Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland

Árni Heimir Ingólfsson

Description

In Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland, Árni Heimir Ingólfsson provides a striking account of the dramatic career of Iceland's iconic composer. Leifs (1899–1968) was the first Icelander to devote himself fully to composition at a time when a local music scene was only beginning to take form. He was a fervent nationalist in his art, fashioning an idiosyncratic and uncompromising 'Icelandic' sound from traditions of vernacular music with the aim to legitimize Iceland as an independent, culturally empowered nation.

In addition to exploring Leifs's career, Ingólfsson provides detailed descriptions of Leifs's major works and their cultural contexts. Leifs's music was inspired by the Icelandic landscape and includes auditory depictions of volcanos, geysers, and waterfalls. The raw quality of his orchestral music is frequently enhanced by an expansive percussion section, including anvils, stones, sirens, bells, ships' chains, shotguns, and cannons.

Largely neglected in his own lifetime, Leifs's music has been rediscovered in recent years and hailed as a singular and deeply original contribution to twentieth-century music. Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland enriches our understanding and appreciation of Leifs and his music by exploring the political, literary and environmental contexts that influenced his work.

Acknowledgments

Note on Spelling and Naming

Introduction

1. The Land Without Music (1899–1916)

2. Years of Study (1916–1921)

3. Composer and Conductor (1921–1929)

4. Leifs and the Elements of an Icelandic Style

5. Icelandic Nation-Building and the 1930 Alþingi Festival (1929–1933)

6. "This Music Belongs to Us" (1933–1937)

7. Dinosaurs in Berlin (1937–1944)

8. Guilt and Retribution (1944–1955)

9. The Final Years (1955–1968)

Postlude: Revival and Influence

Appendix: List of Jón Leifs Completed Works

Selected Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Musique
• Histoire de la musique
• Europe
• Music
• Musician
• History of classical music traditions
• Multiple signal classification
• landscape
• Individual Composer

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 27 septembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253044068
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 13 Mo

Extrait

J N LEIFS AND THE
MUSICAL INVENTION OF
ICELAND
MUSIC, NATURE, PLACE
Sabine Feisst and Denise Von Glahn
J N LEIFS AND THE
MUSICAL INVENTION OF
ICELAND

RNI HEIMIR ING LFSSON
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2019 by rni Heimir Ing lfsson
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: rni Heimir Ing lfsson, author.
Title: J n Leifs and the musical invention of Iceland / rni Heimir Ing lfsson.
Description: Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2019. | Series: Music, nature, place
Identifiers: LCCN 2018049685 (print) | LCCN 2018051364 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253044075 (e-book) | ISBN 9780253044044 (cl : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253044051 (pb : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: J n Leifs. | Composers-Iceland-Biography. | J n Leifs-Criticism and interpretation. | Music-Iceland-History and criticsim.
Classification: LCC ML410.J73 (ebook) | LCC ML410.J73 A75 2019 (print) | DDC 780.92 [B] -dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018049685
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Note on Spelling and Naming
Introduction
1. The Land without Music (1899-1916)
2. Years of Study (1916-21)
3. Composer and Conductor (1921-29)
4. Leifs and the Elements of an Icelandic Style
5. Icelandic Nation-Building and the 1930 Al ingi Festival (1929-33)
6. This Music Belongs to Us (1933-37)
7. Dinosaurs in Berlin (1937-44)
8. Guilt and Retribution (1944-55)
9. The Final Years (1955-68)
Postlude: Revival and Influence
Appendix: List of J n Leifs s Completed Works
Selected Bibliography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THIS BOOK IS A REWORKING of my earlier biography of Leifs (pronounced Layfs ), which was published in Icelandic in 2009 as J n Leifs - L f t num . In the current version, I have eliminated much that seemed of limited interest to non-Icelandic readers while augmenting the discussion of Icelandic literature, landscape, and cultural identity. I remain indebted to everyone whom I thanked in the earlier iteration of the book, not least Hj lmar H. Ragnarsson, whose 1980 MFA thesis from Cornell University was the only serious study of Leifs s music when I began my research as an undergraduate at Oberlin College in 1996. Ragnarsson has provided unfailing support and encouragement and generously shared his materials and insights with me. The same is true of Carl-Gunnar hl n, the author of a Leifs biography that appeared in Icelandic translation in 1999 and then in the original Swedish in 2002.
Other scholars have been no less generous. sgeir Gu mundsson, Halld r Gu mundsson, and r Whitehead shared materials from German archives. Bjarki Sveinbj rnsson, Ingunn ra Magn sd ttir, Michael Hillenstedt, and Sif Sigmarsd ttir gave me permission to cite their unpublished theses. Two descendants of Josef Rindskopf, Albert Rode of Florida (United States) and Frederick Ridley of Liverpool (England), graciously shared their memories of the Riethof family in Teplitz. To the library staff at the National and University Library in Reykjav k, home to the voluminous Leifs archives, I owe an enormous debt. Also, my thanks to the staff at the National Archives (Reykjav k), Rigsarkivet (Copenhagen), Bundesarchiv, Stiftung Archiv der Akademie der K nste, Archiv Berliner Philharmoniker, and Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Berlin), Archiv Gewandhaus zu Leipzig and Hochschule f r Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Hochschulbibliothek/Archiv (Leipzig), the New York Public Library, Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library at the University of California (Berkeley), and Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library at Harvard University.
I am deeply indebted to Sabine Feisst and Denise Von Glahn, who originally requested this book for the present series; to an anonymous reviewer for thoughtful and constructive comments; and to the staff at Indiana University Press, especially Janice Frisch and Nancy Lila Lightfoot for their admirable patience and helpful remarks, as well as to Elise Vaz for her expert copyediting. My gratitude also goes to other colleagues and friends who have discussed with me various topics and ideas relating to Leifs: Alan Steinweis, Atli Heimir Sveinsson, Claudia Macdonald, Egill Gu mundsson, Finnur Karlsson, Helga Bahr, Helga Kress, Joel Sachs, Kimberly Cannady, Klaus Erlendur Kroner, Nico Muhly, Osmo V nsk , Oswald Georg Bauer, Paul Zukofsky, Petra Garberding, P tur H. rmannsson, P tur li G slason, Reinhold Brinkmann, R diger Kl ring, Selma Gu mundsd ttir, Sigr ur Steinunn L v gsd ttir, orkell Sigurbj rnsson, and rn Magn sson. Andrew Wawn kindly assisted with my own translations of Icelandic poetry, and ssur Geirsson typeset music examples. Extracts from Leifs s works appear by kind permission of the Iceland Music Information Center; translations by Bernard Scudder appear by kind permission of Sigr n Eir ksd ttir.
Support for the English version of this book came from Hag enkir (the Association of Icelandic Non-Fiction Writers) and STEF, the Performing Rights Society of Iceland. The music department at Harvard University graciously appointed me a Visiting Fellow in the 2014-15 academic year, which allowed me to complete the first draft of the English version. Last but not least, I am grateful to my family, who have endured life with Leifs for more than two decades and have been unfailingly supportive from start to finish.
NOTE ON SPELLING AND NAMING
THIS BOOK USES ICELANDIC SPELLINGS of all Icelandic names and texts. The special characters used to write Icelandic are preserved here, not transliterated to an approximate English spelling. The special characters used are the consonants (uppercase ) and (lowercase only), pronounced as the first sound in English thin and this respectively and often spelled with th or d in English transliteration. Also, [a ] and [ ] are considered letters in their own right, as are the diphthongs represented by acute accent marks over the letters [a ], [j ], [i], [o ], and [u].
In general, Icelanders employ a patronymic system in which the suffix - son or -d ttir is added to the genitive form of a parent s (most commonly the father s) first name. Although Icelanders refer to each other by first name, this book refers to them by patronymic and treats these in the same manner as family names. However, members of Leifs s immediate family (his parents, siblings, wives, and children) are referred to by their first names throughout.
J N LEIFS AND THE
MUSICAL INVENTION OF
ICELAND
INTRODUCTION
ICELAND IS A LAND OF extremes: of ice and fire, of glaciers and volcanoes, of majestic mountains and vast expanses of tundra and sand. In winter, the land is shrouded in darkness; in the summer months it is bathed in never-ending sunlight. In recent years, as Iceland has become increasingly known for fostering a vibrant culture of composition and performance, its music-whether classical or rock, ambient or experimental-has often been described in terms that associate it with the unique nature of its land of origin. The usefulness of such descriptions is often a matter of debate, but one native whose music certainly invites being heard in terms of nature and landscape is J n Leifs (1899-1968), the first Icelander to devote himself fully to composition. He was a fervent nationalist in his art, fashioning an idiosyncratic and uncompromising Icelandic sound from traditions of vernacular music. Many of his compositions depict local landscapes or set the nation s ancient literary epics, yet their style is strangely novel, and the raw quality of his orchestral music is often enhanced by a greatly expanded percussion section. In terms of the details of his style, Leifs has not had many imitators, yet in a larger sense, he marked the beginning of an internationally viable Icelandic music.
Leifs was a maverick in other ways as well. Along with other artists of his generation, he championed the assimilation of the Western tradition of art music in a country that had for centuries been virtually without any musical instruments or systematic music education yet wished to adopt such music as part of its effort to become a legitimate and modern European nation state. 1 Through his enthusiastic promotion of cultural exchange between Iceland and Germany, Leifs contributed significantly to this development. He procured talented German performers and teachers who made important contributions to musical culture in Iceland, and he organized and conducted a concert tour to Reykjav k with the Hamburg Philharmonic in 1926-the first concerts to be given there by a full symphony orchestra. He also fought tenaciously to secure composers rights in his homeland, founding both the Icelandic Composers Society and the Performing Rights Society as well as the Federation of Icelandic Artists.
There are thornier aspects to Leifs s career and his reception as a composer. He studied in Germany from 1916 to 1921 and lived there until 1944 with his wife, who was a Jewish-born pianist, and their two daughters. Although not a Nazi sympathizer, Leifs sought accommodation with the regime to a certain degree. His works were largely welcomed in the early years of the Third Reich due to a burgeoning interest in Nordic music as well as literature and mythology, but these doors closed after 1937, both because of his wife s racial origin and