Biography
Paul Ludvig Irgens-Jensen (April 13, 1894 – April 11, 1969) was a Norwegian twentieth-century composer.
Irgens-Jensen studied piano with Nils Larsen while a philology student at the University of Oslo. He began composing in 1920, and the radical nature of his work attracted some interest. Irgens-Jensen's oratorio Heimferd (for solo choir and orchestra) won first prize in a national competition, and is considered a national monument of sorts for Norway. The song Altar is one of his most familiar works.
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During the Second World War, Irgens-Jensen composed several songs and orchestral works to patriotic texts; due to the restrictions imposed by the Nazis, these works had to be distributed anonymously and illegally. Irgens-Jensen is often characterized as a neo-Classical composer.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.