Allan Pettersson

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For the Swedish author, see Allan Rune Pettersson.

Pettersson in 1957, Swedish Press Archive, Foto: Bertil S-son Åberg

Gustaf Allan Pettersson (19 September 1911 – 20 June 1980) was a Swedish composer and

violist. He is considered one of the 20th century's most important Swedish composers and was described as one of the last great symphonists, often compared to Gustav Mahler.[1][2][3][4]: 3 [5] His music can hardly be confused with other 20th-century works. In the final decade of his life, his symphonies (typically one-movement works) developed an international following, particularly in Germany and Sweden.[6] Of these, his best known work is Symphony No. 7. His music later found success in the United States.[7]: 7  The conductors Antal Doráti and Sergiu Comissiona premiered and recorded several of his symphonies. Pettersson's song cycle Barefoot Songs influenced many of his compositions. Doráti arranged eight of the Barefoot Songs. Birgit Cullberg
produced three ballets based on Pettersson's music.

Pettersson studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music's conservatory. For more than a decade, he was a violist in the Stockholm Concert Society; after retiring he devoted himself exclusively to composition. Later in his life, he experienced rheumatoid arthritis. Pettersson was awarded the Swedish royal medal Litteris et Artibus.

Biography

Early life

Born on 19 September 1911,[8] Gustaf Allan Pettersson was the youngest of four children.[9] His father, Karl Viktor Pettersson (1875–1952),[10][11] was a violent, alcoholic blacksmith,[12] and his mother, Ida Paulina (née Svenson) (1876–1960), was a dressmaker.[10][11] Pettersson was born at Granhammar manor in Västra Ryd parish in the Uppland province of Sweden. He grew up poor[13] in Stockholm's Södermalm district,[14] where he lived during his whole life.[3] He once said:

I wasn't born under a piano, I didn't spend my childhood with my father, the composer... no, I learnt how to work white-hot iron with the smith's hammer. My father was a smith who may have said no to God, but not to alcohol. My mother was a pious woman who sang and played with her four children.[15]

With his parents and siblings, Pettersson lived in a damp, one-room basement apartment with bars on the window.[12][16] When he was 10, Pettersson bought a cheap violin with money he earned from selling Christmas cards[13] and taught himself to play it.[12] Even the beatings he received from his father and the threat of reform school could not diminish his interest in music.[17] Through strict self-discipline and with the help of music, Pettersson freed himself from his social misery and difficult family circumstances.[18] Aged 14, he finished elementary school and took up full-time practice on the violin.[19][10] He later made two unsuccessful attempts to enter the Royal Swedish Academy of Music's conservatory.[20]

In 1930, he began studying violin and later the viola, as well as counterpoint and harmony, at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music's conservatory (Royal College of Music, Stockholm).[8] At the beginning of World War II, he was in Paris, studying the viola with the French violist Maurice Vieux. Pettersson won the Jenny Lind scholarship prize in 1938, using it to study abroad.[21][22]

Later life

During the 1940s he worked as a violist in the Stockholm Concert Society (later the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra).[8] He also studied composition with the composer and conductor Karl-Birger Blomdahl, orchestration with the conductor Tor Mann, and counterpoint with organist and composer Otto Olsson.[10][23] In 1943, he married a physiotherapist, Gudrun Tyra Charlotta Gustafsson (1921–2017).[10][24]

In September 1951, he went to Paris to study composition and was a student of composers René Leibowitz, Arthur Honegger, Olivier Messiaen, and Darius Milhaud.[10][25][16] Pettersson returned to Sweden at the end of 1952. In the early 1950s, he was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.[26][27][a] He gave up playing the viola and began devoting his life to composition.[13] In 1954, Pettersson received an annual state composition grant for his first time.[28]

By the time of his Symphony No. 5, completed in 1962, his mobility and health were compromised considerably.[29][30] In 1964, the government granted him a lifelong guaranteed income.[31] His greatest success came a few years later with his Symphony No. 7 [sv; nl] (1966),[12] which premiered on 13 October 1968 in Stockholm Concert Hall with Antal Doráti conducting the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.[32] A recording of his seventh symphony, with the same conductor and orchestra, was released in 1969. It was a breakthrough, establishing his international reputation, and he received two Swedish Grammis in 1970.[4]: 7  The conductors Antal Doráti and Sergiu Comissiona premiered and made first recordings of several of Pettersson's symphonies and contributed to his rise to fame during the 1970s.[33][34]

Pettersson was hospitalized for nine months in 1970, soon after the composition of his Symphony No. 9, his longest symphony. He began writing the condensed Symphony No. 10 (1972) from his sickbed.[35][36] Pettersson was admitted to Karolinska Hospital, because of a life-threatening kidney ailment.[37] He recovered, but rheumatoid arthritis confined him most of the time to his fourth-floor apartment in a building with no elevator.[b][39][40][12] In 1975, after a dispute about a change in a concert program for an American tour, the Stockholm Philharmonic was forbidden to perform works by Pettersson "for all time". The ban was lifted in 1976.[41][42] Pettersson was awarded the Litteris et Artibus, a Swedish royal medal established in 1853, in 1977.[10] In autumn 1978,[c] he moved to a state living quarters.[43][40] He began writing his seventeenth symphony, but died, at age 68,[44] in Stockholm's Maria Magdalena parish before finishing it. He is buried in the Högalid Church columbarium.[45][46][8]

Music

Pettersson's music can be compared to

Mahler's symphonic output, especially in the magnificent design and the passion and dynamism.[47] The symphonic eccentric Pettersson is not an avant-gardist.[3] His kinetic[48] and organic development of musical matter[49] uses traditional means of expression.[50] Basic motifs are constantly being changed and developed.[3] Pettersson's writing is very strenuous and often has many simultaneous polyphonic lines.[51][52] His symphonies end on common major or minor chords[4]: 5 —but tonality, which depends on some sense, however attenuated, of tonal progression, is found mostly in slower sections. This can be shown at the openings and endings of his 6th and 7th symphonies, and the end of his 9th. Overwhelmingly serious in tone, often dissonant, his music rises to ferocious climaxes, relieved, especially in his later works, by lyrical oases ("lyrische Inseln").[53][18][54]

Pettersson's music has a very distinctive sound and can hardly be confused with that of any other 20th-century composer.[55] His symphonies, which range from 22 to 70 minutes long,[56] are typically one-movement works.[57][7]: 4  Pettersson's music is demanding on performers and listeners.[58]

Pettersson quoted songs from his own 24 Barefoot Songs in several of his compositions.[59][60]

Musicologist Ivanka Stoïanova designed a theory of musical space about Pettersson's music.[61][62]

Most of his music has now been recorded at least once and much of it is now available in published scores.[d]

Works

Pettersson began composing songs and smaller chamber works in the 1930s.[63]

His production from the 1940s includes the song cycle twenty-four Barefoot Songs (1943–1945) based on his poems and a dissonant[64] concerto for violin and string quartet (1949), which is influenced by Béla Bartók and Paul Hindemith.[65][66] Pettersson soon found his own compositional style.[3] In 1951, he created the experimental Seven Sonatas for two Violins. At the same time, he composed the first of his seventeen symphonies, which he left unfinished. This work has been recorded in a performing version prepared by trombonist and conductor Christian Lindberg in 2011.[67]

Pettersson about the symphonic output of the 1950s:

No one in the 1950s noticed, that I am always breaking up the structures, that I was creating a whole new symphonic form.[68][69]

It took four years to write the conceptual and style-defining Symphony No. 6 (1963–1966).[70] His Symphony No. 7 and Symphony No. 8 (1968–1969) have been recorded more than his other works and are probably his best-known. In the 1970s, he composed two related works about social protest and compassion, the Symphony No. 12 for mixed chorus and orchestra (1973–1974) to poems by Literature Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda with contemporary relevance[e] and the cantata Vox Humana (1974) on texts by Latin American poets. During the prolific last decade of his life, he also wrote a concerto for violin and orchestra (1977–1978, rev. 1980) written for the violinist Ida Haendel,[72] a Symphony No. 16 (1979) which features a bravura solo part for alto saxophone commissioned by American saxophonist Frederick L. Hemke,[73] and an incomplete, posthumously discovered concerto for viola and orchestra (1979–1980).[74]

Legacy

In 1968–1969, conductor and composer Antal Doráti arranged eight of Pettersson's Barefoot Songs as full-scale orchestral songs.[75]

Choreographer Birgit Cullberg produced three ballets based on Pettersson's music. Rapport (1976, Symphony No. 7), Vid Urskogens rand (1977, Concerto No. 1 for String Orchestra), Krigsdanser (War Dance) (1979, Symphony No. 9).[76]

The four orchestral sketches "... das Gesegnete, das Verfluchte" (1991) by Peter Ruzicka are a tribute to Pettersson's life and work, quoting sketches of his unfinished Symphony No. 17.[77]

Roy Andersson used the finale of Symphony No. 7 in his short film World of Glory (Härlig är jorden).[78]

After Pettersson's death, the Internationale Allan Pettersson Gesellschaft (International Allan Pettersson Society) issued six yearbooks, Classic Produktion Osnabrück CPO began recording his complete works, and a series of concerts (in 1994–1995) programmed almost all of them.[23][79][80]

In 2002, a Swedish Allan Pettersson Society (Allan Pettersson-sällskapet [sv]) has been founded.[81]

Awards

Discography

The selected discography includes the original format of the recording and releasing label. Some of the LP releases have been reissued on CD. A 12-CD pack of the Complete Symphonies of Allan Pettersson has been produced by CPO (Classic Produktion Osnabrück) based on recordings of 1984, 1988, 1991–1995, 2004. In 2023, a cycle of all Pettersson symphonies produced by BIS Records was completed.[82][83]

Symphonies

Other works

Writings

Notes

  1. ^ Other sources say 1963.[13]
  2. ^ Pettersson and his wife lived for 30 years in this apartment.[38]
  3. ^ Other sources state 1976.[42]
  4. ^ Pettersson's works have been published by Nordiska Musikförlaget.[56]
  5. ^ Pettersson chose poems, in Swedish translations, from the poetic cycle Canto General.[71]

References

Citations

  1. ^ Tadday 2013, p. 3.
  2. ^ Kube 1996, p. 9.
  3. ^ a b c d e Hanne 1995.
  4. ^
    OCLC 1034638954. Archived
    (PDF) from the original on 20 April 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  5. ^ Lambton, Christopher (7 November 1993). "Mahler and a Swedish imitator". The Times. London.
  6. ^ Knust 2013.
  7. ^
    OCLC 908174896. Archived
    (PDF) from the original on 20 April 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  8. ^
    ISBN 978-3-89727-192-0
    .
  9. ^ Broman 2002, p. 532.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Aare 1995.
  11. ^ a b Barkefors 1990, p. 27.
  12. ^ a b c d e Bose, Sudip (24 August 2017). "Who the Hell Is Allan Pettersson?". The American Scholar. Washington. Archived from the original on 6 March 2019. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  13. ^
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  14. ^ Barkefors 1990.
  15. OCLC 33168153
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  16. ^ a b Nicolin 1994, p. 11.
  17. OCLC 716455566. Archived
    (PDF) from the original on 10 May 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  18. ^ a b Kube, Michael (2005). "Pettersson, Allan, Würdigung". In Lütteken, Laurenz (ed.). MGG Online (in German). Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. (subscription required)
  19. ^ Shanks, Mark (19 September 1911). "Composers – Pettersson". Classical Net. Archived from the original on 6 May 2021. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  20. ^ Rapoport 1978, p. 110.
  21. ^ Kube 2013, p. 11.
  22. ^ Barkefors 1994.
  23. ^
    ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0
    .
  24. ^ "Dödsannonser från hela landet". Familjesidan.se (in Swedish). 16 October 1921. Archived from the original on 10 May 2021. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  25. ^ Fischer 2013, p. 41.
  26. ISSN 0015-6140
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  27. ^ Leden, Ido (2011). "Reumatisk sjukdom och konstnärligt skapande: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Raoul Dufy, Allan Pettersson". Reuma Bulletinen—tidskrift för Svensk Reumatologisk Förening (in Swedish). 83 (4/2011): 21–23.
  28. ^ Tadday 2013, p. 111.
  29. ^ Rapoport 1978, p. 114.
  30. OCLC 705252024
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  31. ^ Kube 1996, p. 14.
  32. ^ Kube 2013, p. 15.
  33. ^ Doráti 1986.
  34. ^ Comissiona & Ollefs 1986.
  35. ^ Ollefs 1989.
  36. ^ Pettersson 1989a.
  37. OCLC 38871098
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  38. ^ Caron 2006, p. 24.
  39. ^ Hammar, Sigvard (19 January 1980). "Vår store kompositör". Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). cited in Kube 2013, p. 19.
  40. ^ a b Berggren, Höglind & Källström 1979.
  41. ^ Pettersson 1989b, p. 10.
  42. ^ a b c Meyer, Andreas K.W. (2019). Pettersson: Vox Humana, 6 Sånger (PDF) (booklet). Hellgren, Grevelius, Thimander, Högström, Musica Vitae, Ensemble SYD, Daniel Hansson. Georgsmarienhütte, Germany: cpo 999 286–2. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 April 2021. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  43. ^ Kube 2013, p. 16.
  44. ^ "Mr Allan Pettersson, Obituary". The Times. No. 60684. London. 23 July 1980. p. 16.
  45. ^ "Gravar.se". Gravar.se. 19 September 1911. Archived from the original on 20 April 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  46. OCLC 638281199
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  47. ^ "Gustaf Allan Pettersson". Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. Schirmer. 2001.
  48. ^ Stoïanova 1986, p. 26.
  49. ^ Stoïanova 1986, p. 28.
  50. ^ Stoïanova 1986, p. 32.
  51. ^ Matthes, Werner (19 September 2011). "Musik: Entdeckung eines schwedischen Komponisten". Nordwest Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 20 April 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  52. ^ Köhler, Kai (24 April 2021). "Das Schlagzeug lärmt ..." junge Welt (in German). Archived from the original on 25 April 2021. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  53. ^ Ho, Derek (6 October 2014). "Lindberg sets a new reference for Pettersson's Symphonies No. 4 and 16". ResMusica. Archived from the original on 20 April 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  54. ^ Gülke 1989, p. 83.
  55. ^ Davis 2007, p. 6.
  56. ^ a b Meyer 1990.
  57. neue musikzeitung (in German). Regensburg. Archived
    from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  58. ^ Ho, Derek (2 April 2017). "Everything in clear focus: Christian Lindberg in Allan Pettersson's Symphony No. 14". ResMusica. Archived from the original on 22 April 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  59. ^ Nicolin 1994, p. 57, 115.
  60. ^ Kube 2013, p. 13.
  61. ^ Stoïanova 1986.
  62. ^ "Publications". Ivanka Stoïanova (in French). Archived from the original on 30 May 2023. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  63. ^ Meyer 1990, pp. 69–70.
  64. ^ Pettersson 1952.
  65. ^ Krause 1990.
  66. ^ Keuk 2013, p. 28.
  67. OCLC 749880192
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  68. ^ Rapoport 1981, p. 21.
  69. ^ Stoïanova 1986, p. 34.
  70. ^ Kube 1996, p. 21.
  71. OCLC 1231565131. Archived
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  72. Newspapers.com
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  73. Newspapers.com
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  74. ^ Kube 2013, p. 18.
  75. ^ Doráti 1986, p. 36.
  76. ^ Caron 2006, p. 204.
  77. OCLC 638280608
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  78. ^ "Härlig är jorden (1991)". Swedish Film Database (in Swedish). Swedish Film Institute. Archived from the original on 23 September 2012. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
  79. ^ Im Auftrag der Internationalen Allan-Pettersson-Gesellschaft von Michael Kube 1986b.
  80. ^ Nicolin 1994.
  81. ^ "Vill sprida information om kompositören AP". Allan Pettersson Sällskapet / The Swedish Allan Pettersson Society (in Swedish). 17 April 2018. Archived from the original on 26 November 2023. Retrieved 26 November 2023.
  82. ^ "Allan Pettersson: Complete Edition Box (17 discs and 4 DVDs plus book)". NaxosDirect. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  83. Norrköpings Symfoniorkester
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  84. ^ Meyer 1990, p. 66.
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  87. ^ "Schwedisches RSO mit Daniel Harding – Dunkle Gedanken". Deutschlandfunk Kultur (in German). 7 January 2018. Archived from the original on 31 December 2021. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
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  90. ^ a b c d e f g h Meyer 1990, p. 69.
  91. ^ a b Meyer 1990, p. 70.
  92. ^ "Score Allan Pettersson: Barfotasånger (Barfuss-Lieder) – No. 4, 7 & 8". issuu. Gehrmans Musikforlag. 2017. Archived from the original on 7 March 2023. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  93. ^ https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7979065--pettersson-eight-barefoot-songs
  94. ^ Steen, Renske (25 November 2018). Programmheft Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (PDF) (booklet) (in German). Dortmund: Konzerthaus Dortmund. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 February 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  95. ^ "Score Allan Pettersson: Symfonisk sats (Symphonic Movement)". issuu. Gehrmans Musikforlag. 2018. Archived from the original on 28 February 2023. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  96. ^ "Große Romantik in der Elbphilharmonie". Deutschlandfunk Kultur (in German). 11 January 2019. Archived from the original on 31 December 2021. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
  97. ^ Meyer 1990, p. 71.

Documentary film

Bibliography

External links
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