Olav Fartein Valen (25 August 1887 – 14 December 1952) was a Norwegian composer, notable for his work in atonal polyphonic music.

He developed a polyphony similar to Bach's counterpoint, but based on motivic working and dissonance rather than harmonic progression.

He loved cats, nature and literature, cultivated roses (even developed an award-winning hybrid), and after losing them in a devastating freeze took up growing cacti.

[citation needed] In 1916, he returned to Norway and took up residence at his family estate with his mother and sister in Sunnhordland where he started the most productive phase of his career, churning out more than 25,000 piano etudes (though they are not among his official works)[citation needed], while continuing to refine his own dissonant counterpoint.

After his mother's death, Valen traveled to Rome and Paris during the 1920s, gaining much inspiration from the wealth of art and architecture there.