Arne Dørumsgaard

Arne Dørumsgaard (7 December 1921 – 13 March 2006) was a Norwegian composer, poet, translator and music collector. He started his professional career as a composer, but is also known for his translations of Eastern poetry and for his large collection of sound recordings.

Early life Arne Dørumsgaard was born in Fredrikstad to teachers Peder Dørumsgaard and Kitty Hilda Kristoffersen. He initially took piano lessons in Fredrikstad, and later studied piano, harmonics, counterpoint, and orchestration in Oslo. He debuted as a composer already as a 13-year-old and had his very own composer debut evening at the age of 20.

Career Dørumsgaard wrote well over 100 songs to texts of Arne Garborg, Knut Hamsun, Hans Henrik Holm, Jacob Sande, Ragnvald Vaage, Arnulf Øverland, and others. He also wrote several piano works and a film score. In the 1940s Dørumsgaard worked as a music theory teacher and a newspaper music critic.

Recognition Dørumsgaard was a Norwegian state stipendiary since 1975. He was awarded the Bastian Prize in 1979, and was appointed honorary doctor of literature in Taipei University in 1982, for his work with the reproductions of the ancient poetry of the East. He was decorated Knight, First Class of the Order of St. Olav in 1994 for his work in music and literature.

Private life Dørumsgaard and pianist Tora Øwre married in 1942 and had two children. The couple divorced in 1946. He married lyricist and painter Nella Valenza in 1971.

After the second world war Dørumsgaard was upset by the way the Norwegian state treated Kirsten Flagstad and in 1950 started a self-imposed exile in France. He moved in 1968 to the village of Marzio in northern Italy where he lived until his death in 2006.