På moln stod du!

by Christian Holmqvist

for baritone (or bass) and piano

Description

Josef Julius Wecksell (1838-1907) was one of the most talented and admired Swedish-speaking Finnish writers. As fits a romantic poet, his mental health was always a bit unsteady. In 1865 he had to be committed to a mental asylum, where he spent the last 42 years of his life. Wecksell’s last poem, På moln stod du! (You stood on clouds!), was published in 1863. It was initially seen as nothing more than a rather weird scribble, showing signs of a deranged mind. But the hallucinatory treatment of symbols and surreal images is certainly not done at random, and one could argue that Wecksell consciously strived for a new poetic language. His last poem is a pre-modernistic masterpiece written by an artist on the brink of disaster, not by a man already destroyed by schizophrenia.

@ Christian Holmqvist 2018

Instrumentation

baryt, pno

Category

Vocal and Choral Works

Language

Sv

Lyricist

J.J. Wecksell

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Archive number

MF33376

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