Gösta Nystroem (13 October 1890 – 9 August 1966) 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 ...

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 def ...

. Nystroem, originally ''Nyström'', was born in Silvberg, Sweden, a parish in the province of

Dalarna Dalarna (; ), also referred to by the English exonyms Dalecarlia and the Dales, is a (historical province) in central Sweden. Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland. It is also bordered by Nor ...

, but spent most of his childhood in Österhaninge near Stockholm, at the time a small village but nowadays a suburban district. His father was a

headmaster A headmaster/headmistress, head teacher, head, school administrator, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. Role While s ...

and an

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

. In his younger days, Nystroem was both a composer and a painter (one of the first Swedish Cubists), but when he was about thirty years old, he eventually decided to focus on music. He studied

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

in Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Paris. Among his teachers in Paris were

Vincent d'Indy Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy (; 27 March 18512 December 1931) was a French composer and teacher. His influence as a teacher, in particular, was considerable. He was a co-founder of the Schola Cantorum de Paris and also taught at the Pa ...

and

Leonid Sabaneyev Leonid Leonidovich Sabaneyev or Sabaneyeff or Sabaneev () (3 May 1968) was a Russian musicologist, music critic, composer and scientist. He was the son of Leonid Pavlovich Sabaneyev, a famous hunting expert, and his brother Boris was also a music ...

. After living in France, mostly in Paris, for several years, he moved to

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

on the Swedish west coast in the 1930s, where he also worked as a music critic at

Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning ''Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning'' (GHT) was a daily newspaper published in Gothenburg, Sweden, from 1832 to 1985. History and profile ''Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning'' was founded in 1832 by publisher Magnus Prytz and had ...

. In 1934–36 he also worked as the curator at

Göteborgs Konsthall Göteborgs Konsthall is a contemporary art gallery, contemporary art Kunsthalle, exhibition hall in Gothenburg, Sweden. Description Göteborgs Konsthall exhibits both Swedish and international art. It is situated in a Classicism, classicist bui ...

. In the 1950s he settled in

Särö Särö () is an area in Kungsbacka Municipality, Halland County, Sweden, with 3,165 inhabitants in 2010. It is located south of Gothenburg on the Särö peninsula. Geographically, the peninsula marks the transition from the Bohuslän archipelago in ...

, a rather wealthy village about twenty kilometres south of Gothenburg, where he had a house that originally belonged to the family of his first wife, Gladys Heyman, whom he married in 1921 in France. The couple had three daughters. Gladys died in 1946, and in 1950 Nystroem remarried. His second wife was Helen Lyon, who, like Gladys Heyman, came from an upper class Gothenburg family. Nystroem himself died in

. In Sweden, Nystroem was regarded as a modernist in the 1930s, but in today's view, his music is only moderately modernistic. It is influenced by the French music of the time of his studies, but still has a Nordic, romantic tone, and is most often melancholic or sorrowful. As a person and artist Nystroem was dependent on the sea and preferred to live close to it. Among Nystroem's most appreciated works are his romances. The most widely known collections are ''Sånger vid havet'' (''Songs by the sea'', with orchestra or piano, 1942), ''På reveln'' (''At the reef'', with piano, 1948) and ''Själ och landskap: nya sånger vid havet'' (''Soul and landscape: new songs by the sea'', with piano, 1950). The poet apparently closest to Nystroem's soul was the Swedish writer

Ebba Lindqvist Ebba Helfrid Lindqvist-Galéen (7 April 1908 – 5 September 1995) was a Swedish poet. She studied for a Master's degree in Uppsala and became a Swedish teacher at Gothenburg upper secondary school for girls. Married in 1933 with business schoo ...

(1908–1995). They shared a deep relationship with the sea. Five settings to music of Lindqvist's poems are to be found in the romance collections mentioned above. Nystroem composed six symphonies. Among these, ''Sinfonia espressiva'' (1932–37) and ''Sinfonia del mare'' (1946–48) are considered to be the best. ''Sinfonia espressiva'' grows from a slow first movement scored for strings and timpani. In the second and third movements, groups of wind instruments and percussion are added, and only the finale is scored for full orchestra. The sea symphony, ''Sinfonia del mare'', is written in one continuous movement, picturing different moods inspired by the sea. It is Nystroem's most popular work and might be said to have overshadowed other important works in his output. In the middle of the symphony is a section where a soprano sings a setting of Lindqvist's poem "Det enda" ("The one") about a person who has fled from the sea, "as one flees from the beloved", but who will soon return to "sit by the sea and know it's the one on earth". Nystroem's other symphonies, seldom played, are ''Sinfonia breve'' (1929–31), ''Symphony No. 4'' (1952, originally entitled ''Sinfonia shakespeariana''), ''Sinfonia seria'' (1962–63), and ''Sinfonia tramontana'' (1965).

Chronological worklist

* 1917 revised 1924 Rondo Capriccioso for violin & orchestra * 1924 Regrets, 6 pieces for solo piano * 1924–25 Arctic Ocean (Ishavet or La mer arctique), symphonic poem after an unfinished ballet * 1925 Tower of Babel, symphonic poem * 1929–30 Concerto for Strings No. 1 * 1929–31 Sinfonia Breve (Symphony No. 1) * 1932–35 revised 1937 Sinfonia Espressiva (Symphony No. 2) * 1934 The Tempest, incidental music to Shakespeare * 1936 Merchant of Venice (Theatre Suite No. 4) * 1940 Viola Concerto "Hommage à la France" * 1940–44 revised 1951-2 Sinfonia Concertante for cello & orchestra * 1942 Songs by the Sea, five songs for voice with orchestra or piano * 1945 Ouverture Symphonique * 1946–48 Sinfonia del Mare (Symphony No. 3) after Ebba Lindqvist, for soprano & orchestra * 1948 At the Reef, for voice & piano * 1950 Soul & Landscape, three Ebba Lindqvist poems for soprano & piano * 1952 Sinfonia Shakespeariana (Symphony No. 4) * 1952 Ungersvennen och de sex Prinsessorna, ballet * 1953 Partita for flute, string orchestra & harp * 1954–57 Violin Concerto * 1955 Concerto for Strings No. 2 * 1956 String Quartet * 1956 Tre havsvisioner, a three part series for eight-part mixed chorus * 1958 Herr Arnes penningar, opera based on a novel by

Selma Lagerlöf Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf (, , ; 20 November 1858 – 16 March 1940) was a Swedish writer. She published her first novel, ''Gösta Berling's Saga'', at the age of 33. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, which she was ...

* 1959 Piano Concerto "Concerto Ricercante" * 195? Midsummer Dream, after Martinson, for soprano & piano * 1962–63 Sinfonia Seria (Symphony No. 5) * 1963 Sinfonia di Lontano * 1964 Sommarmusik for soprano & orchestra * 1965 Sinfonia Tramontana (Symphony No. 6)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nystroem, Gosta Swedish classical composers 1890 births 1966 deaths People from Säter Municipality 20th-century Swedish composers Musicians from Dalarna County