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Most favorite Scandinavian Composer?

  • F.A. Berwald

    Votes: 1 0.9%
  • Wilhelm Stenhammar

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Ludvig Norman

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Johan Helmich Roman

    Votes: 1 0.9%
  • Hugo Alfvén

    Votes: 2 1.8%
  • Lars-Erik Larsson

    Votes: 1 0.9%
  • Carl Nielsen

    Votes: 11 9.9%
  • Hans Christian Lumbye

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Edvard Grieg

    Votes: 22 19.8%
  • Johan Svendsen

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Per NørgÃ¥rd

    Votes: 2 1.8%
  • Rued Langgaard

    Votes: 3 2.7%
  • Jean Sibelius

    Votes: 58 52.3%
  • Magnus Lindberg

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other who's excluded because of poll limit (comment)

    Votes: 10 9.0%

Scandinavian Composers

30K views 84 replies 46 participants last post by  Judith 
#1 ·
So who are your favorite Scandinavian Composers? Those of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.

Then Choose your most favorite from the poll.
 
#46 ·
I couldn't vote for Sibelius because, like Lindberg (a rather strange inclusion, looking at the other names on the list), they are Finnish and Finns are not ethnically, linguistically or culturally Scandinavians. Yes, I know that Sibelius was a Swedish-speaking Finn and Lindberg has a Swedish-sounding name, but Scandinavians are Danes, Norwegians and Swedes, with their cultural neighbours, the Icelandics and Faroese far closer to them than the Finns, who just happen to be next door on the same north European peninsula. The Finns are actually very closely related to the Estonians and Karelians.
 
#50 ·
This is actually a more complicated issue, not so clear cut. Culturally, Finns (and Estonians) are after all rather similar to the Swedes. Also remember that what today is called Finland was, for a very long time, part of Sweden, thus we have also a lot of Swedish blood in the population - even the Finnish-speaking population.

But the core of the question is, what determines a region like "Scandinavia"? If it's the culture, you could count Finland and Estonia in. If it's shared biological ancestry, they'd make corner cases, perhaps. If it's the language, they should probably be excluded (although both countries have Swedish-speaking minorities). If it's geography, well, it just depends on where you draw the line. If it's a combination of these things... well, both "yes" and "no" would be acceptable answers.

But of course you're right in that "core" Scandinavia remains Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Faroese islands.

p.s. and then there's Åland, an island group belonging to Finland with a completely Swedish speaking, ethnic Swedish population with completely Swedish culture... like I said... "it's complicated"!
 
#61 ·
Yes, the Swedes has had a very large influence in the whole Baltic and East-European region, and in part in it lasted until WW II. There was some rivalry with Denmark, but the Danes lost much of the territories back in the mid-17th century and their rule of Norway in 1814, which then became independent, as well as a part of Northern Germany in 1864 (This is also the reason for the Danish Capital being nowadays situated at the Easternmost edge of the country).

A few seniors still speak Estonian-Swedish in Estonia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_Swedes). As an example, the Estonia composer Eduard Tubin fled to Sweden and lived there from 1944 until his death in 1982. Even a village deep into the Ukraine still maintains a bit of Swedish heritage too http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gammalsvenskby.
 
#62 ·
Good morning,

This may be off-topic.

I have a CD (on the Da Capo label) of works by the Danish composer Poul Rovsing Olsen (1922-82). I'd never heard of him until I read a review of a CD of his piano concerto and orchestral works in an issue of Arkiv Music's Listen: Life with Classical Music magazine. Is Roving Olsen considered a "minor" composer; and if one were to file him in an alphabetical collection, would he go under O for Olsen or R for Rovsing Olsen? I assumed that Rovsing is his middle name and Olsen his last name, so I filed him under O between the bands Off Kilter and One Alternative.

Jim
 
#63 ·
In an old Danish dictionary of mine, he´s filed under "Rovsing Olsen, Poul", so that must be correct. He is considered a bit of a connoisseur´s composer I guess, and isn´t much performed here either, mostly at chamber concerts now and then. But he has a good reputation also due to his field studies of Greenlandic and Arabic music etc., partly influencing his own works in a creative way.

The local label Paula issued a good CD of chamber works and another good one with piano works. Besides the Dacapo releases, a few works were also recorded on LP, including the "Sinfonia I" on an old Odeon LP, conducted by Friisholm.

Some more info here: http://www.edition-s.dk/composer/poul-rovsing-olsen
Dacapo label: http://www.dacapo-records.dk/da/rev...-orchestral-works--american-record-guide.aspx
 
#74 ·
Seconding Tubin. I love his music. But does he actually count as a Scandinavian composer? :confused: Is Estonia considered part of Scandinavia? I just did a quick Google search and it yielded inconclusive results on this issue...
 
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#73 ·
Grieg is my favorite Scandinavian composer. My favorite works of his are the Piano Concerto in A minor, Piano Sonata Op. 7, and Ballade in G minor. Honorable mention to his charming little lyric pieces as well!
 
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