Jakob Adolf Hägg (1850−1928)

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Jakob (Jacob) Adolf Hägg, b. Östergarn, Gotland, 26 (alt. 27) June 1850, was one of the foremost exponents of Swedish Leipzig romanticism and bequeathed a copious output of mainly piano music. He studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Stockholm, between 1865 and 1870, and under Niels W. Gade in Copenhagen (1870−71). For a long time Hägg was cut off from professional music by mental illness, but at the age of 45 he achieved a comeback as musician and composer. He died in Hudiksvall on 1 March 1928. Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music 1917.

(Dellenportalen)

Life

Student years: from Östergarn to Europe

Jakob Adolf Hägg received his basic music education at the hands of Fredrik Wilhelm Klint, at that time organist of Hägg’s native parish of Östergarn. At 14 he entered Musikkonservatoriet (the Royal Conservatory of Music), Stockholm, where he studied piano (under Jan van Boom) and organ. He soon attracted notice, both through his piano playing and through his talent for improvisation and composition, and in 1870 was awarded the Jenny Lind Fellowship for two years’ further studies abroad. These began with a year in Copenhagen (Sept. 1870−Oct. 1871), where he took composition and instrumentation lessons with Niels W. Gade and piano lessons with Edmund Neupert.

This year did much for Hägg’s development. He was on the very best of terms with Gade, and he made personal contact with several of the leading personalities on the Copenhagen arts scene: the poet H. C. Andersen, the composer C. F. E. Horneman, the pianist August Winding, the cellist Franz Neruda, and Moritz Melchior, merchant and patron of the arts, to mention but a few. He was much in demand for concert appearances as accompanist and chamber musician, and his gifts as a composer were also appreciated; Andersen, for example, gave him poems to set to music.

Most of Hägg’s compositions from the Stockholm years were for the piano and, as a rule, in pretty small format. Gade taught him instrumentation and had him writing on a larger scale. This had an immediate impact on his output. It was now that Hägg wrote his first orchestra compositions (three pieces: Walzer, Andante moderato and Scherzo, plus the two overtures in D major op. 28 and C minor op. 26), which, like the choral composition Studenten fra Lund, to words by Andersen, and the piano music from the same year, show a clear development towards greater firmness and a more sustained linearity in his style of writing.

In May 1871 Gade, finding that Hägg had no more to learn in matters of form and instrumentation, counselled him to top up his education with a brief counterpoint course in Germany and then to travel in Europe, and especially to Italy, in order, as he put it, to ‘study nature and life’. Hägg arrived in Berlin in the autumn of 1871. There he composed his sonata for cello and piano, which he premiered at Tonkünstlerverein, Dresden, in January 1872 together with the well-known cellist Friedrich Grützmacher. He spent the spring of 1872 in Vienna, composing and taking piano lessons from Anton Door. In the summer of that year he met Jenny Lind in London and his fellowship was extended from two to four years. He spent the autumn of 1872 and spring 1873 studying counterpoint in Berlin under the eminent teacher Friedrich Kiel, and then, following Gade’s advice, went by way of Switzerland to Italy. There he stayed until the summer of 1874, when he returned to Sweden.

In Sweden again: illness and comeback

Hägg’s period abroad was followed by a deterioration of his physical and mental health, both of which had already shown signs of fragility during his conservatory years. Following his return to Sweden, healthier periods full of activity seem to have been interspersed with spells of illness during which his music-making ground to a halt. During this time he produced a fair amount of church music, orchestral works and piano compositions, added to which, he was active as both organist and teacher.

He married in 1878, and having a wife to support imposed further strain on his energies. In 1880 his mental state was judged so serious that he was admitted to mental hospital in Växjö, where for a long time he remained incapable of any musical creativity.

By 1895 Hägg was sufficiently recovered to be discharged from the hospital, and he now zestfully resumed work as a composer. In addition to writing a great deal of new music, he campaigned to have his early compositions printed and performed, to which end he often revised or radically reworked them.  Several orchestral compositions, for instance, were arranged for piano (solo or duet) and, conversely, a number of piano compositions were now orchestrated. Numerous collected pieces were published, especially at the very end of the 1890s.

Hägg was now far removed from the centre of musical events. Between 1895 and about 1899 he lived with his brother Wilhelm at Hedvigsfors Bruk in Hälsingland, he then lived until 1909 on a farm by Lake Aursunden, near Røros in Norway, and, following a brief sojourn in Sveg, finally settled near Hudiksvall. He made sporadic public appearances as a pianist (e.g. together with Sven Kjellström), but only in Norrland and Dalarna. Otherwise he led the life of a recluse, gave a few piano and theory lessons and concentrated mainly on composing.

Works

Jakob Adolf Hägg’s quite copious output encompasses most genres and forms, primarily instrumental ones, and approximately half has been published. Stylistically there is barely any difference between the early works and the compositions written after his illness. During the 1860s and 1870s, when Hägg received his musical education, the ideals of classical romanticism held sway in the Nordic countries, with Mendelssohn, Schumann and Gade as the great exemplars. Hägg quickly mastered the idiom of this style in a manner both consummate and personal. His first mature works were written while he was studying in Copenhagen, and he scored a major success with his cello sonata at its première performance in Dresden in the presence, as he put in one of his letters, of ‘a parterre of artists’. That sonata was published soon afterwards, as his op. 1, by Breitkopf & Härtel.

By the time Hägg was able to resume work, after recovering from his illness, the style of his youthful works had gone rather out of fashion, but he was clearly either unwilling or unable to adapt to the new ideals, and so, well into the 20th century, he was writing and publishing music which, stylistically speaking, could very well have been composed 60 or 70 years earlier. He became somewhat of a lone wolf in Swedish music. This, coupled with his geographic isolation, must have been part of the reason for his failing to catch on as a composer.

The piano music

Piano music − sonatas, suites, sets of variations and short pieces − bulks largest in Hägg’s output. He had the following to say of himself as a composer for the piano: ‘Following the breakthrough of romanticism in Sweden through Norman, Söderman and Nordqvist, one field remained unbroken, namely the piano. The question now is whether my piano music has succeeded in filling the gap.’ His piano style, on the whole, is already finalised in the Miniaturbilder. Hägg seldom goes in for virtuosity, but his keyboard writing, even in many of his minor pieces, can be quite difficult, demanding large hand spans.

The printed sonatas, one in F minor, the other in D minor, from the end of the 1870s are both basically sombre and turbulent but also include brighter, indeed idyllic digressions. In some of the suites he puts his classical romantic style to one side or else mingles it with elements from other styles. A number of baroque-influenced, polyphonic suites appear to be study exercises, but datings from later years indicate a genuine interest in polyphony. The Suite in F minor op. 24:1 ‘im alten Style’ (in the old style) actually conforms to the baroque sequence of Allemande−Courante−Sarabande−Gigue. A couple of other suites present a rather confusing medley of styles. Thus the Suite in G major op. 43 consists of a folksong-like movement, quite an ascetic ballad, a highly Mendelssohnian Lied ohne Worte, a simple two-part chorale and two movements in typical Haydn style. Several of the minor piano compositions are basically idyllic or ardently romantic and reminiscent of Schumann’s short pieces. The Kleine nordische Lieder ohne Worte (‘Small Nordic songs without words’, 37 in number) shows Hägg’s miniature style at its best; many of the pieces are endowed with a rare simplicity and a lyrical intensity of expression.

Orchestral works and chamber music

Hägg wrote more than 20 compositions for orchestra, though about half of them are arrangements of piano pieces. Complete scores are extant of only two out of the three orchestral works of his denoted as symphonies. A fourth symphony is complete, but only as a piano duet. The best orchestral works, e.g. Nordisk symfoni in E-flat major (originally a sonata for piano duet, and the composition which persuaded Gade that Hägg had nothing more to learn) and the two previously mentioned overtures from Hägg’s year in Copenhagen, are distinguished by symphonically viable ideas, great linearity, skilful thematic work and confident treatment of form. The instrumentation is confident and natural as a rule, though sometimes, as with Schumann, it gets overloaded, with too many unison duplications. Hägg, incidentally, often rescored his compositions, which, coupled with innumerable variants of phrasing and dynamics, puts problems in the way of a publisher.

The chamber music consists to a great extent of compositions which are either unfinished or incompletely extant. The compositions for cello and piano are among the most valuable, and the cello sonata is perhaps his best major composition ever, full of tempestuous youthful emotion presented with classical equilibrium.

Vocal music

Hägg’s vocal music must on the whole be rated less significant than his instrumental works. Perhaps his foremost major vocal composition is Studenten fra Lund for tenor and baritone solo, male voice choir and piano (later orchestrated). The church music compositions (mainly from the end of the 1870s) seem to have been written for ordinary Sunday use and are cast in a fairly conventional mould.

The solo songs in German are written in a kind of Schumann style. The Swedish ones, most of which seem to be of very early date, are more reminiscent of the vocal style of Lindblad et al.

Hägg was also very interested in folk music. Two collections of Gotland polska tunes were published in 1876, and in Hälsingland and Norway he collected a considerable amount of folk music which he arranged for various forces, orchestra among them.

Concluding remarks

Great hopes were pinned on Hägg during his student years. His period of illness naturally meant a hiatus in his output and career, but he aroused a new upsurge of interest on his return to music in 1895. His works have rarely figured in concert programmes lately, with the possible exception of Nordisk symfoni and the cello sonata. However, the best of his major compositions have a freshness and a grandeur of line, and many of the smaller ones such powerful lyrical qualities, that they should be eligible for greater prominence in the standard Swedish repertoire.

Finn Rosengren © 2014
Trans. Roger Tanner

Bibliography

Assar, Assar Olsson: 'J. Ad. Hägg: En tonsättareveteran', Från tonernas värld, Musiktidningens julnummer 1918, Stockholm, 1918.
Blomberg, Erik: Ernst Josephson: Hans liv, Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand, 1951.
Bohlin, Folke: 'Hurra! Jeg er fra Lund student! H. C. Andersen och J. A. Hägg', in: Ivo Holmqvist (ed.), H. C. Andersens underbara resor i Sverige, Göteborg, Stockholm: Makadam, 2005, pp. 129−145.
Connor, Herbert: Svensk musik 2: Från Midsommarvaka till Aniara, Stockholm: Bonniers, 1977, pp. 20−23.
Crastan, Eva: 'J.A. Hägg: eine Analyse ausgewählter Klavierstücke', master's thesis in musicology, Lunds universitet, 2001.
Dahlgren, Lotten: Jenny Lind utom scenen: Förtroliga brev till hennes förmyndare H. M. Munthe, Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand, 1928.
Gunne, Lars: 'A schizophrenic composer − Jakob Adolf Hägg', Acta psychiatrica scandinavica, vol. 74, no. 1, 1986, pp. 1−2.
Gunne, Lars and Finn Rosengren: 'En schizofren tonsättares anteckningar', Svensk medicinhistorisk tidskrift, vol. 13, no. 1, 2009, pp. 113−120.
Hedin, Svante: Alla dessa Häggrar, konstnärer i/från Östergarn, Gotland, Visby: Visum, 1995.
Hetsch, Gustav: J A Hägg: Ein schwedischer Komponist und sein Verhältnis zu N W Gade, Leipzig: Hofmeister, 1903.
[Huss, Frans J]: 'Jakob Adolf Hägg', Svensk Musiktidning, vol. 18, no. 10, 17 May 1898, pp. 73−74. [In connection to this article several of Hägg's letters to the president of the Musikaliska Akademien, Henrik Mathias MuntheI, were published (no. 13, 1 Sept. 1898, pp. 99−100, no. 14, 15 Sept. 1898, pp. 108−110)].
Jacobsson, Stig: Musiken i Sverige: skivlyssnarens handbok i svensk musik från äldsta tid till 1970-talet med utförlig skivförteckning, Västerås : ICA-förl., 1975, pp. 136−138.
Kjellström, Sven: 'Två kontraster bland svenska tonsättare', in: Folke H. Törnblom (red.), Musikmänniskor: Personliga minnen av bortgångna svenska tonsättare, Uppsala: J. A. Lindblads förlag, 1943, pp. 91−101.
Kjerulf, Charles: Niels W. Gade: Til belysning af hans liv og kunst, Kjobenhavn and Christiania: Gyldendal, 1917.
Morales, Olallo: 'Jakob Adolf Hägg', Hvar 8 Dag, vol. 11, 1909−10, no. 10, 5 Dec. 1909, pp. 145−146.
Rosengren, Finn: 'Jakob Adolf Hägg', in: Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, vol. 19, Stockholm: Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, 1971/73, pp. 616−620.
Söderberg, Märta: 'Jakob Adolf Hägg', Musikrevy, vol. 25, no. 2, 1970, pp. 69−71.
Westberg, Eric: 'Ett original bland svenska tonsättare', in Folke H. Törnblom (ed.), Musikmänniskor: Personliga minnen av bortgångna svenska tonsättare, Uppsala: J. A. Lindblads förlag, 1943, pp. 102−109.
Westberg, Eric och Gösta Percy: 'Jakob Adolf Hägg', in: Hälsingerunor: En hembygdsbok 1951, Lund: Hälsingekretsen av Gästrike-Hälsinge Hembygdsförbund, 1951, pp. 101−121.
Westberg, Hans: 'Ensam med sitt öde: om Jakob (Adolf) Hägg och "självstympningen"', Musikrevy, vol. 38, no. 7−8, 1983.
−−−: 'Jakob Hägg', in: Gösta Skoglund (ed.), Norrhälsingar från ett 400-årigt Hudiksvall, Stockholm: Rabén & Sjögren, 1981, pp. 185−195.
−−−: 'Jakob Adolf Hägg och folkmusiken', Sumlen, Stockholm: Samfundet för visforskning, 1989, pp. 9−23.

A selection of Hägg's letters to the president of the Musikaliska Akademien, Henrik Mathias Munthe, were also published in the newspaper Hudiksvalls Allehanda between 1897−1898.

Sources

Bergen offentl. bibliotek, Kungl. Biblioteket Stockholm, Konglige Bibliotek Köpenhamn, Musik- och teatermuseet Stockholm, Musik- och teaterbiblioteket.

Summary list of works

1 singspiel (En yngre son), 3 symphonies, orchestral works (2 suites, 4 overtures, Konsert-allegro, ten or so minor orchestral works), chamber music (string quartet, piano trio, cello sonata and minor works), piano music (3 sonatas, 2 sonatinas, about 20 suites, 10 sets of variations and several hundred short pieces), about 50 songs with piano accompaniment, choral music with piano accompaniment (Studenten fra Lund etc.), organ works (Preludier op. 40), arrangements of works by other composers, and a large number of folk music adaptations.

Collected works

Comic opera
En yngre son, vaudeville in one act (lyricist unknown), 1867.

Orchestral works
Symphonies
Nordisk symfoni (Nordische Symphonie) E-flat major op. 2, late 1890s. Orchestration of a sonata for piano four hands from 1871.
Symphony in D minor, most likely late 1870s. The finale incomplete or inconclusively preserved.
Symphony in G major, late 1870s.
Symphony (Orchestral piece) B major, 1904–05. Extant only in arrangement for piano four hands.

Suites
Suite in G minor, 1916. Orchestration of Suite in G minor op. 3 for piano, 1871.
Suite in B minor. Orchestration of Drei kleine Suiten im alten Style op. 24, no. 2 in B minor.

Other orchestral works with opus numbers
Fantasy piece in F major, probably 1900. Orchestration of Fantasy piece (Capriccio) F major op. 7 for piano, 1869.
Fantasy piece (Orchestral work) in A minor. Orchestration of Fantasy for piano four hands  op. 9, 1869.
March in F major. Orchestration of March in F major for piano.
Impromptu in D major. Orchestration of Impromptu D major op. 16 for piano.
Tarantella A minor, 1903. Orchestration of Tarantella A minor op. 23 for piano.
Concert overture no. 2 in C minor op. 26, 1871.
Concert overture no. 1 in D major op. 28, 1870.
Studien in der Orchestration bei Professor Niels W. Gade op. 50, 1870.
Concert allegro in C major op. 52. Composed in 1870 for piano four hands, probably orchestrated in 1909.
Walzer, Andante moderato und Scherzo op. 62, 1870.

Other orchestral works without opus numbers
Andante sostenuto quasi adagio in F major. Orchestration of Langsam for piano, 1870.
Amerikanische Festklänge, 1903.
Orchestral work (Allegro) in D major.
Funeral march in C minor, probably in 1923. Orchestration of Funeral march in C minor for organ.
Overture in G major, 1878/1898.

Solo instruments and orchestra
Andante sostenuto for violin and orchestra.

(Soli), choir with ackompaniment
Works with opus numbers
Studenten fra Lund op. 25 (H.C. Andersen) for soli, male choir and piano or orchestra, 1871. Orchestrated in 1909/1912.
Hvi suckar det så tungt uti skogen op. 48 (B.E. Malmström) for soli, choir, string quartet and piano or soli, choir and orchestra, 1868. Orchestrated in 1898.
Födelsedagskantate op. 53 for soli, mixed choir, violin obbligato and piano, 1871.
Kantate ved Herr Moritz Melchiors og Fru Dorothea Melchiors Sølvbryllup op. 53 b for soli, mixed choir and piano, 1871.

Works without opus numbers
Drinkting song for baritone, mixed choir and piano.
Kaares sang ur Sigurd Slembe (B. Bjørnson) for baritone, mixed choir and orchestra, 1870. Orchestration possibly of later date.
Meine Seel' erhebet den Herrn for mixed choir and piano or organ, probably in late 1870s. Orchestrated in 1897.
Ob sich's anliess for mixed choir and piano.
Hymn 3 for baritone, mixed choir and piano or orchestra, probably 1878. Orchestration possibly of later date.
Hymn 23 for soli, mixed choir and piano or orchestra, 1878. Orchestration possibly of later date.
Hymn 24 for mixed choir and piano or orchestra, probably in late 1870s. Orchestrated in 1910s.
Hymn 100 for mixed choir and piano.
Ung Elskov for soli, mixed choir and piano or orchestra, 1871 or 1872. Orchestrated in 1899.

Choir a cappella
Deilig er jorden for male choir.
Drei geistliche Chöre ohne Begleitung for mixed choir.
Hymn 118 for mixed choir.
Hymn 134 for mixed choir, probably in 1878.
Ved invielsen av vort nye Godtemplarlokal, probably for mixed choir (lyricist unknown), 1913.

Chamber music
Works for string quartet
String quartet in C minor, 1872, the finale possibly written later.
String quartet in G major, 1872 or 1873. Possibly incomplete.
Thema mit Variationen op. 30 for string quartet.
Piece in C major for string quartet.
Andante moderato in D major for string quartet, 1899.

Works for piano trio
Piano trio in G minor op. 15, movements 1 and 2 in 1868, movements 3 and 4 added later. Identical to equivalent movements of Symphony in G major.

Duo sonatas
Sonata in E minor op. 1 for violoncello and piano, 1871.
Sonata in F major for violin and piano, 1872, the finale incomplete or inconclusively preserved.

Other chamber music
Album leaf for violoncello and piano.
Allegro moderato in E-flat major for horn and piano.
Canon in der Sekunde for two violins and violoncello.
Capriccio for violin, viola and violoncello.
Drei Characterstücke for violin and piano.
Banquet piece for brass sextet.
Im Walde for string quartet and piano.
Canon in the second in C major for two violins.
Kleine Romanze und Intermezzo for violin and piano, 1871.
Langsam in B major for violin and piano.
Leichter Satz for trumpet, violin and piano.
Praeludium og Andante for violoncello and piano.
Piece in D minor forvioloncello and piano.
Piece in B major for violoncello (?) and piano.
Piece in E-flat major for E-flat soprano cornet, B[-flat?] cornet, tuba and string quartet, 1919.
Two pieces for solo violin.
Vier Stücke op. 60 for violin and viola.

Piano music
Sonatas and sonatinas
Sontata in A major op. 6.
Sonata in F minor op. 20, 1879.
Sonata in D minor op. 29, late 1870s.
Sonata in G minor, 1873.
Sonatina in F major Zweite.
Sonatina in B major.

Suites with opus numbers
Suite in G minor op. 3, 1871.
Suite sentimentale op. 22.
Drei kleine Suiten im alten Style (F minor, B minor, E-flat major) op. 24, no. 2 1868.
Vierte Suite in F-sharp minor op. 32.
Suite no. 5 in C major op. 33.
Suite no. 6 in D minor op. 34.
Suite no. 7 in A minor op. 35 for piano or organ.
Kanonische Suite op. 37.
Suite über den Choral No 328 aus dem Schwedischen Psalmenbuche op. 38 no. 1 for piano or organ.
Suite über den Choral No 198 aus dem schwedischen Psalmenbuche op. 38 no. 2 for piano or organ.
Suite in G minor op. 39.
Suite in G major op. 43.

Suites without opus numbers
Suite in C major.
Suite in D major.
Suite no. 9 in G minor.
Suite in A minor.
Suite in B major, 1878.
Suite in B minor, 1879?

Variation works
Variations on An Alexis.
Variations on a Scottish folk tune.
Variations on God save the Queen.
Variations on Gubben Noak.
Variations on Jord och himmel.
Variations on Kleine Nordische Lieder ohne Worte nr 20.
Variations on Kleine Nordische Lieder ohne Worte nr 37.
Variations and finale on Sven i Rosengård.
Variations on Vårvindar friska, 1898.

Other piano music with opus numbers
Albumblätter op. 4, 1869.
Miniaturbilder op. 5, 1869.
Fantasy in F major, (Capriccio, Konzert-Ouverture), 1869.
Neun Karakterstücke op. 8, 1870−71.
March in F major op. 10.
Fantasies op. 11, 5 pieces, nos 1−4 1869, no. 5 probably of later date.
Novelletter op. 12, 3 pieces, 1869.
Fünf Fantasiestücke op. 13.
Impromptu D major op. 16.
Bilder ur barnalifvet op. 17, 5 pieces.
Two piano pieces in scherzo form op. 18, no. 1 1869.
Bagatelles op. 19, 5 pieces, no. 5 1868.
Impromptu no. 1 in E major op. 21.
Tarantella in A minor op. 23.
Kobolde und Nixen op. 27, 3 pieces.
Introduktion und Scherzo op. 42.
Ballade in F minor op. 45.
Frühlingsblumen op. 49, 8 pieces, more pieces dated 1868.
Scherzo in D major op. 54.
Kleine Phantasiestücke op. 56, 7 pieces, 1870.
Etude in A-flat major op. 57, 1870.
Scherzo, Lied ohne Worte, Mazurka, Kleine Romanze und Fuga op. 58, no. 5 1869.
Scherzo in B major op. 63, 1870.

Other piano music without opus numbers
Allegro in D minor, 1875.
Balletstück.
Blumenlieder und andere Lieder, 20 pieces in two booklets, datings from 1898 and 1899.
Blumenstück.
Brudvals.
Fantasy on A-G-D-A.
Impromptu no. 2 in B minor.
Kleine Ballade in A major.
Kleine Nordische Lieder ohne Worte und Präludien, 37 pieces in 5 booklets, datings between 1868 and 1899.
Preludium in C minor, 1875.
Quadrille de Lanciers, 1870.
Salongspolka in A-flat major, 1868.
Scherzo in E-flat major, 1870.
Valse no. 1 in E minor.
Valse no. 2 in B minor.
Valse de salon in F-sharp major, 1871.
Zwei Klavierstücke: Frühlingstück, Herbstlied, no. 2 1898.

In additon a several hundred minor pieces in manuscript.

Piano four hands
Works with opus numbers
Fantasy in A minor op. 9, 1869.
Novellette in f major op. 51, 1869.
Elf kleine Klavierstücke op. 61, no. 6 1870.

Works without opus numbers
Fuge in D minor Pastoral (on A-G-D-A), 1912.
Polonaise in A major Scherzo D major.

Organ and harmomium
Collections
Drei Stücke für Harmonium.
15 pieces for harmonium.
Two small suites (on the chorales no. 23 and 89) for organ or piano op. 36, datings from 1865−66.
Präludien (24) for organ or piano op. 40.
The scale and some chorals for organ or piano op. 41.
Suite on Sv. Ps. 23 (Allein Gott in der Höh').

Other works
Wedding march.
Offertorium, 1900.
Organ Etude, 1898.
Rebus for harmonium.
Funeral march in C minor.
Stück für Orgelharmonium.

Several other preludiums and minor pieces.

Songs
With opus numbers
Nya sånger och visor op. 14. 1. Fiskarflickan (J.L. Runeberg), 2. Svanen (B.E. Malmström), 3. Hvi suckar det så tungt uti skogen (B.E. Malmström) for soprano, male choir and piano, also included in a somewhat deviating version in Hvi suckar det så tungt uti skogen op. 48, 4. Ack, hur skönt (C. Munthe), 5. I drömmen (lyricist unknown), 6. Sången (E. von Qvanten), 7. Slåttervisa (V.E. Öman), 8. Kvarnvisa (lyrics from En yngre son, lyricist unknown), 9. Aftonsaga (Emil von Qvanten), 10. Kör, "Men månen träder stilla" (B.E. Malmström) for mixed choir and piano, för blandad kör och piano, also included in a somewhat deviating version in Hvi suckar det så tungt uti skogen op. 48, 11. Morgonrodnadens sång (lyricist unknown).
Sieben Lieder op. 31. 1. Sankt Stephan (G.A. Bürger), 2. An der Quelle sass der Knabe (F. von Schiller), 3. Das Mädchen in der Fremde (F. von Schiller), 4. Reiterlied (F. von Schiller), 5. Barbarossa (F. Rückert), 6. Wissen möcht' ich (F. Rückert), 7. Bitte (N. Lenau).
Tolf Sånger och Visor op. 44. 1. Blomman (B.E. Malmström), 2. Härlig är högsommarns prakt (lyricist unknown), 3. Vaggvisa (F.M. Franzén), 4. Jungfrun i det gröna (B.E. Malmström), 5. Stemning (H.C. Andersen), 1871, 6. Du är min ro (Z. Topelius), 7. Lokkeleg (B. Bjørnson), 1870, 8. Hvem är din lefnads ljus (Z. Topelius), 1869, 9. Vårkänslor (E. von Qvanten), 10. Hvar är hon (E. von Qvanten), 11. Flickan i skogen (E. von Qvanten), 12. Flickans födelsedan (B.E. Malmström).

Without opus numbers
Ach, wie ist´s möglich (H. von Chézy).
Bienenlied (lyrics from a Germans folksong), also for 3 and 4 female voices and piano.
Cavatina (lyrics from En yngre son, lyricist unknown).
Det förste Møde (B. Björnson).
Die Prinzessin Ilse (H. Heine).
Herre Zebaoth (text ur Jesaja), 1878.
Im April (E. Geibel), 1872.
Im Winter (title unclear, lyricist unknown).
Leise zieht durch mein Gemüth (H. Heine).
Liebeshoffnung (R. Reinick) Hymn 142, 1878.
Ruhe am See (J. Mosen), 1900.
Schön Rohtraut (E. Mörike).
Træet (B. Björnson).
Wenn man die Hand (lyricist unknown), also has the lyrics Und weil ich denn von dannen muss, which is the first line from the poem Scheidende Liebe by W. Hertz.
Vid blomstrande stranden (lyricist unknown).
Vid havsstranden (Cederskiöld), 1871, also with orchestra.
Wir müssen zugleich (H. Heine), 1870.
Vor des Liebchens kleinen Fenster (lyricist unknown).

Folk music elaborations
19 Norrland polskas (19 Norrländische Tänze), arranged for piano.
20 Gotland polskas, arranged for piano, some also for orchestra. 5 of them also arranged for violin and piano by Tor Aulin.
21 Bjuråker polskas, arranged for piano, some also for orchestra, 100 Norwegian polska dances, arranged for piano.
Dala songs, 4 in number, arranged for piano.
Erinnerung an Norwegen, 12 in number, arranged for piano.
Folksong and folk dance, 60 in number, arranged for piano with lyrics.
Högländarn, Scotish folk song, arranged for piano.
Norrländische Tänze, 12 polskas and 2 marches, arranged for violin and piano, some also for orchestra.
Norske danse og sange, 10 in number, arranged for small orchestra or ensemble.
Two folksongs from Gotland, arranged for piano.

In addition a large amount of arrangements with folk music, mainly from Hälsingland and Norway.

Theoretical studies
Eksempler til Kursus i Kontrapunkt.
Studier i dubbla kontrapunkter.

In addition incomplete or inconclusively extant works, sketches and a large amount of arrangements of Hägg's own and others' works for different instrumentations.


Works by Jakob Adolf Hägg

This is not a complete list of works. The following works are those that have been inventoried so far.

Number of works: 122