Arts Foundation

    general

    Work Grants from the Danish Arts Foundation

  3. Significant work grants for Edition·S composers

    nominations / awards

    Significant work grants for Edition·S composers

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Calendar

  1. October 2022
  2. 2

    October

    Bo Gunge: 12 Studies

    location Hjerting Kirke, Denmark

    performed by Ulrich Stærk