UC Irvine

When Danish composer Per Nørgård discovered the visually arresting sketches of the schizophrenic Swiss artist Adolf Wölfli in 1979, he felt as though his vision of an “ideal world” had been challenged and thus became completely engrossed in the life and works of Wölfli. Nørgård’s works written between 1979 and approximately 1986 are known as his “Wölfli works,” for they each take inspiration from the fractal construction of Wölfli’s sketches and the spontaneity of his poetry. At the heart of these works is the notion of conflict between idyll and catastrophe, musically expressed through abruptness, fragmentation, and overlapping thematic material. This thesis unearths how Nørgård captured Wölfli’s essence in his work through musical analyses of three Wölfli works in tandem with scholarly literature, psychiatric reports, and artistic interpretations of Wölfli’s life and work. The thesis discusses Wie ein Kind, Nørgård’s first Wölfli work; the Fourth Symphony, based on Wölfli’s unfinished book of musical compositions; and the opera Det Guddommelige Tivoli, which brings Wölfli and the figures of his imagination to life. Each discussion demonstrates Nørgård’s growing infatuation with Wölfli’s world, highlighting one of the most unique periods of Danish modernism and advancing the dialogue on Nørgård’s vast musical output.