gjennomkomponert

Gjennomkomponert, or through-composed, is a musical form in which the music is not built from repeating sections or stanzas. Instead, new music is written for each part of the text or for each moment in the music, allowing continuous development that follows the narrative or mood. There is no fixed refrain or recurring melodic idea that underpins every stanza.

In vocal music, gjennomkomponert settings aim to mirror the text’s imagery and emotional progression. They often change tempo, key, texture, and musical material to reflect shifts in scene or feeling, rather than returning to an identical verse. This approach is especially common in Romantic art songs (Lieder), where poets’ texts frequently move through distinct atmospheres. A classic example is Schubert’s Erlkönig, frequently described as through-composed because the music continually evolves with the poem’s drama. Other composers associated with through-composed settings include Schumann, Brahms, and Hugo Wolf.

Beyond songs, the term can apply to instrumental music that develops material without returning to an earlier, fixed section. In such works, musical ideas are explored and transformed as the piece unfolds, often in a programmatic or narrative context.

Gjennomkomponert is a standard concept in music theory discussions in Norwegian, where the emphasis is on how text, program, or narrative drives the musical material forward rather than the repetition of established musical blocks.