Born: Nov 24, 1911 in Uusikaarlepyy, Finland
Died: Apr 24, 2006
Genre: Choral Music, Chamber Music, Vocal Music

Bergman studied at the Helsinki Conservatory, with Tiessen at the Hochschule fur Musik and studied serialism with Vogel in Ascona. He abandoned romanticism in favor of serialism in the later 1940s. He uses it as a method with which to control intervallic colour rather than as a thematic principle. Bergman wrote many choral works. He employs techniques such as Sprechgesang and speech, sometimes for the whole piece. In his later works Bergman adopted an improvisatory, aleotory technique in strict form.

- Lynn Vought (All Music Guide)

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Erik Bergman,

Finnish, born 1911. Erik Bergman is one of the senior figures in Finnish music and has composed a large number and wide range of choral works, distinguished by their mastery of the entire spectrum of modernist choral writing. This achievement is perhaps best summed up in his 1988 opera The Singing Tree, which contains significant choral writing. To be fair, the Vier Galgenlieder (1960) for "Sprechchor" are not the most typical of his music, and I selected them here both for their contrast with the other pieces, and also (of course) because I admire their wit and have enjoyed performing them over many years.