Poul Ruders


Poul Ruders is a Danish composer.

Life

Ruders trained as an organist, and studied orchestration with Karl Aage Rasmussen. Ruders's first compositions date from the mid-1960s. Ruders regards his own compositional development as a gradual one, with his true voice emerging with the chamber concerto, Four Compositions, of 1980. His notable students include Marc Mellits.
Writing about Ruders, the English critic Stephen Johnson states: "He can be gloriously, explosively extrovert one minute – withdrawn, haunted, intently inward-looking the next. Super-abundant high spirits alternate with pained, almost expressionistic lyricism; simplicity and directness with astringent irony."
Minor planet 5888 Ruders discovered by Eleanor Helin and Schelte J. Bus is named after him.

Music

Ruders has created a large body of music ranging from opera and orchestral works through chamber, vocal and solo music in a variety of styles, from the Vivaldi pastiche of his first violin concerto to the explosive modernism of Manhattan Abstraction.
Other works include the operas Tycho, The Handmaid's Tale, Proces Kafka/Kafka's Trial, and Selma Ježková, five symphonies, four string quartets, Violin Concerto No. 1, Etude and Ricercare for guitar, for David Starobin, The Bells with Lucy Shelton, soprano, and the Christmas Gospel and two piano sonatas; Abysm for Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. Ruders has written several works for the American guitarist and promoter of new music David Starobin: Psalmodies and Paganini Variations for guitar and orchestra, and Psalmodies Suite, Etude and Ricercare and Chaconne for solo guitar. Ruders has composed a Concerto in Pieces, which is a set of variations on the "Witches' Chorus" from Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas.
His fourth symphony, An organ symphony, was a joint international commission by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. The world premiere took place in the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas, Texas, 20 January 2011.