A piano was purchased, and both boys took lessons, with Per beginning at age seven. Nørgård loved to draw, but he especially enjoyed developing cartoon characters, and he and his brother would provide performances with the cartoons. Nørgård would draw the characters and write the music, while Bent would create storylines and text. They called them 'Tecnics.'
Nørgård was showing a strong talent in music at a young age, and in 1942, he was admitted to the Copenhagen Municipal Choral School. The school had a strong music program, but no grammar school, so in 1944, he was sent to the Frederiksburg Grammar School. Europe was in the middle of World War II, and often this affected Nørgård. On March 1, 1945, English planes bombed the French School in error. The Frederiksberg Grammar School was also damaged.
By the time Nørgård reached his teen years, music and drawing were his main interests. However, when he was 16, his brother was called into military service. Nørgård lost interest in working on cartoons without him and began to focus on music. He was a shy young man but was comfortable playing music in front of people. By 1949, at age 17, he was certain that he wanted to become a composer, and he wrote his first piano sonata.
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