Swedish Song

SWEDISH SONG / SVENSKA ROMANSER


The Swedish romans has been, until recently, a little known facet of the world of art song.  These songs unite the best of Swedish poetry and the unique musical sensibilities of the Nordic sound. They are beautiful, unique and a rewarding source of new repertoire choices for the adventurous singer or pianist. My introduction to romanser was a happy accident, and largely a result of my own curiosity and the help of a network of incredibly generous and knowledgeable people. All these serendipitous factors ultimately led to my research, teaching and performing of romanser, and my recently completed anthology. My research into this beautiful genre of art song began with my first trip to Stockholm in 1999, where, for a period of six months, I began my study of the Swedish language with Kerstin Larsson of Stockholm Universitetet and Svenska Nu, a Swedish language study organization. I have returned to Stockholm every year, twice supported by scholarly research institutions, first for five months as an American Scandinavian Foundation grantee in 2003, and then for five months in 2007 as a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the Kungliga Musikhögskolan (the Royal Conservatory of Music) in Stockholm. My anthology will be the first of its kind, a scholarly compilation of songs by the important Swedish composers of the late 19th and 20th centuries.  It will contain the following; Twenty-five songs by Swedish composers, representative of the best of the genre, and the most frequently recorded by world-class artists

  • Word-for-word English translations from the original Swedish texts
  • Phonetic and poetic translations
  • Guide to Swedish diction
  • Information about the composers and poets

I have chosen songs that are appropriate repertoire choices for the student singer as well as the professional concert singer, by the following composers:

  • Hugo Alfvén (1872-1960)
  • Gunnar de Frumerie (1908-1987)
  • Hilding Hallnäs (1903-1984)
  • Maurice Karkoff (b. 1927)
  • Lars Erik Larsson (1908- 1986)
  • Ingemar Liljefors (1906-1981)
  • Bo Linde (1933-1970)
  • Ingmar Milveden (b. 1920)
  • Gösta Nordquist (1886-1949)
  • Gösta Nyström (1890-1966)
  • Wilhelm Peterson-Berger (1867-1942)
  • Ture Rangström (1884-1947)
  • Wilhelm Stenhammer (1871-1927)

To listen to just a few of the songs featured in the anthology, please click on the following links.  I’ve included a line from each song text as it will appear in the book, showing the original text with the phonetic and literal translation. I hope these gems will prove to be a förätt, or appetizer, inviting further exploration of this rich genre.

Äppelträd och päronträd

by Bo Linde
Performance: "Watercolors" with Anne Sofie Von Otter, mezzo soprano

[audio:https://krolands.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Apple-trees-and-pear-trees.mp3]

ˈɛ̀pːəl͜  tɾɛːd   ɔkː     pæ̀ːɾɔn͜  tɾɛːd    ˈplʊ̀mːɔn͜  tɾɛːd     ɔkː     ˈbɪ̀ɡːaˈɾoː
Äppelträd   och   päronträd,      plommonträd   och   bigarå,
Apple tree    and   pear tree         plum tree           and    cherry tree

Du är min Afrodite

by Gunnar de Frumerie
Peformance: "Watercolors" with Anne Sofie Von Otter, mezzo soprano

[audio:https://krolands.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Du_ar_min_afrodite.mp3]

dʉ      æːɾ   mɪnː    afːɾɔdɪ́tɛ
Du      är    min    Afrodite,
You     are  my      Aphrodite

Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte

by Wilhelm Stenhammar Performance: "Nordic Romance" with Karin Ingebäck, soprano

[audio:https://krolands.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/flickan_kom_if_ran_sin_alsklings_mote.mp3]

kɔm       meːd    ˈɾø̀ːda    ˈhɛnːdəɾ
komː      med     röda    händer.
Comes   with      red      hands

Pan

by Ture Rangström
Performance: "Soul and Landscape" with Miah Persson, mezzo soprano

[audio:https://krolands.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/3-01-Claude-Debussy_-I-La-Flute-de-Pan.mp3]

ɔkː      mɪtː    ˈsɔ̀mːaɾ͜  bluːd     ˈʃɵŋːəɾ
och    mitt    sommarblod    sjunger!
And    my      summer blood   sings  


Read my upcoming article, “Romancing the Romanser: Exploring the Art Song of Sweden”, this fall in the November issue of The Journal of Singing, the official journal of the National Association of theTeachers of Singing.

You can also read more about my research here:
www.pepperdine.edu/pr/stories/2007/silverstein.htm.