Gustaf Wilhelm Petersson Hägg (November 28, 1867 – February 2, 1925) was a Swedish organist and composer.

Life

Hägg was born in

Visby Visby () is an urban area in Sweden and the seat of Gotland Municipality in Gotland County on the island of Gotland with 24,330 inhabitants . Visby is also the episcopal see for the Diocese of Visby. The Hanseatic city of Visby is arguably th ...

Gotland Gotland (, ; ''Gutland'' in Gutnish), also historically spelled Gottland or Gothland (), is Sweden's largest island. It is also a province, county, municipality, and diocese. The province includes the islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the ...

. He studied at the

Royal Swedish College of Music The Royal College of Music, Stockholm ( sv, Kungliga Musikhögskolan i Stockholm) is the oldest institution of higher education in music in Sweden, founded in 1771 as the conservatory of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. The institution was mad ...

receiving his organist's degree in 1886 and his higher degree (kyrkosångar- och musiklärarexamen) in 1889. He was appointed organist of

Klara Church The Church of Saint Clare or Klara Church ( sv, Klara kyrka) is a church in central Stockholm. Since 1989, the Swedish Evangelical Mission is responsible for its activities. The Church of Saint Clare is located on Klara Västra Kyrkogata in the ...

in 1893 and began teaching harmony at the Royal College in 1904. In 1908 he began teaching organ and he was appointed professor of organ in 1915. He died 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 ...

. His "Legend" for reed organ has been republished by the Reed Organ Society; it is a short, highly chromatic piece of intermediate difficulty, somewhat in the style of Grieg. It begins in six-eight in d-minor, with a folklike theme repeated with variants over sustained chords. The second theme is more-or-less in E-major, but with many accidentals and a highly chromatic accompaniment in the left hand. After the second theme is developed, an abbreviated version of the original theme is restated, and then abruptly shifts from d-minor to D-major, where it is developed, briefly returning to a minor tonality before resolving on a drawn-out D-major chord. The story, one imagines, had a said beginning and a happy ending, but not without a bittersweet sense of something lost forever. While the piece will work on a standard pipe organ, it sounds much better on a reed organ (either a European harmonium or an American pump organ), as the rise and fall of the air pressure from the player's working the treadles meshes with the music. The constant pressure of a pipe organ makes it sound rather dull, although a skilled player may approximate the effect by a judicious use of the swell pedal. His works include for instance an

overture Overture (from French ''ouverture'', "opening") in music was originally the instrumental introduction to a ballet, opera, or oratorio in the 17th century. During the early Romantic era, composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn composed overt ...

in G minor (1891),

symphony A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...

in D (manuscript, 1899), various published organ works, and a piano trio in G minor (1896).

References

External links

* 1867 births 1925 deaths People from Gotland Royal College of Music, Stockholm alumni Swedish classical composers Swedish male classical composers Swedish classical organists Male classical organists {{Sweden-composer-stub