Untitled - eClassical

For Hugo Alfv6n nature was often a prerequisite for inspiration, whether he was
composing music, painting (very successful) watercolours or cultivating his lively,
racy style as an author. In his memoirs he writes engaeingly about the rich
experiences of his childhood and youth in the Stockholm archipelago. In particular
the stormy autumn nights he spent with his brothers in small boats gave rise to
attractive musical motifs. On such boats he composed large sections oI his Second
Slmphony (BIS-CD-385), of En sktirsdrdssiigen ('A Legend of the Skerries') and also
of the
'Frdn
Symphony No 4, hausbandel' ('From the Outerrnost Skerries'). His
impressionistic piano suite Skdrgd.rdsbilder ('Images of the Skerries' - 1901) with its
movement titles Solglitter, Natt and Bdljudng ('Sun's Sparkle', 'Night' and 'Song of
the Waves') is a further attestation to his love lbr this unique island landscape. His
longing to write a sea symphony was already awakened; his restlessncss and desire
were already embedded in his music: in the choral song Crynins aid haaet ('Dawn by
the Sea') too he depicts the coastal landscape in a highly-charged and gripprng
manner.
In 1903 Alfv6n had just finished work on his first Swedish Rhapsody,
Midsommartaka ('Midsummer Vigil' - BIS-CD-385) when 'a quite different kind
oi music started to ring in my head. Once again the aichipelaeo of Stockholm
appeared in my mind's eye, but this time in gloomy, autumnal attire. I yearned to
write an epos which would depict this nocturnal tragedy in storm and moonbeams
above the straits and bays; it was my wish to show something of that which I myself
had experienced out there among the skerries. Impelled by the longing to drink
from the source of inspiration itself, I.journeyed out to Elfsten - the favouritc
dreaming and working place of my youth - and there, over thc course of some
weeks, I gathered the material for the symphonic poem which was to receive, rn
due time, the name so indicative of its content: En skdrgdrdssagen.'
The piece is, ol course, a grandiose and vital depiction ofnaturc, but Alfv6n was
a highlv subjective artist ibr whom personal expcriences s'ere a necessarv source of
inspiration. Thus there is also a love storv in the backeround, a personal
experience closely related to the archipelago: 'Thc depiction of nature is here
constantly svnonymous with human emotion...'
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