Music
Pettersson's writing is tonal, but very strenuous and often has many simultaneous polyphonic lines. Most of his symphonies are written in a single movement, making them all the more demanding. Overwhelmingly serious in tone, often dissonant, his music rises to ferocious climaxes, relieved, especially in his later works, by lyrical oases.
Pettersson’s music has a very distinctive sound and can hardly be confused with that of any other C20 composer. His symphonies, which range in length from 25–67 minutes, are typically one movement works made up of successive stretches of music of varying rhythms and figurations. The effect is like listening to a gigantic toccata or chorale prelude. Sometimes the effect is predominantly that of dance-music, as in the Symphony No.9, which sounds for long stretches like a huge Mahler scherzo, sometimes the effect is grimmer, with march rhythms or angry declamation predominating, as in the Symphony No.13.
Pettersson maintains the listener’s interest by varying the sounds and moods of the different sections, so some are more lyrical, others faster and more angry. The architecture of his symphonies is built on similar thematic material emerging at key points in the work (rather than classical statement-development-recapitulation), by rhythmic vitality and tonal progression. Even though his symphonies are some of the longest single movement orchestral works ever written, they are intensely compelling. The effect they convey is of great vitality and unstoppable momentum.
Most of his music has now been recorded at least once and much of it is now available in published score.
Read more about this topic: Allan Pettersson
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