38-557: Axel Evert Taube ( Swedish pronunciation: [ˈěːvɛʈ ˈʈoːb] ; 12 March 1890 – 31 January 1976) was a Swedish author, artist, composer and singer. He is widely regarded as one of Sweden's most respected musicians and the foremost troubadour of the Swedish ballad tradition in the 20th century. Evert Taube was born in 1890 in Gothenburg , and brought up on the island of Vinga , Västergötland , where his father, Carl Gunnar Taube,
76-560: A "finely etched picture", he argues that all together they "build up to an incomparable panorama of that eighteenth-century Stockholm which meets us in Elias Martin's canvasses". Britten Austin writes that No one who has ever risen on an early Swedish summer morning to see the sun shining from a clear sky on the placid water and has heard or read this song, with its breezy familiar air, can ever forget it. Britten Austin explains: "Everything occurs with apparent haphazardness. Yet each stanza
114-443: A big orchestra but are often sung to fairly simple accompaniment on guitar, or other instruments such as piano or accordion. The genre started with Carl Michael Bellman in the late 18th century. In the 19th century, poetic songwriting fell into decline in favour of academic student choirs, until it was revived in the 1890s by Sven Scholander . Poets increasingly continued the tradition of having their poetry put to music to give it
152-483: A boat on the way home after a night out on the island-studded lake. In the boat are the peasant girl Marjo, a tub of butter on her knees, with a cargo of the birch-sprigs that Stockholmers used to decorate their town with as a sign of returning spring, milk, and lambs; and her father, puffing his pipe self-importantly at the helm. It begins: The song is descriptively subtitled " Hvaruti afmålas Ulla Winblads hemresa från Hessingen i Mälaren en sommarmorgon 1769 " ("In which
190-477: A much darker collection of poetry. It is regarded as the foremost collection of Swedish poetry of the 1920s. One of the most renowned Swedish troubadours of the 20th century was Evert Taube (1890–1976). He established himself as a performing artist in 1920 and toured Sweden for about three decades. He is best known for songs about sailors, ballads about Argentina, and songs about the Swedish countryside. A poet who
228-590: A painter and sculptor. Taube is the father of Sven-Bertil Taube who also is a well known musician and actor in Sweden. Sven-Bertil along with covering his fathers songs also covered other poets and artists such as Carl Michael Bellman and Nils Ferlin . Taube died in Stockholm and is buried on the churchyard of Maria Magdalena Church on Södermalm . Taube had a summer house called Sjösala , located in Stavsnäs , which
266-922: A purely literary point of view, the change was undeniably an improvement. Epistle 48 was one of the 20 most popular songs on Swedish school radio between 1934 and 1969, and it remained one of the pieces most often sung by Swedish teachers in the 1970s. In both cases, the Epistle was the only Bellman composition listed. Epistle 48 has been recorded by Cornelis Vreeswijk on his 1971 album Spring mot Ulla, spring! Cornelis sjunger Bellman ; by Evert Taube on his 1976 album Evert Taube Sjunger Och Berättar Om Carl Michael Bellman ; and by Mikael Samuelson on his 1988 album Mikael Samuelson Sjunger Fredmans Epistlar . The 1993 festschrift Fin(s) de Siècle in Scandinavian Perspective: Studies in Honor of Harald S. Naess
304-613: A ship's captain, was the lighthouse keeper. His mother was Julia Sofia Jacobsdotter. Taube belongs to an untitled branch of the Baltic German noble Taube family , introduced at the Swedish House of Nobility in 1668 as noble family No. 734. Having spent two years (1907–1909) sailing around the Red Sea , Ceylon and South Africa, Taube began his career as a singer-songwriter and collector of sailors' songs, and on Christmas Eve 1908, on board
342-505: A tendency to make humorous remarks about women's bodily functions rather than sex in his songs, as with his "[Ulla] Kröp inunder / Med ett dunder / Vände sig och log" ([Ulla] crept under [the bedclothes] / with a thunder / turned over and grinned) in Epistle 36. The first version of Epistle 48 similarly had the line "Tuppen gol och Kerstin fes" (The cockerel crowed and Kerstin farted), later replaced by "Tuppen gol så sträf och hes" (The cockerel crowed so rough and hoarse). Burman remarks that from
380-488: A wider audience. In the early 1900s, a lot of poetry of the 90s poets Gustaf Fröding and Erik Axel Karlfeldt had been put to music, and the popularity of those poets largely depended on the troubadours. Birger Sjöberg (1885–1929) was one of the early popular troubadours. Sjöberg published the poetry collection Frida's Book ( Fridas bok , 1922), a light and humorous story of the young Frida . In 1926, he reinvented himself with Kriser och kransar ( Crises and garlands ),
418-409: Is Lars Winnerbäck , whose folk-rock ballads, often infused with a poetic quality, mix a Christian socialist political message with a typically Swedish sensitivity to nature in the spirit of Vreeswijk, making him one of Sweden's most popular currently active musicians. The contemporary Norwegian ballad tradition, known as the "ballad wave" ( Norwegian : visebølgen ), started as a cultural movement in
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#1732883473870456-400: Is Epistle No. 48 in the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman 's 1790 song collection, Fredman's Epistles . The Epistle is subtitled " Hvaruti afmålas Ulla Winblads hemresa från Hessingen i Mälaren en sommarmorgon 1769 " ("In which is depicted Ulla Winblad's journey home from Hessingen "). One of his best-known and best-loved works, it depicts an early morning on Lake Mälaren , as
494-480: Is a little picture, framed by its melody. We remember it all, seem to have lived through it, like a morning in our own lives." The scholar of literature Lars Lönnroth writes that Bellman transformed song genres including elegy and pastorales into social reportage, and that he achieved this also in his two Bacchanalian lake-journeys, epistles 25 (" Blåsen nu alla ") and 48. The two are, he notes, extremely unlike in style, narrative technique, and Fredman's role in
532-526: Is depicted Ulla Winblad's journey home from Hessingen in Lake Mälaren"). A series of places that can be seen from that waterway are mentioned in the text: Bellman's biographer, the translator Paul Britten Austin calls the poem a masterpiece and "one of Bellman's greatest. At a stroke he created in Swedish poetry a new vision of the natural and urban scene. Fresh as Martin 's. Detailed as Hogarth 's. Frail and ethereal as Watteau's." While each verse paints
570-400: Is known for songs is Nils Ferlin (1898–1961) who published six collection of poetry between 1930 and 1957. Ferlin melancholic but with a stinging irony, and very rhythmical which made them easy for friends and colleagues to put music to. The titles of some of the poems already from the start referred to them being sung as songs, such as "En valsmelodi" (which translates as "A waltz tune"), and
608-461: Is nearly always borrowed and skilfully adapted. Bellman wrote the first draft of Epistle 48 early in 1772, apparently while at work, as it is penned on a sheet of ready-lined record paper of his employer the General Directorate of Customs. The song is in the key of C, in 4 time . It has 21 verses, each consisting of eight lines. The rhyming pattern is ABAB-CCCB; the song
646-497: Is often sung in Swedish schools. Carl Michael Bellman is a central figure in the Swedish ballad tradition and a powerful influence in Swedish music , known for his 1790 Fredman's Epistles and his 1791 Fredman's Songs . A solo entertainer, he played the cittern , accompanying himself as he performed his songs at the royal court. Jean Fredman (1712 or 1713–1767) was a real watchmaker of Bellman's Stockholm. The fictional Fredman, alive after 1767, but without employment,
684-455: Is the supposed narrator in Bellman's epistles and songs. The epistles, written and performed in different styles, from drinking songs and laments to pastorales , paint a complex picture of the life of the city during the 18th century. A frequent theme is the demimonde , with Fredman's cheerfully drunk Order of Bacchus , a loose company of ragged men who favour strong drink and prostitutes. At
722-666: The Rococo muse Ulla Winblad sails back home to Stockholm after a night spent partying on the lake. The composition is one of Bellman's two Bacchanalian lake-journeys, along with epistle 25 (" Blåsen nu alla "), representing a venture into a social realism style. Places along the route can be identified from Bellman's descriptions. The work has been called a masterpiece, with its freshness compared to Elias Martin 's paintings, its detail to William Hogarth 's, its delicacy to Watteau's , building up "an incomparable panorama" of 18th century Stockholm. The Epistle, alone among Bellman's works,
760-505: The 1783 edition of Bacchi Tempel , and his poem "Ur en tunn och ljusblå sky", to the same tune. The Epistle paints a charming picture of an early morning on Lake Mälaren , as the Rococo muse Ulla Winblad sails back home to Stockholm. The song brings in Movitz the cellist, another of Bellman's stock characters in Fredman's Epistles , based on one of his friends. The song tells the story of
798-505: The 1960s, greatly inspired by the Swedish ballad tradition and its modern representatives such as Olle Adolphson and Cornelis Vreeswijk. Some of its prominent representatives are Ole Paus , Lillebjørn Nilsen and Finn Kalvik ; Alf Prøysen was also called a visesanger , and influenced but in many ways preceded the Norwegian "ballad wave." Solen glimmar blank och trind Solen glimmar blank och trind (The sun gleams smooth and round)
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#1732883473870836-691: The 1964–1965 period she undertook travel for work, along with Taube, going to the Antibes in France and to the Pampas in Argentina . She collaborated with Astri Taube on "Vid tiden för Astri och Apollon: okända dikter och berättelser", published in 1964. During the 1960s Fredholm collected Evert Taube's stories and published them in eight volumes at Albert Bonniers Förlag under the shared title of "Samlade berättelser med tillhörande visor och ballader", released 1966–1967. In
874-655: The 1970s she produced two pictorial biographies of Taube: ”När jag var en ung caballero: en bildbiografi" (1970) and ”Kom i min famn: Evert Taube 1920-1971 : en bildbiografi" (1972). Among Taube's most famous songs are " Calle Schewens vals ", " Min älskling (du är som en ros) ", "Dans på Sunnanö", "Brevet Från Lillan", "Flickan i Havanna", " Änglamark ", " Sjösala vals ", " Fritiof och Carmencita ", " Så skimrande var aldrig havet " and "Så länge skutan kan gå". In 1976 he released an album of songs (on SR Records) about and by Sweden's 18th-century bard, Carl Michael Bellman , performing 9 of Bellman's Fredman's Epistles including
912-566: The Norwegian ship SS Bergen headed for Spain, he performed "Turalleri, piken fra Hamburg". Following a five-year stay (1910–1915) in Argentina , he developed an interest in Latin American music and introduced the Argentinian tango to Sweden in the twenties. Contrary to widespread perceptions, Taube did not work as a gaucho (cowboy) on the Pampas but as a foreman supervising workers who were digging canals designed to prevent flooding on
950-484: The anthem of the budding environmental movement in the 1970s, " Änglamark " (originally written for the successful 1971 Hasse & Tage film The Apple War ). Taube's literary secretary Inga-Britt Fredholm was from the late 1950s working as a secretary at the Park Avenue Hotel in Gothenburg . There, in 1962, Evert Taube met her and this led to her becoming his literary secretary for more than ten years. During
988-423: The description. Whereas epistle 25 portrays Ulla Winblad as the goddess Venus , and speaks of Neptune's court with classical mythological appurtenances like zephyrs , water-nymphs, and "all the might of Paphos" ( the birthplace of Venus ), Solen glimmar starts entirely naturalistically. Lönnroth notes that the subtitle explicitly states that the song paints a landscape, with the word "avmålas", "is depicted"; that
1026-555: The ever popular Vila vid denna källa , Ulla! min Ulla! säj, får jag dig bjuda , and Solen glimmar blank och trind . Taube has been translated into English by Helen Asbury, Paul Britten Austin , Emily Melcher and others. His songs have been recorded in English by Roger Whittaker , Sven-Bertil Taube , Martin Best , Roger Hinchliffe and Emily Melcher. In 1925, he married Astri Bergman Taube ,
1064-460: The popular Scandinavian sing-along tradition. The song type is typically known as visa in Swedish or vise in Norwegian, and troubadours in the genre are called vissångare in Swedish or visesanger in Norwegian. In context, the Swedish word "ballad" is a subtype of "visa" that tells a story in many verses, similar to the medieval ballads , as opposed to for instance lyrical songs about the beauty of nature. The Swedish ballads can be performed to
1102-597: The same time as depicting this realist side of life, Bellman creates a rococo picture, full of classical allusion, following the French post- Baroque poets. The women, including the beautiful Ulla Winblad , are " nymphs ", while Neptune 's festive troop of followers and sea-creatures sport in Stockholm's waters. The juxtaposition of elegant and low life is humorous, sometimes burlesque , but always graceful and sympathetic. The songs are "most ingeniously" set to their music, which
1140-468: The title of his first collection of poems, "En döddansares visor". Other well-known singer-songwriters in the Swedish ballad tradition after Evert Taube were Olle Adolphson (1934–2004) and Cornelis Vreeswijk (1937–1987). Vreeswijk's songs were initially leftist protest songs where he took upon himself to speak for the weaker men of society. After his death, Vreeswijk also gained appreciation for his poetic qualities. A Swedish contemporary troubadour
1178-434: The tradition, the Swedish ballad tradition has been particularly influential, but the tradition also exists in the other Scandinavian countries. This visa tradition should not be confused with traditional "medieval" Swedish ballads ( medeltida ballader ), which are representative of a typical tradition of Scandinavian ballads . The Scandinavian ballad tradition today is both a respected art form and an important basis of
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1216-570: The vast plains. He is perhaps best known as a depictor of the idyllic, with motifs from the Swedish archipelagoes and from the Mediterranean , from a perspective every Swedish four-week holiday tourist could recognize. But he also wrote the most hard-hitting anti-fascist anti-war poem in the Swedish language, "Målaren och Maria Pia", about the Italian war in Abyssinia, from the late 1930s. He also composed
1254-469: The verses offer small "snapshots" of nature and country life; how Ulla is here no muse but a flesh-and-blood woman; and how the text of verse 12 actually speaks of painting a landscape. He writes that in verse 4, the factual narrative is linked to Fredman's company with an invitation to Movitz to blow his horn, Bellman's usual signal that the scene is changing; in epistle 25, the invitation to blow introduces Neptune and his entourage. In Solen glimmar , he ends
1292-565: The voyage with the arrival of Fredman and company at an inn where the seasick Ulla drops her skirt and climbs into bed; she is accompanied by Norström, and followed by Movitz with his bassoon , calling out to Norström that "The woman belongs to all of us". Lönnroth comments that the two epistles move the Fredman opus towards greater realism, but that this only adds to Bellman's repertoire of biblical parody and mythological rhetoric. Carina Burman comments in her biography of Bellman that Bellman had
1330-590: Was a favourite of Bellman's, and is of French origin, where it had been used by Antoine de Bourbon . It is found in Joseph de La Font 's 1714 opéra-ballet Fêtes de Thalie , the music composed by Jean-Joseph Mouret under the name of "Le Cotillon". This may not have been where Bellman obtained the melody, as it was, the musicologist James Massengale writes, evidently a popular tune at that time, known by many different names ("timbres"). Bellman knew it as "Si le roy m'avoit donné", and set his song "Uppå vattnets lugna våg" in
1368-546: Was accepted at the Oslo (Gardermoen) base with the tail image of Evert Taube. On 6 April 2011, the Bank of Sweden announced that Taube's portrait will feature on the 50 kronor banknote, beginning in 2014–15. On 12 March 2013, a Google Doodle was dedicated to him. Swedish English Translations Swedish ballad tradition The Scandinavian ballad tradition is the tradition of Scandinavian poetic singer-songwriters. Within
1406-811: Was burned down by Mona Wallén-Hjerpe in 1969. On his 60th birthday in 1950, Taube received the Bellman Award from the Swedish Academy and in 1960 he received an honorary doctorate from Gothenburg University . He was elected as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 1970. Taube is regarded as one of the finest troubadours in Sweden. There is a complete pavilion, "Evert Taube's World" opened in 2008, dedicated to him at Liseberg Theme Park in Gothenburg. On 25 March 2010, Norwegian Air Shuttle's (Norwegian.com) new Boeing 737-8FZ LN-NOV (msn 31713)
1444-473: Was written in February 1772. It has a "gay dancing melody", which along with the poem gives the listener an irresistible impression of being himself present at the song's conception; seems to catch the dashing rhythm of the vessel as it plunges through the waves, to be listening to the voice of the poet where he sits in the stern, improvising his stanza out of the raw materials of the passing moment. The melody
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