Swedish Musical Heritage - Knut Håkanson

Knut Håkanson (1887−1929)

Knut Håkanson, born in Kinna on 4 November 1887 and died in Gothenburg on 13 December 1929, was a composer, conductor and music critic. He was educated in philosophy and languages at Uppsala University and at the same time took lessons in harmony from Aron Bergenson, studied composition with Johan Lindegren, and later also with Ruben Liljefors − a student of Reger, and piano under Knut Bäck. In 1916 he returned to Rydboholm, south of Borås. Beginning in 1928 he became a groundbreaking music critic for the newspaper Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning.

Biography

(Svenskt Porträttarkiv)

Counterpoint ideal

It is high time to recall a composer who for a hundred years has been misunderstood, both by musicians and the public, as a national romanticist − but he was in his heart and soul a supporter of the new objectivity with contrapuntal ideals, in his music to some extent related to Max Reger and in keeping with such composers as Nielsen, Sibelius and Stenhammar (although harsher and darker than the latter).

Name: Knut Håkanson, born in Kinna in the region of Västergötland in 1887, resided for a many years in Rydboholm near Borås, and died in 1929. At that time he was a groundbreaking music critic at the newspaper Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning (GHT), an activity that was carried on by the composer Gösta Nystroem.

The misunderstanding about national romanticism was understandable. Håkanson had heard folk fiddling as an eleven-year old at Stockholm’s outdoor museum Skansen, and this was his first and a lasting musical ideal. He became a nyckelharpa (Swedish keyed fiddle) player, a violist, pianist, and studied music, languages, and philosophy. He also taught music theory, as well as building up the music scene as a musician and conductor in Borås.

His breakthrough came in 1923 with the work Svensk svit (Swedish suite) no. 1, written in a contrapuntal style in four movements, op. 18. The work, interpreted by the Kjellström Quartet as a string trio, came to be played in several Swedish cities as well as around Europe and in Australia.

Music critic

With the critic Håkanson we find a rare, consummate and odd aesthetic consciousness. He denounced extroversion, overly energetic passion, melodic sounds that intoxicate the senses, virtuosity and stirring musicianship: ‘For me, romanticism is once and for all a vanquished phase. It is best to let the axe fall and make a clean slate where any of sentimentality’s, lyricism’s, individualism’s and the me-culture’s demons stick up their delectable and enticingly sympathetic, but ultimately, toxic and devouring gestalts.’ With just these kinds of words − today often useful as roses from the critics − he becomes seriously urgent.

For a half-century his words have been buried in the archives of the GHT (and later in Göteborgs-Tidningen’s archives), however today his criticisms from that time are easily accessed through the publication Tonsättare Knut Håkanson som musikrecensent i Göteborg (Composer Knut Håkanson as music reviewer in Gothenburg), by fellow violist, Bengt Andersson, who played in the Gothenburg Symphonics. In a 200-page cross-section of articles – including comments – we encounter an incessantly brilliant truth-teller, just as explosive and valid today.

Håkanson was hired at GHT at the beginning of 1928 as the successor to music journalist Julius Rabes, after having been a critic at the Helsingborgs-Posten for a couple of years. Håkanson did not care for the Gothenburg he had come to and longed for home in Rydboholm:

To be in the beautiful city of opportunities sounds quite fine. But, but, damn, damn the devil for large cities, their empty silliness and unproductively critical people! Gothenburg is just a large, small town, but it disgusts me. Everything runs out or crumbles away in chatter, gossip, mocking criticism and defamation. No, thankfully I know the countryside’s solitude, by the sound of the river’s rapids in the coniferous forest, in ‘the Temple’s’ shadow, under the starlight.

A letter to his friend, Hanna Wahlborg. By the word ‘Temple’ he means the pavilion that he used for work as well as entertaining, which he built on the mountain beside the river Viskan in Rydboholm, accessible by a hanging bridge.

Håkanson’s anathema against his new, however transient, hometown came to be transferred in a similar way to his music. Seriousness could not be too much. In the face of the curse of the large city he quoted Vilhelm Ekelund: ‘Every authentic culture and education is provincial.’

He was significantly generous toward the older and younger composers who had his ear. Stenhammar (‘the highest artistic ideals perhaps that any Nordic artist could exhibit’), Sibelius, Nielsen and Berwald were praised. Schubert opened a whole world.

The counterpoint master Håkanson concurred, using Mahler’s words, that Ibsen and Dostoevsky were more important for a young composer than both counterpoint and theory. In contrast, another supporter of the ‘new objectivity’, Paul Hindemith (a decade before the discovery of the Måndagsgruppen − Swedish composers and musicians who met on Mondays to discuss modern music), is blamed for ‘a somewhat flat and formless improvisation’ as well as the cosmopolitan Philipp Jarnach: ‘sumptuous, melodically, sensuous intoxication to the senses and concreteness, as if made for a pre-wartime ‘upper ten’ and their fashionable parties.’

Against the late romanticism that Håkanson came to be compared to, his criticism was merciless. He saw in Kurt Atterberg ‘thematic continuity and consistency driven ad absurdum into a watered-down state’. He found Hugo Alfvén’s Symphony no. 4 to be ‘totally boring, Tristan, chromaticism, sequences and banalities in a perfect combination. I nearly fell asleep.’ Alfvén’ s ‘Midsommarvakan’ (Midsommar vigil) had a ‘pot-pourri character, dazzling but a bit shallow and cold’. Wilhelm Peterson-Berger’s music was described by Håkanson as having ‘jerky syncopations, garish glissando scales, banal octave rattling’. Peterson-Berger shot back calling Håkanson a dead, powder-dry, academic guild musician. He definitely was not that.

An odd figure

Håkanson was an odd figure in the Swedish music scene, in furs and a luxury car, coming out of Viskadalen’s textile nobility in a direct descending line from the industry’s creator, Sven Erikson. He was born and buried in Kinna, however he grew up in Stockholm where he first took in Swedish folk music at Skansen, later himself becoming a nyckelharpa player. In Bartók’s spirit, he early on transcribed a lot of Swedish folk music.

After graduation from Östermalm’s secondary school in 1906, he studied philosophy and languages at Uppsala University, while at the same time taking classes in harmony from Aron Bergenson, composition with contrapuntist Johan Lindegren and later also from Ruben Liljefors, as well as piano under Knut Bäck.

He decidedly rejected national romanticism’s ‘delusions’ about all the things that one believed were authentically Swedish. Swedish folk music was something completely different, ‘a living psychic reality of rare intensity, like grandfather’s harsh, abrasive contorted minor polskas’.

In the foreword to his 1926 Svenska inventioner (Swedish inventions) he wrote: ‘Strictly speaking, this previously named old melodic artistic line needs just as little filling in or supplementing as Bach’s solo sonatas.’ His other invention, op. 26:10, was based on a march from Uppland that he learned from his mentor at Skansen, nyckelharpa player Jonas Skoglund (1846−1931).

As a proponent of the new objectivity Håkanson rejected all of the homophonic chordal rhapsodies of folk tunes in his efforts to create ‘a music in polyphonic style, suited to our national individuality, that stands on its own’. He also distanced himself from the Schoenberg school and became increasingly antimodernist. He was called ‘a Bach in Swedish homespun dress’. The label misrepresented him. Even fewer people saw him for what he was, a man in spirit of Bach and Palestrina, a rebel, harsh and acrimonious.

During his later years he encountered serious setbacks. He was financially ruined by the 1920’s textile crisis, his wife, Omon, left him for his composer colleague Ture Rangström, and he suffered from a serious kidney disease.

Everything worked together so that in the 1920s he became ‘so awfully sceptical toward feelings and emotional life, everything vapid and sentimental’ that he, for several years, turned his back on all song composing: ‘What is a poem, a romance? In the happiest case: a pressed flower, a moment cast in stone. But even more often a coffin. Or worse: an immortalised lie!’

Nevertheless, it was precisely a song that was his ‘letter of indulgence before our Lord’, the choral work Brusala, written in the last year of his life during a night filled with back pain, kidney problems and angst: ‘So I lit and extinguished continuously and scrawled down the next section in the sketch book ... a swan song about my whole miserable life’s joys and sufferings ... about all that shall be extinguished.’

The poet, Erik Axel Karlfeldt, followed Håkanson from op. 1 to his death. Håkanson delayed a fourth kidney operation in order to compose his ‘many years of burning farewell’ in Kornknarr, sänghalm. After the operation he wrote his last works, some bittersweet Frida songs set to Birger Sjöberg’s texts, with a final date of 9 December 1929. On St Lucia Day, 13 December, he died.

Toward the end of his life he found the ideal interpreters of his music in the Kjellström Quartet and the singer Kirsten Flagstad. The eminent conductors who performed his music include Wilhelm Stenhammar, Armas Järnefelt and Issay Dobrowen.

Before the beginning of the autumn music season in 1929, he gathered his concern for the future of music in an article, ‘Musikrepertoarens standardisering’ (Standardisation of the music repertoire), ‘a phenomenon of today that threatens to ravage Sweden’s public music life into a few hobby horses and attractions’, while music’s spiritual values were neglected. The article is by no means less relevant today.

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Publications by the composer

Bibliography

Sources

Summary list of works

Orchestral works (Concert overture op. 10, Variations on Lomjansguten, Swedish suite no. 2, Divertimento op. 31, and more), Romance in folk tone for violin and orchestra, Sérénade dramatique for violin and orchestra, 2 string quartets, violin sonata, sonata movement for violin and piano, Swedish suite no. 1 for violin and piano, works for piano, songs with piano, works for choir (among others, Brusala and Skåne op. 33).

Collected works

Ballet
Mylitta, ballet music and suite, op. 9, as insert in M. Ippolitov-Ivanov’s Caucasian suite, 1918, also piano reduction.
Three ancient Greek dance intermezzi, op. 12, 1918.

Vocal works with orchestra
All works are for voice and piano or orchestra, where nothing else is stated.
Gunnars sång from Den fredlöse (A. Strindberg), 1907.
Som blommornas doft (W. Hagqvist), 1907.
Kvarnvisa (F. Vetterlund), op. 1:1, 1909.
From Idyll och epigram: Lutad mot gärdet (J.L. Runeberg), 1910.
De väntande (E.A. Karlfeldt), op. 1:5, 1910.
Det är söndag och vår (A. Wallengren), 1911.
Du livets eviga, röda flamma (Ola Hansson), op. 4:2, 1913.
Adagio religioso (Ola Hansson), op. 4:4, 1913.
På stranden (F. Vetterlund), for voice and orchestra, also in piano vocal score, op. 5, 1915.
Låt vara (G. Ullman), op. 7:1, 1916.
Förvisso (G. Ullman), op. 7:3, 1919.
Påsksång (G. Ullman), 1919.
Två dikter av Ola Hansson, op. 16, 1922.
To viser af Kongesønner (H. Rode), op. 17, 1922.
Skåne (Ola Hansson), for mixed choir, S-, A- and Bar-soli, with piano or orchestra, op. 33, 1928.

Other orchestral works
Romance in folk tone, for violin solo with piano and orchestra, 1910.
Serenade dramatique, op. 2, for violin and orchestra, two versions, 1914.
Festival march in G major, op. 3, for organ or piano four hands or orchestra, 1914.
Festival march in F major, for organ o piano or piano four hands or small orchestra, 1915.
Concert overture, op. 10, 1917.
Elegy for small orchestra, first for violin and piano, 1919.
Från Kullaberg, incomplete orchestral suite, op. 14, 1920.
Från hembygden, op. 13, orchestral suite, 1921-4.
Serenade for string trio or string orchestra with basso, op. 15, 1922.
Rhapsody over 16 Marbo songs, also in arrangement for brass sextet, 1922.
Swedish suite no. 1 in contrapuntal style in four movements, op. 18.
Swedish suite no. 2, op. 27, for orchestra or piano four hands piano.
Variations and Finale over a theme of Lomjansguten (Per Jönsson), op. 30, also arranged for piano, 1926−8.
Divertimento, op. 31, for orchestra or piano four hands, 1927.

Chamber music
Violin sonata B-flat major, 1906.
Sonata movement for violin and piano, 1908.
String quartet, 1911.
Pastoral for violin, cello and piano, 1914.
Minuet fantasy over two Scanian folk melodies, for violin and piano, 1916.
String quartet, 1917, first numbered op. 10, later changed.
String trio D minor, incomplete, 1917.
Twelve minor two-part Swedish inventions, op. 26, for violin and cello or for piano, 1925.
15 Scanian melodies, op. 32a, for two violins, or one or two violins and piano, 1927.
15 Hälsinge songs, op. 32b, for two violins, 1927.
Four old Dalecarlian hymns, for two violins, 1927.
Prelude and fugue, op. 34, for string trio or piano, 1928.
Andante with variations for string quartet, 1928, final fugue only begun.

Piano
Fugue and hymn, 1906.
Four piano pieces, 1906.
Sonata in E major, 1907.
Sonatine, 1907.
Menuetto, 1907.
Bagatell, 1907.
Andante con variazione, 1907.
Suite for organ or piano, 1908.
Two pieces for piano, 1909.
Etude, 1913.
Four fugues, 1914.
A congratulations minuet, 1921.
From Skogstemplet, piano suite, partly orchestrated as Från hembygden, 1921.
Midsommarkransen, also arranged for clarinet quintet, 1921.
Marbo songs, 16 dances and folk melodies, can also be played on violin, also as Rhapsody for orchestra and in arrangement for brass sextet, 1923.
Idyll and Elegy, 15 minor character pieces in two books, 1924.
Ten variations and fugue over the folk song En gång i bredd med mig, op. 37, 1929.

Songs
For voice and piano where nothing else is stated.
Spleen (Ola Hansson), 1905.
Geisterinsel (H. Heine), 1905.
Wie kannst du ruhig schlafen (H. Heine), 1905.
Violblomman (C. Snoilsky efter Goethe), 1905.
Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (H. Heine), 1905.
Wanderergesang (J. W. v. Goethe), 1905.
Törnrosa (B. Malmberg), 1906.
Ur Strövtåg i hembygden (G. Fröding), 1906.
En herde- och namnsdagsvisa, D-dur (E. A. Karlfeldt), 1906.
Beherzigung (J. W. v. Goethe), 1906.
Am Fluße (J. W. v. Goethe), 1906.
Tre sånger ur Ensamhetens tankar (V. v. Heidenstam), 1906.
Seguidilla (B. Jansson), 1907.
Se, allena har jag vandrat (K.-E. Forsslund), 1907.
Sid ikke i skyggen af kolde aar (N. C. Vogt), 1907.
Mitt hjärta (E, A. Karlfeldt), 1907.
Det sjunger i markerna (S. Johansson), 1907.
I natten (V. Rydberg), 1907.
Wie man durch die Fenster sehen (H. Heine), 1907.
Nachts in der Kajüte (H. Heine), 1907.
Skymningssång (G. Ullman), 1907.
Margrethes vuggesang ur Kongs-Emnene (H. Ibsen), 1908.
I ungdomen (G. Fröding), 1908.
Smaapiger (N. C. Vogt), 1908.
Aftonen (E. J. Stagnelius), 1908.
Flickan till sin älskare (E. J. Stagnelius), 1908.
From Idyll och epigram: När den sköna maj (J. L. Runeberg), op. 1:3, 1909.
En herde- och namnsdagsvisa, F-sharp minor/F-sharp major (E. A. Karlfeldt), 1909.
En vandringslåt (K.-E. Forsslund), 1911.
Skördesång (P. D. A. Atterbom), year?
Ingalill (G. Fröding), 1913.
Evige Eros (B. Gripenberg), 1913.
Hjärtestilla (E. A. Karlfeldt), 1914.
Till landstormen (E. Brogren), 1914.
I människornas hjärtan natten står (Ola Hansson), 1914.
De bägge viljorna (Ola Hansson), 1915.
Dragspelets hvinande (Ola Hansson), op. 4:3, 1915.
Den tvunget spake orda må (Ola Hansson), 1915.
Himlen är blå (Ola Hansson), 1915.
Erinran (G. Ullman), 1916.
Alla dem som vilse fara (G Ullman), 1916.
Gravölsversen (G. Ullman), 1916.
Sju songes (C. J. L. Almqvist), op. 6, 1916.
Sommar och september, five poems by F. Vetterlund, op. 11, 1920−1.
Majrim om Pim (G. Söderlund), 1923.
Caprifol, three poems by G. Ullman, op. 19, 1923−4.
När sommaren dör (G. Ullman), 1923.
Two poems by Ernst Norlind, 1924.
Ödevik (G. Ullman), 1924.
Danska bilder, four poems by Ola Hansson, op. 23, 1924.
Skånska slättstämningar, three poems by Ola Hansson, op. 24, 1924.
Three poems by Erik Lindorm, op. 25, 1924.
För barn och barnbarn, 12 minor songs by H. Hamilton, op. 28, 1925.
En liten serenad til prinsessan Lin (K. Håkanson), 1926.
Ska vi springa till Gömmeriland? (H. Hamilton), 1926.
Two poems: Öde (F. Vetterlund), Bildskäraren (V. v. Heidenstam), op. 29a, 1927.
Two songs: Till ett skönt barn (Vitalis: E. Sjöberg), Ett litet barn (F. Vetterlund), op. 29b, 1927.
Skymningsvisa: Nu bäddar snön (E. A. Kléen), 1928.
Hymn: Fullbordat är detta verk (K. Håkanson), 1928.
Three songs by E. A. Karlfeldt (Vad skall man sjunga, Gammal ramsa, Kurbitsmålning), op. 38, 1929.
Two Karlfeldt songs with piano (Song with barrel organ, Slottstappning), op. 40, 1929.
Budbärerskan (E. Lindorm), op. 41, 1929.
Five Frida songs (B. Sjöberg), op. 42, 1929.

Choir
All for male choir if nothing else is stated.
Sommar (K.-E. Forsslund), 1905.
I en poesibok (N. Herlitz), 1905.
Choir from Faust (J. W. v. Goethe), for mixed choir, 1906.
Die schöne Nacht (J. W. v. Goethe), 1906.
Frühlingsgruß (W. Müller), 1906.
Erinnerung (J. v. Eichendorff), 1906.
Psalm 442 Nu vilar hela jorden (P. Gerhardt), 1906.
Sverige (W. v. Heidenstam), for mixed choir, 1906.
Kophtisches Lied (J. W. v. Goethe), 1906.
I natten (V. Rydberg), 1907.
Vårvisa: Hör hur västanvinden susar (L. A. Lundh), trio for SAT, year?
I Mora (E. A. Karlfeldt), 1909.
Vandringssång (K.-E. Forsslund), 1911.
Vårhälsning (K. Håkanson), 1911.
Hemma (B. Gripenberg), 1911.
Livets välde (E. A. Karlfeldt), 1911.
I Vorarlberg (Ola Hansson), 1914.
Gamla gardet (Ola Hansson), 1914.
Till landstormen (E. Brogren), for unison choir and piano, 1914.
Sommar i Sörmland (F. Vetterlund), 1915.
Skördesång (P. D. A. Atterbom), for mixed choir, 1915.
Two poems by Ola Hansson: Gavotte Louis XV, Gamla rytmer, op. 8, for three-part female or boys’ choir with soli, or male choir with soli, or mixed choir with S- and Bar-soli, or female choir with piano, 1916.
Requiem (Mässordinariet), for mixed choir a cappella, 1927.
Ten old hymns from Dalecarlia in old style (the older Swedish hymnbook), op. 32c, 1927.
Skåne (Ola Hansson), op. 33, for mixed choir, soli and piano or orchestra, or a cappella, 1928.
Four Swedish folk songs, canon for two parts, 1928.
Kanon à 4 de Wikmansson, 1928.
Dansk kanon à 4 (Mäster Jacob), 1928.
Blomstervisa (E. A. Karlfeldt), double canon for four parts, 1928.
Barnens sång (A. Strindberg), canon for two parts, 1928.
Vad fordras främst av visan? (A. T. Gellerstedt), canon for three parts, 1928.
Färdvisa (A. T. Gellerstedt), canon for three parts, 1928.
Kan om fröjd och lust du sjunga? (A. T. Gellerstedt), canon for four parts, 1928.
Kyrie in canon form (Mässordinariet), for four-part female choir with soli, 1928.
De profundis (Psalt. 130), for mixed choir a cappella, year?
Motet: Ur djupen ropar jag till dig, o Herre (Psalt. 130), for mixed choir, 1928.
Four Karlfeldt songs in canon form for two parts and piano, 1928.
Dalmarsch (E. A. Karlfeldt), canon for three parts, 1928.
Två gamla sjömansvisor, for mixed choir or male choir, 1928.
Two boys’ choirs for Körsångsboken: Julkänning (F. Nycander), När kommer våren (A. M. Roos), 1929.
Four Madrigals (M. Opitz, L. Wivallius, S. Columbus), op. 36, for mixed choir a cappella, 1929.
Three Karlfeldt choirs: Brusala, Stjärngossar, Kornknarr, sänghalm, op. 39, for mixed choir a cappella, 1929.
Five Frida songs, attempt in Birger Sjöberg’s style (B. Sjöberg), op. 42, for mixed choir, 1929.

Folk music arrangements
Polska or herding tune from Virestad, Småland, Stackars lilla Annersa, after Mattias Eriksson, for violin and piano, 1903.
Wedding march from Hållnäs, Uppland, after Mattias Eriksson, for piano, 1904.
Skommarfar’s songs, 7 melodies after Skommar-Anders Persson, for piano, 1916.
Intermezzo, two Dalecarlian songs after Skommar-Anders, for violoncello and piano, 1916.
Marbo songs, 16 dances and folk melodies, for piano or violin, also arranged for brass quartet, and as rhapsody for orchestra, 1923.
Twelve minor two-art Swedish inventions over two walking tunes and ten polskas in contrapuntal style, for violin and violoncello, or for piano, 1925.
Six waltzes of Lomjansguten, for piano, 1926.
Three songs for two violins, 1926.
15 Scanian melodies, for two violins with or without piano, op. 32a, 1927.
15 Hälsinge songs for two violins with or without piano, op. 32b, 1927.
Four old Dalecarlian hymns, for two violins, 1927.

Transcriptions of other composers
J. S. Bach: Bourrée and Gigue, Menuetto I (BWV. 1006), for piano, op. 21a, 1924.
J. S. Bach: Prelude, Saraband, Gigue (BWV.1010), for piano, 1924.
L. v. Beethoven: Marcia funebre from Piano sonata, op. 26, for small orchestra, 1916.
L. v. Beethoven: Rondo C major, for violin and viola, 1916.
C. Debussy: La fille aux cheveux de lin, for orchestra, 1916.
J. Eriksson: Two dances in folk tone, op. 36:1−2, for violin and orchestra, 1918.
E. W. Korngold: Das Märchen spricht den Epilog, op. 3:7, for orchestra, 1916.
F. Schubert: Marsch Hongroise and Kindermarsch, for small orchestra, 1916.
F. Schubert: Der Zwerg (M. v. Collin), for voice and orchestra, 1928.
R. Schumann: Papillon, for small orchestra, 1916.
A. Söderman: (4) Fantasies à la Almqvist, for orchestra, 1916.

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