Born on 1st May 1937 in Skellefteå
His début as a composer in 1956 in Cologne caused a sensation, and the following year his work was played at the World Music Festival (ISCM) in Zurich. As well as composing instrumental and vocal music in an advanced technique, Bo Nilsson has worked with film music, incidental music, songs and jazz. He is also active as an author and published his memoirs “Livet i en mössa“ (Life in a Cap) in 1984.
His musical language is characterized by a fervent intensity and impetuous affection. The degree of intensity reached in the music is as surprising as the sensitive calm of the rests he interjects into his works. The forms he uses seldom contain a gradual build-up to a climax, but rather many sudden eruptions. The periods of calm are not long-lasting either, but moments of clear harmony and subdued nuances give the impression of wonderful caresses. Although he has composed many pieces for instruments alone, it is in his treatment of literary expression that he has shown his true genius. The trilogy based on the poems of Gösta Oswald is one of his artistic high points. The musical language is energetic, almost feverish. However it does not lack passages where the imagery is dreamlike and unreal. He has continued to search for the sensual, not least through the use of impressionism in his later works. One important source of inspiration has been the later poetry of Gunnar Ekelöf (Diwan över fursten av Emgion, Sagan om Fatumeh and Vägvisare till underjorden) which has led Nilsson to give his music an oriental colouring. These works (for example Nazm and Ayíasma) are further proof of Bo Nilsson’s infernal, exalted and eccentric artistic nature.

H-G P