Torstein Aagaard-Nilsen

'Who can Sail without the Wind' is an old folk tune from Aland in Finland. I believe the song was one of the first one I learnt to sing and play on the guitar. The melancholic character of the song i...

When I was a music student in Bergen in the late 1980s, conductor, arranger, and educator Tom Brevik commissioned me to arrange two folk tune suites for all young bands. The idea behind the suites was...

When I was a music student in Bergen in the late 1980s, conductor, arranger, and educator Tom Brevik commissioned me to arrange two folk tune suites for all young bands. The idea behind the suites was...

Folk tunes were collected as a part of building Norway as a independent country. Fiddlers and folk singers learned from each other. In the early 19 hundredth recordings were used to collect tunes and...

Brout was commissioned by Jane Westervik and Krohnengen Brass Band for KBB Ung. A famous Norwegian folk tune is used in this fun piece. It's about a he-goat that was stolen and slaughtered. The fanfa...

Grim was commissioned by Sandviken Ungdomskorps in 1998. Grim is a folkloristic pastiche, but also with a jazz-flavoured inspiration. The piece ends with the folk-music played on top of a theme from a...

Poco Loco was commissioned by Krohnengen Brass Band for KBB Ung. The idea was that experienced musicians could play together with younger ones.The piece is built around a catchy yet simple riff, with...

Poco Loco was commissioned by Krohnengen Brass Band for KBB Ung. The idea was that experienced musicians could play together with younger ones.The piece is built around a catchy yet simple riff, with...

Arctic Funk might just as well have been a flashing sequel to a scene from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story. Popular music but with a difference, as indicated by the title. The work's quiet section...

A good friend of mine, trombonist and professor Jesper Juul Windahl commissioned me a trombone quartet. I then wrote Four Nordic Folk Pops. The last of the four is a Norwegian tune called Havard Hedde...

After composing 'Introduction' in 1989 and 'Entrada' in 1990, Aagaard-Nilsen received a new commission for a 'concert-opener', this time from Tromsø Brass in 1991. Tromsø is a city in the north of Nor...

'Introduction' is a short concert opener. I quote a couple of Norwegian Folk Tunes to make a musical picture of the Vikings running from the seashore to face a battle. They used to drink something mad...

A short concert opener. I quote a couple of Norwegian Folk Tunes to make a musical picture of the Vikings running from the seashore to face a battle. They used to drink something made of mushrooms to...

In November 2014, the conductor Peter Szilvay, on behalf of Christiania Wind Ensemble (Oslo), commissioned a piece from me. He was looking for a quite short piece of music, effective, intense and danc...

Arctic Funk might just as well have been a flashing sequel to a scene from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story. Popular music but with a difference, as indicated by the title. The work's quiet section...

A good friend of mine, trombonist and professor Jesper Juul Windahl commissioned me a trombone quartet. I then wrote Four Nordic Folk Pops. The last of the four is a Norwegian tune called Havard Hedde...

I was made aware of this beautiful wedding march in connection with a wedding in Lofoten, up north in Norway as I made an arrangement for quintet and altosax soloist. Later, I wrote an arrangement for...

Grand March by Ole Bull only existed as a piano arrangement of the three first parts. In 2010, when Ole Bulls two hundred years anniversary was celebrated in Norway, I made a reconstruction of the who...

Be Thou My Vision' is the eldest religious song from Irland used in Norway. The lyrics was originally written in Old Irish and translated to English in 1905 and versified in 1912. The text from 1912 i...

Hymn of Lofoten is composed by Dag Kajander from Kabelvag in Lofoten, a part of Northern Norway. Kajander is composer, singer and author of books for children. Hymn from Lofoten was written in 1979. T...

Lead, Kindly Light is composed by the English composer Charles Henry Purday (1799-1885). This arrangement was originally written for Brass Band to Norwegian band Hj(o/rungav(aog Brass. Purday was appo...

Edvard Grieg composed this funeral march in memory of Rikard Nordraak who died i Berlin in 1866. The work present both pompous and magnificent thems as well as melancholic melodies. The solemn funera...

The titles of this three-movement work are abstractions where visual experiences are thought to be recreated as music, i.e. an abstract presentation of a motif, similar to an abstract image where one...

Edvard Grieg composed this funeral march in memory of Rikard Nordraak who died i Berlin in 1866. The work present both pompous and magnificent thems as well as melancholic melodies. The solemn funeral...