Åke Olof Sebastian Uddén (18 August 1903 in Lossa (now Låssa),

Upplands-Bro Municipality Upplands-Bro Municipality (''Upplands-Bro kommun'') is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Kungsängen. The municipality was formed in 1952 through the amalgamation of five rural municipal ...

Stockholm County Stockholm County ( sv, Stockholms län, link=no ) is a county or '' län'' (in Swedish) on the Baltic Sea coast of Sweden. It borders Uppsala County and Södermanland County. It also borders Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. The city of Stockholm ...

– 28 April 1987 in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

violist ; german: Bratsche , alt=Viola shown from the front and the side , image=Bratsche.jpg , caption= , background=string , hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow , range= , related= *Violin family ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

, conductor and music educator. Uddén studied in Stockholm with Henrik Melcher Melchers and Julius Ruthström, and subsequently from 1926 to 1928 with

Georges Caussade Georges Paul Alphonse Emilien Caussade (20 November 1873 – 5 August 1936) was a French composer, music theorist, and music educator. Biography Born in Port Louis, Mauritius, he joined the faculty of the Conservatoire de Paris in 1905 as a teac ...

and Charles Tournemire at the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

. Uddén played viola in the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1943 until 1956. He was a teacher of counterpoint at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

from 1934 to 1970, and was also conductor of the Stockholm Academic Orchestra (1955–1985). His limited output, influenced by French music, includes a number of orchestral, vocal and chamber music works, among them a string trio written during his studies in Paris, and two string quartets.Grove, "Åke Uddén", 19:308.

Selected works

;Orchestral * ''Nocturne'' * ''Vår'' (Spring) for chamber orchestra * ''Menuett'' (1932) * ''Saraband'' * ''Gavotte'' (1935) * ''Lustspels-Uvertyr'' (Comic Overture) (1935, revised 1950) * ''Introitus academicus'' (1971) ;Chamber music * String Trio (1928) * Sonata in D major for flute and viola, Op.2 (1931) * ''Duo "Småprat"'' (Small Talk) for 2 violas (1933) * Sonatina for viola solo, Op. 3 (1933, revised 1986) * String Quartet No. 1 (1940) * String Quartet No. 2 (1956) ;Vocal * ''Är jag intill döden trött'' (I Am Tired unto Death) for voice and chamber orchestra (1930); words by Harriet Löwenhjelm * ''En gammal vårvisa'' (An Old Spring Song) for 3 female voices and piano (1939) * ''Midsommarvisa: Folkvisa från Västmanland'' (Folk Tune from

Västmanland Västmanland ( or ), is a historical Swedish province, or ''landskap'', in middle Sweden. It borders Södermanland, Närke, Värmland, Dalarna and Uppland. Västmanland means "(The) Land of the Western Men", where the "western men" (''västerm ...

) for 3 female voices and piano (1939) * ''Tre sånger ur Chansons de Bilitis'' (3 Songs from

Chansons de Bilitis ''The Songs of Bilitis'' (; french: Les Chansons de Bilitis) is a collection of erotic, essentially lesbian, poetry by Pierre Louÿs published in Paris in 1894. Since Louÿs claimed that he had translated the original poetry from Ancient Greek, t ...

) for voice and piano (1941–1945); words by

Pierre Louÿs Pierre Louÿs (; 10 December 1870 – 4 June 1925) was a French poet and writer, most renowned for lesbian and classical themes in some of his writings. He is known as a writer who sought to "express pagan sensuality with stylistic perfection". ...

* ''Nocturne'' for tenor and piano (1946)

Sources

* Lönn, Anders, "Åke Uddén", in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', 20 vols., ed. Stanley Sadie, London: Macmillan, 1980. .
Swedish Music Information Centre: Åke Uddén biography

References

External links

Åke Uddén at the Swedish Music Information Centre
1903 births 1987 deaths 20th-century classical composers People from Upplands-Bro Municipality Musicians from Stockholm County Academic staff of the Royal College of Music, Stockholm Swedish classical composers Swedish male classical composers Swedish classical violists Swedish music educators Swedish conductors (music) Swedish male conductors (music) 20th-century conductors (music) 20th-century Swedish male musicians 20th-century Swedish musicians 20th-century violists {{Sweden-composer-stub