Life

Background and studies

Albert Lindström was born in Klara parish in Stockholm, the son of a merchant. His home life was influenced by Low Church piety and his father, Gustaf Adolf Lindström, served alongside his regular job as a church organist at Betlehemskyrkan (Bethlehem Church) that was part of the Evangeliska Fosterlands-Stiftelsen (Evangelical fatherland’s foundation). Albert Lindström became motherless at age five. At 16 years of age he was accepted as a student at the Kungliga Musikkonservatoriet (the Royal Conservatory of Music) where he studied organ with Gustaf Mankell. Through Mankell’s lessons he gained a good deal of the playing technique and the interpretive ideals found in the French school of organ playing. Lindström also became an early promoter in Sweden of French ‘symphonic’ organ music by composers such as Charles-Marie Widor and Alexandre Guilmant.

Work as an organist

In 1871 Albert Lindström took his first job as organist at Blasieholm Church. After graduating with a degree in organ performance the following year, he continued taking private lessons from Sweden’s leading organ virtuoso, Wilhelm Heintze, but likely not before the 1880s when Heintze replaced Mankell as the organist at St James’s Church. Those with whom he studied solo singing included Fritz Arlberg and Julius Günther, who was a professor at the Musikkonservatoriet. Lindström completed his degree in precentorship in 1889 (the relatively late date of completion can be explained by the fact that this degree was initiated only in 1881 and did not exist during Lindström’s student years at the conservatory).

In 1891 Albert Lindström was chosen as the organist at St James’s Church after a complicated process in which he was considered as an applicant for the position only after having lodged a complaint about the original list of eligible applicants for the job – and then his was the third and last name on the list. He won the job with only a small margin over Aron Bergenson who was known mainly for his tutoring in harmony. As the organist of this centrally located church in Stockholm, Lindström came to safeguard at the highest level the continental tradition of organ playing that both his two teachers and predecessors, Mankell and Heintze, had laid the foundation for.

Lindström concertised often as an organist, both in his hometown and in other parts of Sweden. His repertoire included organ symphonies by Charles-Marie Widor. Lindström was considered one of the country’s leading organ virtuosos, even though his younger colleague, Gustaf Hägg, eventually overshadowed him. He was often hired as a consultant and a controller for organ building projects. Among his foremost organ students was Otto Olsson who would later become a professor in organ performance at the Kungliga Musikkonservatoriet; it was Lindström who premiered Olsson’s first organ symphony in 1905. He also worked as a choir director including for the men’s choir Stockholms allmänna sångförening 1891−97 and for the choir of the W6 Society during 1891−1901.

Involvement with church singing

An important side of Lindström’s musical career was his involvement with spiritual song. He was the editor for a number of song books as well as being responsible for the musical portion of a very lavish edition of Johann Christian Friedrich Hæffner’s chorale book for the 1819 edition of the Swedish hymn book, including music for the Mass, supplemented with a large number of newer songs – among them some originally from the Moravian tradition, as well as rhythmised versions of some of the chorale book’s melodies. Through this ‘appendix’, Lindström could combine his loyalty to Hæffner’s legacy with his openness to other traditions, especially those from various revivalist movements. Lindström’s reputation as an arranger and editor for Swedish church and free church song books is expressed in the following lines from the foreword of the 1904 edition of the music to Svenska Baptistsamfundets song book Psalmisten:

[T]he final editing work [was assigned] to the often-hired composer and prominent organist at St James’s Church in Stockholm, director Albert Lindström. As we know, he has edited several larger and smaller song collections, among them (older editions of) Psalmisten, Sionstoner and Nya Pilgrimssånger. This experience, gained partly through the work on these books and the review of them, has naturally increased the possibilities that, in this book, something is brought forth that surely shall meet all of the praiseworthy requirements of a good songbook.

Albert Lindström was also active in business life. In 1905 he became CEO for Gustaf Pettersson & Co. AB, a seller of pianos and harmoniums. His pedagogic vein came to be expressed in a succinct tutor of harmonium playing that was published in 12 editions during his lifetime.

Albert Lindström received the Royal Swedish medal Litteris et artibus in 1906 and became a member of the Kungliga Musikaliska akademien in 1919. He left his position as organist in 1926 and the following year retired from the Gustaf Pettersson company.

Works

Albert Lindström’s work as a composer was limited both in scope and focus. Except for an ‘Högtidsmarsch’ (Festive March) for organ, he composed only religious music and spiritual songs, especially the latter. With the exception of songs for men’s choir, the boundaries between congregational songs and songs for choir are hard to draw since Lindström, in the tradition of Hæffner, composed his songs in strict four-part choral settings.

His best known composition is the church song, ‘Jag kan icke räkna dem alla’, with a text by Lina Sandell-Berg, was composed in 1889 for the first edition of the Evangeliska Fosterlands-Stiftelsen’s songbook, Sionstoner, and was then included in numerous church and free church song books, including Den svenska psalmboken in editions from 1937 and 1986. In the Swedish-American collection, Hemlandssånger (with the first edition in 1892) he is represented by a large number of songs. Some of his melodies, including ‘Jag kan icke räkna dem alla’, can also be found in North American English-language hymnals. Several of Lindström’s spiritual songs have a stylistic connection to melodies from the revival movement with varied rhythms and frequent dotted notes. However there are also compositions in a more general style typical of the time and at least one example of a chorale melody in the style of Hæffner with an even rhythm in half notes.

Albert Lindström made a more comprehensive effort in the arrangements of other composers’ melodies. Among others, he arranged Oscar Ahnfeldt’s sacred songs for mixed choir, and did arrangements of accompaniments (normally in the form of a four-part choral setting) to a large number of hymns and spiritual songs while acting as the editor for music publications of hymnals and songbooks for various denominations, including Evangeliska Fosterlands-Stiftelsen (Sionstoner) and Svenska baptistsamfundet (Psalmisten). His choral arrangement of Adolphe Adam’s ‘Julsång’ (originally for men’s choir; arranged for mixed choir in Musik till Sionstoner) is often performed even today.

Albert Lindström also arranged a great deal for the harmonium and the organ. One of his arrangements that was often played during his life time was Sorgmarsch vid Carl XV:s begravning (Funeral March for King Charles XV), composed by the hovkapellmästare (chief conductor of the Royal Court Orchestra/Hovkapellet), Conrad Nordqvist.

Sverker Jullander © 2016
Trans. Jill Ann Johnson