Hélène Tham (1843-1925)

Praeludium (Preludium) [Prelude]

Print
  • Year of composition: 1893
  • Work category: Organ
  • Dedication: To Adolf Murray on Christmas Eve 1893. (AM was Hélène Tham's elder half-brother)
  • Duration: Approx. 1-5 min

Examples of printed editions

Levande Musikarv/Swedish Musical Heritage no. 1856. Critical edition by Magnus Svensson (2018)

  • Location autograph: Uppsala Universitetsbibliotek
  • Possible call no. and autograph comment: UUB Imhs 127:1

Description of work

F major, 4/4 (C), 31 bars


Work comment

This is a melodious and technically surmountable work composed by Hélène Tham while she and her husband lived at the Klotens bruk in the northern part of Örebro County. The somewhat older brother Adolf Murray (1831-1894), major and traffic manager of the railway Oxelösund—Flen— Eskilstuna, received it in 1893 as a Christmas gift. Adolf Murray was very musically oriented, so it is quite possible that the piece was intended also to be performed by him. Albeit the autograph specifically indicates this work being composed for organ, it is not inconceivable that the composer had the pump organ in mind. In any case, it is quite possible to perform this Prelude on that instrument.