In December 1973 my wife and I left for the
province of Värmland (in the west of Sweden) to become engaged.
Then we also paid a visit to the home of her childhood in
Jössefors, outside Arvika. The bus stopped at the old shop and
we entered, only to hear that it was going to be closed for good.
We were the last customers! After having made our purchases we
walked down the old mill road to the small harbour and I
remember coming to a standstill for a long while. There was an
altogether unique light over the Glafs fjord and I became in
some strange way as enchanted. The old mill was completely still
and I got a strong sensation of former times.
My wife was born in Gunnarskog, not far from
Jössefors where she grew up. Her father, like so many others at
this time (the 1920's) left for America when she was quite
small. He died in Chicago so then she never got to see him again.
Through genealogy we have tried to learn more about him and
during the summer of 1983 we spent one week in Jössefors. We
wandered about in the neighbourhood and spoke to old people, who
told about her father and mother. Strong memories from my wife's
childhood welled up in her.
The impressions of former times that I had
got during the enchanted moment at the old mill now grew
stronger. I saw the white water (now regulated), the school, the
workmen's dwellings, the smithy, the laundry, the manager's
villa, the stable where the father for a time had worked and the
cottage where my wife had lived as a child. I could imagine an
early Saturday evening in the open space in front of the store,
I could hear an accordion and I could hear singing from the
chapel, all accompanied by the rush of the white water. When we
walked home in the night, it seemed as present times and past
merged inside me and as a tone (in a broader sense) was in the
air. At that time, I felt I had to try to make music out of
these feelings.
The composing of this work thus dealt with
seeking to realise the tone I had felt and heard inside me. The
fact is that the main theme came about on the day after the
nocturnal walk. With a concert near at hand I needed to practise
and was allowed to use the piano in the Jössefors Community
centre. I tried to practise for a while but was soon caught in a
search for a tonality that agreed with my feeling. When I went
out in the August sun again I had a scale and a few intervals
and motifs on a music paper. Afterwards it was left lying at my
piano at home in FARSTA. Sometimes I took it out and tried the
notes a little.
In late autumn 1983 the institution Svenska
Rikskonserter (Nation-wide Concerts) gave me a commission for a
piano work. After some time I realised that this was the right
opportunity to make music out of my experiences in Jössefors. In
the summer 1984 I started to work and in October the same year a
piano composition in three movements was ready.
I don't feel like making a more technical
analysis of the work. Instead I hope to have aroused an interest
and given an idea of the impressions and feelings that were the
source of I ETT KÄRLEKSPARS SPÅR (In the Traces of a Loving
Couple).
I
ETT KÄRLEKSPARS SPÅR (In the Traces of a Loving Couple) is
recorded by
pianist Rolf Lindblom on the CD "Tracks of Love", Proprius PRCD
9074.
Proprius Musik AB,
Box 26111
S-100 41 STOCKHOLM
Sweden. Fax:
+46-(0)8 66097 49.
The composition is published by
Hans Busch Musikförlag - Universal Music
Publishing AB
Box 55755
S-114 83 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel: +46-(0)8-629 53 70
Fax: +46-(0)8-662 78 50
E-mail: pub.scand@umusic.com
