Life

Ivar Widéen received his first lessons in piano and harmony from his father and subsequently his maternal grandfather, who had himself been taught at the then educational institution of the Kungliga Musikaliska akademien (the Royal Swedish Academy of Music) in Stockholm.

Widéen studied at the Kungliga Musikkonservatoriet (the Royal Conservatory of Music) from 1888 to 1891, graduating with a degree in organ playing, church song and as a music teacher. Widéen’s years in Stockholm were quite a seminal time for him, as it was here that he became acquainted with the music of Richard Wagner, Edvard Grieg and August Söderman, which would become a major source of inspiration for him. On the performer side, organist Emil Sjögren in St John’s Church was also an important role model.

In 1900, after having spent the previous decade as an organist in Laholm, Widéen was made cathedral organist in Skara, a town in which he remained active until his death in 1951. Widéen was also head of music at the local grammar school and conductor of the Musikaliska Sällskapet (the Music Society) between 1901 and 1936. He was also occasionally engaged as a concert arranger, an assignment he was already given back in 1902 for Wilhelm Stenhammar and Tor Aulin. His contact with Stenhammar also led to a performance of Hugo Alfvén’s Uppenbarelsekantat (Revelation Cantata) in the spring of 1919.

Choral music for both mixed and male choirs held a particular interest for Widéen, who from 1914 to 1921 was the principal conductor of Smålands sångarförbund (the Småland Choral Society), in which capacity he led the choir at annual national choir festivals. He also contributed to the compilation of a new hymnbook in 1919−21.

Works

Ivar Widéen wrote almost 200 solo songs with piano accompaniment as well as over 200 choral pieces, over half of which were printed in magazines, anthologies and other publications. The male choir songs were often published after having won a prize at the annual composition contest organised by the Manskörsförbundet (the Association of Male Choirs). One of the best known of these is ‘Smålandssången’ for four-part choir. The song is a walking tune (gånglåt) in marching tempo and was used as an entrance march at choir festivals; it also earned a place as Småland’s unofficial provincial song.

Widéen valued the folk song very highly, and held that it was there that the new style of Swedish romantic song and popular song had their roots. Many of his vocal works are also clearly inspired by folk songs with their short, strophic forms and allusions to the folk style in their arrangement − the bordune-like drone and rhythms that draw on walking tunes and folk techniques. ‘Nu vilja vi leka med löjen och lust’, ‘Och ungersvennen gångar sig åt hagen’ and ‘Maj i Munga’ are examples of such pieces.

Widéen also wrote sacred choral pieces for the liturgical year, with his larger-format works including a requiem, a Christmas oratorio and a mass. Juloratoriet (Christmas Oratorio) for recitator, soloists, choir, organ and string orchestra was premiered in 1945. Comprising eleven songs with recitations of Bible verses between the numbers, the oratorio takes half of its melodies from the hymnbook; the remaining ones are newly composed. The string parts are written as accompaniment only, and the work can be performed with only an organ or a piano when necessary. It possesses some relatively uncommon features for Widéen, such as the romantic alteration of ‘Madonnans vaggvisa’ and a closing contrapuntal movement. The oratorio has a performance time of about 20 minutes, and shares a degree of similarity with contemporary works such as Lars-Erik Larsson’s Förklädd Gud and Hilding Rosenberg’s Den heliga natten, which reached a wide audience thanks to radio performances.

The somewhat larger works include 23 specially commissioned cantatas, such as Kantat vid Falköpings samrealskolas invigning den 19/10 1911 and Kantat vid Skara gymnasiums 300-årsjubileum 1941. The cantatas are written for choir with piano accompaniment or a small orchestra, sometimes with one or other solo part. A couple of the cantatas were written for performance in Masonic lodges, such as Kantat for a 50^th anniversary in Skövde in 1928. Widéen wrote few instrumental works, which mainly comprise short pieces for piano or organ.

Significance

Ivar Widéen was an important musician, teacher and concert arranger in Skara for fifty years. His compositions for mixed and male choirs were sung throughout the country. On Widéen’s 60^th birthday in 1931, Stockholms Körförbund (the Stockholm Choral Society) paid tribute to the composer with a concert in Konserthuset (the Stockholm Concert Hall) featuring a programme made up exclusively of his music.

Karin Hallgren © 2015
Trans. Neil Betteridge