Magnús Blöndal Jóhannsson (1925–2005) began his music studies at the Reykjavík School of Music, then studied at the Juilliard School of Music in New York from 1947 to 1953. He was the first Icelandic composer to employ serialism; Four Abstractions for piano was composed while he was still studying in New York. Jóhannsson was one of the founders of the Musica Nova collective in Iceland in 1959 and began to experiment with electronic music at around that time. His first electronic work, Electronic Study for wind quintet and piano, was premiered in 1960, followed by Constellation (1961) and Points (1962). After a period of silence, Jóhannsson returned to composition with a series of remarkable works around 1980, including Solitude for solo flute and Adagio for strings, percussion and celeste.