Edvin Kallstenius was a Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 and librarian.
He arranged the traditional folk tune used as the de facto

De facto

De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...

national anthem

National anthem

A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...

 of Sweden, Du gamla, Du fria

Du gamla, Du fria

"Du gamla, Du fria" is the de facto national anthem of Sweden. It was originally named "Sång till Norden" , and the first words of its lyrics have become adopted as the title in the interim....

.

Life and career

Kallstenius studied natural sciences at the Lunds universitet, then music at the Leipzig Conservatory under Stephan Krehl

Stephan Krehl

Stephan Krehl was a German composer, teacher, and theoretician. His writings include Traité général de la musique and Théorie de la musique et de science de la composition.-Works:...

 from 1904-1907. As music librarian at Swedish Radio from 1928-46 he made a significant contribution in the field of music administration in Sweden.

He also served on the Board of the Society of Swedish Composers from 1933-1961 (Treasurer 1933-1943) and was on the board of the Swedish Performing Rights Society from 1932-1957.

In addition to arranging Du gamla, Du fria, his work includes five symphonies and eight string quartets. He also published an annotated catalogue of Swedish orchestral works.

Kallstenius achieved an individual style and avoided using only tonal language by devising intense melodies reinforced with imaginative harmony. He declared that his "musical religion is called harmonics – everything else is secondary" and from this basis he worked out his 'meticulously declamed themes'. Although in later works he employed his own personal interpretation of serial

Serialism

In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...

 style he also composed charming versions of older Swedish music.

Selected compositions

• Symphonies 1-5
• Four Sinfoniettas
• Piano Concerto, op 12 (1922)
• Cello Concerto, op 40 (1951)
• En serenad i sommarnatten op 10 (1918)
• Dalarapsodi op 18 (1931)
• Swedish Rococo Suite (1932)
• Suite for 14 wind instruments and drums (1938)
• Cello sonata, op 6 (1907)
• Violin sonata, op 7 (1909)
• String quartets 1-8
• Clarinet quintet, op 17 (1930)
• Choral works: Stjärntändningen, op 38, Hymen, o Hymenaios, op 45, Sångoffer, op 32

External links

• Edvin Kallstenius via Classical Composers database
• biography and review via Classical Music on the Web