Life

Path to a career in military music

Sam Hjalmar Rydberg was born in Nyköping on 27 October 1885 and died on 25 March 1956 in Stockholm. In 1899, when he was 13 years old, he was accepted as a music pupil (drummer) to Södermanlands regemente (the 10^th Infantry Regiment, I 10) where he learned to play the E-flat cornet (the Swedish kornett, a rotary valved soprano instrument), which then became his main instrument, and the cello. His training included instruction in military signals such as bugle calls and drum cadences, which by 1901 had become mandatory for all musicians in the Swedish infantry bands.

In 1906 Rydberg was transferred to the Kungliga Svea ingenjörkår (an engineer Regiment, Ing 1) in Stockholm. He remained there until his retirement in 1935. From 1928 he was leader of the regimental band and was promoted to the position of musikdirektör (band master) in 1932.

Following the 1925 Swedish military reform, Ing 1 employed one of the smallest types of regimental bands (‘Type 4’) which consisted of a core of 8 musicians. With the addition of volunteers and music pupils, the band could be enlarged to comprise at most 12 musicians, often including Rydberg himself playing the E-flat cornet. 1928−37 the Ing 1 regimental band, made up of 10 to 12 musicians including 3 or 4 drummers, performed in the Changing of the Guard at the Royal Palace in Stockholm (without a drum major). Rydberg’s scores are either composed for the Ing 1 brass ensemble or for the traditional Swedish wind ensemble, which included a flute, clarinets, E-flat and B-flat cornets, tenor valved trombone, and other Swedish brass instruments (‘Type 2’ ensemble). Rydberg also played the cello in community orchestras and with the Ing 1 band, which like several other military bands, occasionally performed as a string orchestra.

Continued studies

As did several other Swedish military musicians, Sam Rydberg received his education at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Stockholm, where he studied his principle instrument, the Swedish cornet (1907−09), and orchestration (1910−12) in addition to taking lessons in cello and oboe. He also studied instrumentation and other subjects with Ernst Ellberg. Sam Rydberg graduated in 1926 with a degree as Director of Music with high marks in oboe, harmony and conducting, and with the highest possible marks in cornet and orchestration. He performed his own piece, Consertino for E-flat cornet with piano accompaniment, at his final graduation recital.

Rydberg the musician

Rydberg is said to have been one of the most talented Swedish instrumentalists of his generation and he was frequently engaged by many of the Stockholm ensembles, such as Folkteaterns (‘Folkans’) orchestra, as both cornetist, trumpeter and cellist. According to various sources he was a member of the Stockholms blåsorkester (Stockholm Wind Ensemble, E-flat cornet), the Konsertföreningen (precursor to the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra) and Svensk Filmindustris orkester (the Swedish film production company SF Studios’ orchestra, trumpet) 1927−30, of the ‘Elitorkestern’ and the Oscarsteatern and Folkteatern theatre orchestras in 1937. He also played the cello in several orchestras. From 1927 until 1952 Rydberg served as the instrumental teacher at the Högalid School in Stockholm; after retirement and until his death in 1956 he worked as an arranger and sheet music copyist at Radiotjänst (the Swedish broadcasting company).

Works

Works other than marches

In addition to his marches Rydberg composed over fifty works for various ensembles, mostly chamber music: over a dozen ‘Boston’ waltzes for piano, short pieces for violin and piano or salon orchestra with titles such as Chanson, Novellett and Humoresk, solo songs with piano accompaniment, several works for mens’ choir (drinking tunes). Several of his compositions exist in versions for both piano and other arrangements, for example, the Csárdás-inspired concert overture for wind band. His Kärleksmystär romance for orchestra (1914) was published under the title Kärlekens mystär.

Rydberg also arranged music for the films Charlotte Löwensköld (1930), Söder om landsvägen (1936) and Elvira Madigan (1943). Several of his compositions have been used in additional films, but there are no known original film scores that can be attributed to him. In 1916 two of his pieces were included in Emil Norlander’s New Year’s show at Södra teatern (A theatre venue in Stockholm). Several of his works were composed with the Swedish Film Industry’s composition competition of 1936 in mind. Rydberg dedicated his polka Klätterstedt och Klåberg to his lively young sons.

Marches

Sam Rydberg’s true legacy is his circa 70 marches. They came to fill the need for new music within the Swedish Armed Forces, for school wind bands, and for various civilian events. Rydberg is said to have composed marches already as a student, but his breakthrough was Den svenske underofficeren, the winner of the Swedish organisation for non-commissioned officers’ march music competition of 1916. His Nordiska spelen also won a prize in a competition when the First and Second Life Grenadier Regiments were united and renamed Livgrenadjärregementet in 1928. For his own branch he wrote Leve Fortifikationen! and Kungliga Fortifikationens honnörsmarsch. His march Till Stadion was composed with an eye for sporting events; Högalidspojkar, Skolmarsch, Scouting and Till ’Zinkens’ for the wind ensembles at secondary schools such as the one at Högalid in Stockholm. Italia, Concert March No. 2, is one of Rydberg’s concert marches, inspired by the then popular Italian march style. The Ing I band perform ed for three summers (1932−34) at the Gröna Lund amusement park, and in 1933 Rydberg composed the march I flaggskrud for its 50th anniversary. Rydberg was also interested in the international Esperanto language − his Vivu Esperanto was written for the 1933 Esperanto World Congress in Cologne.

In a kind of friendly rivalry with his colleague Viktor Widquist − it has been said that they secretly competed − Sam Rydberg has come to be called ‘Sweden’s march king’ and ‘Sweden’s Sousa’. No less than 17 of his marches have been accepted as regimental marches. Such marches, still performed frequently, include Gardeskamrater, I fält, and Till fronten. Rydberg’s marches have come to be perceived as distinctly Swedish − characterised by signals, clear and simple harmonies, and with singable, striking melodies that have been declared ‘the sound of Swedish military readiness’. His craft of orchestration has provided them with ’the hard-to-define quality that makes them classics.’

Ann-Marie Nilsson © 2016
Trans. Thalia Thunander