vagn gylding holmboe (, 20 december 1909, horsens, jutland&nbsp;&ndash; 1 september 1996, ramlÃ¸se) was a danish composer and teacher who wrote largely in a neo-classical style (rapoport 2001). ==life==  at the age of 16, holmboe began formal music training at the royal danish academy of music in copenhagen on the recommendation of carl nielsen. he studied under knud jeppesen (theory) and finn hÃ¸ffding (composition). after finishing his studies in 1929 he moved to berlin where, for a short period, ernst toch became his teacher (rapoport 2001). in 1933, he married the romanian pianist meta graf. after moving back to denmark in 1934, he taught at various institutions, including the royal conservatory in copenhagen from 1950 to 1965. his students included per nÃ¸rgÃ¥rd, ib nÃ¸rholm, bent lorentzen, arne nordheim, egil hovland and alan stout.  ==music==   holmboe composed about 370 works, including 13 symphonies, three chamber symphonies, four symphonies for strings, 20 string quartets, numerous concertos, one opera, and the late series of preludes for chamber orchestra, as well as much choral and other music, in addition to some early works that never received opus numbers. his last work, the 21st string quartet, quartetto sereno, was completed by his pupil per nÃ¸rgÃ¥rd. he is considered to be the most important danish symphonist after carl nielsen. his music is characteristically tonal, and musical metamorphosis of thematic or motivic fragments characterize most of his works between the years 1950 and 1970 (similar to jean sibelius). his earlier works show the influence of east european composers such as bÃ©la bartÃ³k; his work also shows the influence of igor stravinsky, carl nielsen and dmitri shostakovich. ==major works== (m. &mdash; meta number &mdash; for metamorphosis. might also be said to be named after his wife, meta may holmboe... numbering system assembled by prof. rapoport. this information from the compositions of vagn holmboe.) *symphonies **sym. 1, for chamber orchestra, m. 85 **sym. 2, 1938&ndash;9, m. 107 **sym. 3, sinfonia rustica, m. 126 **sym. 4, sinfonia sacra for chorus and orchestra, m. 132 **sym. 5, 1944, m. 145 **sym. 6, 1947, m. 155 **sym. 7, 1950, m. 167 **chamber symphony no. 1, 1951, m. 171 **sym. 8, sinfonia boreale, m. 175 **sinfonia in memoriam, 1954-5, m. 185 **sinfonia i for strings, m. 194 **sinfonia ii for strings, m. 196 **sinfonia iii for strings, m. 200 **sinfonia iv for strings, m. 215 (kairos) 
1909_births 1996_deaths 20th-century_classical_composers Danish_composers Neoclassical_composers Royal_Danish_Academy_of_Music_alumni