Life

Adrian Dahl grew up in Stockholm in a musical environment. His father, K. G. Dahl, was a judge, and known as a dedicated and extraordinarily interested friend of music. After graduating from secondary school in 1883 Dahl studied piano under Hilda Thegerström and harmony and counterpoint under Ludvig Norman and Wilhelm Heintze. He then continued his studies in Paris from 1886 to 1888 under Charles-Marie Widor, and Camille Saint-Saëns in composition and instrumentation.

Upon his return to Sweden Dahl continued with law studies in Uppsala, and in 1895 he became a notary public. However, his interest in music retained the upper hand and Dahl established himself first as a pianist and piano teacher, and later as a music critic in various newspapers, such as Social-Demokraten, Svenska Dagbladet, and Dagen, as well as a 20-year engagement starting in 1908 with Svenska Morgonbladet. At the turn of the new year in 1909 he, together with Agnes Ekholm, took over leadership of the Populärkonsertförbundet (Popular Music Society), which for a few years organised concerts with popular choral works and songs for the working class audience. The two choral works Styrbjörn Starke and Pastoral − both for men’s choir, solo song and with piano accompaniment − are connected to his activities here. In 1911 Dahl married the 23 years-younger Elsa Olivia Andersson.

Works

As a composer Dahl published 40-some compositions with assigned opus numbers, and as many without. Most of the compositions are for piano, and songs, with proportionally the same of both genres. The at times both technical and musically modest character of the compositions is anchored in the era’s demand for home music. Many of Dahl’s piano compositions were also published first as music supplements in Svensk Musiktidning between 1886−1892. Dahl’s modest musical ambitions are also evident in his works for men’s choir, which more than anything else have a practical, functional background.

Judging by the opus numbers and publisher’s numbering, Dahl’s most productive time as a composer was before the turn of the 20^th century. In a review of Tvenne pianokompositioner (the two piano pieces ‘Gavotte’ and ‘Etude’), composed by a 19-year-old Dahl (1883), his teacher Ludvig Norman wrote that ‘the composer has not yet understood that one ought to discriminate between one’s ideas, organise them by style and group them into an outer and inner context’. This judgement applies even to the most dense in magnitude of Dahl’s piano works, the collection Albumblad from 1886, which consists of five separate character pieces without any particular inner organic connection: ‘Romance’, ‘Humoresk’, ‘Perpetuum mobile’, ‘Aftonstämning’ and ‘Marche Triomphale’. The majority of Dahl’s piano pieces are also published as separate character pieces under names such as ‘Valse de Concert’, ‘Barcarolle’, ‘Scherzo’, ‘Vårstämning’, ‘Valso noble’, ‘Etude mélodique’ etc. Quite a few of Dahl’s compositions, among others a piano sonata, are believed to be lost.

However, Ludvig Norman continued the above-cited review in a more positive manner: ‘The voice leading is ubiquitously correct, the harmony tasteful and in general not weighed down by extraneous chromaticisms.’ Ludvig Norman’s musical taste was rather conservative for the time and was shared by Dahl. Their musical role models were composers such as Mendelssohn, Schumann and Chopin. It has been said that Dahl’s choral works, piano pieces and songs show signs of a French new romantic influence. Popular music stylistic features could possibly have French signatures as with, for example, the salon music composers Benjamin Godard and Auguste Durand (Dahl’s ‘Valse de Concert’ op. 12) or with Charles Gounod (for example, the recitative-like song ‘Spörj mig’ that recalls Faust’s cavatina). However, Dahl’s melodic feel has above all an Italian sound. The stepwise, sequence and wave-formed melodic shapes with their clear phrase structures, often with suspensions at the end of phrases, give at times a sentimental pull that looks towards the popular music of the time.

Dahl’s most noted roll was also as the creator of romances, many of which he wrote his own texts for. Some of the songs retained great popularity well into the 1930s and were sung by the great opera singers of the time, from David Stockman to Jussi Björling (under the pseudonym Erik Odde).  His most well-known song was the happy-go-lucky drinking song ‘Bachanal’, which Björling recorded twice, and even sang a cappella in the semi-autobiographical film Fram för Framgång in 1938. David Stockman’s rhythmically free performance in his recording of ‘Aftonstämning’ (1909) is also an interesting historical documentation of song tradition in the beginning of the century. The rolling rhythmically free performance with fermata on high notes was an integrated part of the melodic structure. Trios for voice, violin and piano, such as ‘Löfsong’, where both melodic voices interweave with one another in a contrapuntally interesting way, are also among Dahl’s best works.

Bertil Wikman © 2015
Trans. Nicole Vickers