Last year, Dacapo Records launched the digital EMP Series, presenting landmark, rare, and previously unheard recordings, that provides a renewed interpretation of Pade's works and places them in a musical context. Regular releases will continue until 2024, marking the centenary of Else Marie
Pade's birth.

On 7 April the second volume in the series, entitled EMP 2, will be released.

Glas Bead Games

The new digital EP presents the two purely electronic works Glasperlespil I and II (Glass Bead Game I and II) composed in 1959. The works are partly inspired by the novel The Gass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse (1943) and partly from the actual game which Pade had played with when she was young. The
toy had the form of a frame with 12 by 12 compartments in which variously coloured glass beads could be placed to form infinitely varied and complex patterns.

In both works, Pade applies the game's principle from the toy to her musical composition: she sets up twelve 12-tone rows, each with 12 tones, and varies them in different combinations throughout the work. The music is characterised by short Morse Code-like sine tone beeps and has a minimalist and cool musical
expression which gives the works a modern sound, reminding us of contemporary electronic music

Glass Bead Game II had a particular importance for Else Marie Pade in the long run, as she played the work for Karlheinz Stockhausen when he visited
Denmark in 1961. He asked for a tape copy of the work, and subsequently used it in his teaching, giving Pade collegial approval of her music from one of
the most important electronic music composers of her time.

Mangefacetteret talent

Else Marie Pade (1924-2016) is known as a pioneer of electronic music and musique concrète in Denmark. Her output as a whole, however, draws a picture of a rare combination of genres, including both minimalistic electronic works, popular songs, background sound effects for radio and modernist classical works.

This broad musical practice testifies that her compositional talent was exceptionally multifaceted and complex. However, the great public interest in Pade’s electronic music has meant that her other classical and popular output is little known, and much of it has only existed in Pade's home as sheet music.

Last year, the album The Orchestral Works was released on Dacapo Records, presenting for the first time recordings of Pade's acoustic orchestral works.