Born in the Norwegian town of Stavanger, Fartein Valen studied the organ and composition in Oslo before joining the Berlin Musikhochschule, where he was a pupil of Max Bruch and then Leopold Carl Wolf. He returned to Norway in 1916 where he taught and then served as music librarian at Oslo University. After a fruitful six-month scholarship to Mallorca he was finally awarded a state pension that enabled him to devote himself to composition.

Music
Valen’s major works date from the later part of his life and include four symphonies and concertos for violin and for piano. His chamber music includes a Violin Sonata and two string quartets, and he also wrote vocal and keyboard music. In style he moved from late Romanticism to compositions influenced by Schoenberg and Berg, exploring the possibilities of atonal polyphony.