Bergman studied at the Helsinki Conservatory, with Tiessen at the Hochschule für Musik and studied serialism with Vogel in Ascona. He abandoned romanticism in favor of serialism in the later 1940s. He uses it as a method with which to control intervallic colour rather than as a thematic principle. Bergman wrote many choral works. He employs techniques such as Sprechgesang and speech, sometimes for the whole piece. In his later works Bergman adopted an improvisatory, aleotory technique in strict form.