Hans Abrahamsen: 'Wald' is sort of a variation series about the beginning of my woodwind quintet 'Walden'. The thematic idea is very simple: an ascending fourth-call and the answers of other voices. This is repeated several times, but since the call has a slower pulse than the answers, the order is finally being changed. The title of 'Walden' was borrowed from the title of the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau. He wrote about life in the wood, where the American philosopher spent two years. It was an experiment, the attempt to abandon all artificial, society-grown needs and to rediscover the oneness of the human being with nature. Although Thoreau did not undertake a detailed analysis of society, he was, in his comprehension of economy and ecology – the cyclic constitution of nature – way ahead of the times. 'Walden' was composed in a style of recycling and of 'new simplicity'. Unnecessary material was peeled in order to make space for other characteristics such as conciseness and clarity.

Born in Copenhagen in 1952, Hans Abrahamsen studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. His music is inspired by his mentors Per Nørgård and Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, who were two of his composition teachers, and in the 1980s he became close both personally and stylistically (partly through another period of study) to György Ligeti.

Abrahamsen is considered to have been part of a trend called the "New Simplicity", which arose in the mid-1960s as a reaction against the complexity and perceived aridity of the Central European avant-garde. Notable works include a piano concerto written for his wife Anne-Marie Abildskov, and the extended chamber work 'Schnee', where the paring-down of material appears to reach a new extreme.

In March 2013 Hans Abrahamsen had a two-day mini-residency at the Royal Academy of Music and in 2011 was shortlisted for the RPS Music Award for Large-Scale Composition for this work 'Wald'.