David Monrad Johansen was educated in Oslo and Berlin, and around 1920 travelled on a scholarship to Paris in order to study the newer trends of European music-Debussy,Ravel,Stravinsky. He was also a great admirer of Edvard Grieg,about whom he wrote a fine biography, and became a important crtic in Oslo. He composed a several large-scale works with texts from Norse Literatur. In 1930s, aftar an extended stay in Berlin studying counterpoint, he began to learn more towards neo-classicism. His most famous work from that time is Pan for orchestra (1939) inspired by Knut Hamsun`s novel. Monrad Jihansen was a fine pianist and wrote well for his instrument. The suite "Nordlandsbilder" was written in 1918 and 1919,and its first movement is a kind of m musical porttrait of a heroine from a Norwegian Novel. "The little stone god" is a reflection on a service of an obscure Christian sect. Tough "Reindeer" is not, in teh composers words, "an objective despriction" of a large herd of deer, it nevertheless illustrates in musical terms how the deer become frightened,scatter,and then come together again,before disappearing,leaving only their hoof marsk behind. The last movement "mot fedrenes fjell" ( Towards the mountains of my forefathers)evokes one`s feeling returning to Nordland Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.