Olof Åhlström

Olof Åhlström (15 August 1756 – 11 August 1835) was a Swedish civil servant, composer and music publisher.

Åhlström was born in a peasant family in Vårdinge parish in Södermanland. He received early musical lessons from the parish organist but left his home at the age of sixteen to enroll in the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. He was appointed organist in the Stockholm parish of Maria Magdalena in 1777 and moved to Jakob parish in 1792. In addition to his professional life as a musician, he took a clerk's position in the War College, where in 1805 he reached the position of ''krigsråd'' ("War Councillor"). He retired from his position in the War College in 1824, but stayed as organist in Jakob until his death eleven years later.

His own compositions include a large number of songs, among them many poems by Anna Maria Lenngren, who was his sister-in-law, that he had set to music. These were published in several parts of ''Skalde-stycken satte i musik'' (1794–1823). He also composed a number of chorales, a cantata, fourteen sonatas, and an opera, ''Frigga'' (1787).

In 1788, Åhlström established ''Musikaliska Tryckeriet'', the first larger-scale musical printing press in Sweden, and received a 20-year exclusive royal privilege for the engraving and printing of sheet music; anyone encroaching on his monopoly was to be fined 100 riksdaler. He introduced a new method of printing the sheets with types made from pewter with a small portion of lead. The method was cheaper than the copperplates previously used for the printing of music in Sweden, but was criticized for producing dark and dirty prints. The production of his press included compositions by Johan Wikmanson; ''Traditioner af swenska folk-dansar'', folk dances collected and written down by Åhlström together with the folklore scholar Arvid August Afzelius; and fifteen parts of ''Musikaliskt tidsfördrif'', a collection of pieces popular at the time, mostly for piano or song accompanied by piano.
Åhlström also published the first edition of Carl Michael Bellman's song cycle ''Fredman's Epistles'' (1790) in collaboration with Bellman himself and the poet Johan Henrik Kellgren, who wrote an introduction and edited the song texts. Åhlström made arrangements of the songs for piano. It was followed in 1791 by '' Fredman's Songs'', a collection of songs by Bellman not included among the ''Epistles''. The relative influence of Kellgren and Åhlström over the final edition of both collections of songs, compared to that of the author, is a complex and partly unresolvable issue.For a recent treatment and a summary of earlier research, see the 1990 critical edition of the Epistles by Gunnar Hillbom (text) & James Massengale (music), in particular Hillbom's introduction, "Fredmans epistlar 1790 och 1990", in vol. 2, pp. 111-152 (which covers Åhlström's and Kellgren's collaboration with Bellman on the first edition and its prehistory). The corresponding work on the ''Fredman's Songs'' is the 1992 edition by Hillbom and Massengale. The background of the collection is covered by Hillbom in "Sångerna som blev Fredmans", vol. 2, pp. 95-134, the publication of the 1791 edition in particular on pp. 108-114. LIBRIS entries for the original editions:
Fredmans epistlar
' (1790) and
Fredmans sånger
'
links
to digitized copies).

File:Ahlstrom Traditioner Swenska Folkdansar H 3 N 30.jpg, A folk tune from Ã…land. Traditioner af Swenska Folk-Dansar, third volume, p. 18.
File:Åhlström - Skaldestycken satte i musik XI 13, 1803.jpg, Skaldestycken satte i musik XI:13
File:Frigga opera.jpg, Title page: Frigga, opera i en act

Notes

References

*Bellman, Carl Michael: ''Fredmans epistlar: text- och melodihistorisk utgåva med musiken i reproduktion efter originaltrycket.'' Eds: Gunnar Hillbom (text); James Massengale (music). 2 volumes. Stockholm: Norstedt in collaboration with Bellmanssällskapet (the Bellman Society), 1990.
*Bellman, Carl Michael: ''Fredmans sånger: text- och melodihistorisk utgåva med musiken i reproduktion efter originaltrycket.'' Eds: Gunnar Hillbom (text); James Massengale (music). 2 volumes. Stockholm: Norstedt in collaboration with Bellmanssällskapet (the Bellman Society), 1992.
*Byström, Olof: ''Kring Fredmans epistlar. Deras tillkomst och utgivning'', ublisheddoctoral dissertation, Stockholm University, 1945.
*Hillbom, Gunnar: see Bellman 990and 992 above.
*Lindberg, A., "Åhlström, Olof", ''Nordisk familjebok'', 1st edition
Vol. 18, 1894, columns 376-377
(reprinted with minor changes in the second edition

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahlstrom, Olof
1756 births
1835 deaths
Swedish composers
Swedish male composers
Swedish organists
Male organists
Swedish publishers (people)
Swedish civil servants
Music publishers (people)
People from Södertälje Municipality
Musicians from Stockholm County