Merry Christmas (part 2)!🎄🌟Today on Christmas Day I give you a partita on the medieval Christmas hymn 'Lov vare dig, o Jesu Krist', composed in 1933 by Waldemar Åhlén, who is most famous for his summer hymn 'En vänlig grönskas rika dräkt'. The hymn itself was going out of fashion already at the time, and although it can still be found in Swedish hymnbooks (as 'Dig vare lov…'), it seems nobody sings it these days.😢But now you get to hear it!😃Even though the great organist Gotthard Arnér wrote at the death of Åhlén that "us organists could hardly be without the partita on 'Love vare dig'", Åhlén himself complained that it never got as popular as he had hoped. Today I’m afraid very few people play it!☹And for the geeks: It was written in the earliest stages of both the 'new objectivity' era (which aimed at a less romantic, more 'sober', baroque-like style) and the 'organ reform movement' (which wanted to move away from the romantic symphonic organ, also towards a more baroque-like style). This organ from 1929, in Linköping Cathedral, is one of the few original organs (if not the only one?) in the country where you could use the exact stops prescribed by Åhlén, with both the romantic foundation (with Euphon!) and the brighter 'baroque' stops like Mixtur and Kvintadena (and frequent use of 2' stops).🎹✨ I hope you like this music, and as always - don’t forget to click the thumbs-up and subscribe! And there’s more Christmas music coming up!🎅🎁
Merry Christmas (part 2)!🎄🌟Today on Christmas Day I give you a partita on the medieval Christmas hymn 'Lov vare dig, o Jesu Krist', composed in 1933 by Waldemar Åhlén, who is most famous for his summer hymn 'En vänlig grönskas rika dräkt'. The hymn itself was going out of fashion already at the time, and although it can still be found in Swedish hymnbooks (as 'Dig vare lov…'), it seems nobody sings it these days.😢But now you get to hear it!😃Even though the great organist Gotthard Arnér wrote at the death of Åhlén that "us organists could hardly be without the partita on 'Love vare dig'", Åhlén himself complained that it never got as popular as he had hoped. Today I’m afraid very few people play it!☹And for the geeks: It was written in the earliest stages of both the 'new objectivity' era (which aimed at a less romantic, more 'sober', baroque-like style) and the 'organ reform movement' (which wanted to move away from the romantic symphonic organ, also towards a more baroque-like style). This organ from 1929, in Linköping Cathedral, is one of the few original organs (if not the only one?) in the country where you could use the exact stops prescribed by Åhlén, with both the romantic foundation (with Euphon!) and the brighter 'baroque' stops like Mixtur and Kvintadena (and frequent use of 2' stops).🎹✨
I hope you like this music, and as always - don’t forget to click the thumbs-up and subscribe! And there’s more Christmas music coming up!🎅🎁
Beautiful meeting between the ancient and the contemporary. The beauty of Christmas is best conveyed here through music.