…And Summer Begins – Swedish Folk Music for Choir and Orchestra

About the composer

Gunnar Hahn was born in Stockholm in 1908. After graduating, he studied harmony for a few years with Oskar Lindberg and the organ with Otto Olsson. However, his main instrument became the piano, which he had been playing since he was 11 years old. As a student of Sigrid Carlheim-Gyllensköld and later of the Russian-born Simon Barer, in 1932 he made a highly publicized debut at Carnegie Hall in New York. In Swedish radio, he was one of the pioneers – his first appearance on the waves was already in 1925!
He also strongly committed himself to the artist working conditions, i.e. on the board of the Association of Musical Artists, where he was chairman 1961–1963. Furthermore, he was first secretary in the concert agency investigation, whose work resulted in the Institute for National Concerts, where he was producer and organizer until his retirement in 1975.

For lovers of Swedish folk music, however, Gunnar Hahn’s name is primarily associated with his life’s work through his countless arrangements of folk dances and tunes. The interest started early: at the age of three, he got his first “magdeburger” (an older form of button accordion) and eventually he diligently studied his violin-playing brother’s booklets of the “Swedish folk tunes” series. An entry card to the Skansen park in Stockholm also gave him the opportunity to listen to and get to know different rural folk musicians night after night during the summer season.
In 1936, he performed for the first time with his fiddler quartet (violin, clarinet, bassoon and accordion – “the best sounding combination with the radio technology at the time!”). In 1957, the quartet had grown into “Folkdansorkestern” (The Folk Dance Orchestra) with the special “Hahn” sound which also – through patience and flexibility – would accompany Evert Taube in no less than thirty-six radio programs. In later years, he began a fruitful collaboration with the poet Bo Setterlind, to whose poems he wrote melodious folk-style choir settings.

One feature of Gunnar Hahn is missing on this record (and it may not be reproduced fairly, even with today’s technology): that is when, among friends and family, he took out his simple button accordion and elicited both happy dances and wistful songs in a way that otherwise seemed impossible on this slightly overlooked instrument. Anyone who was part of such an event did not forget it!

Claes Wirsén, 1983

Producer: Ulf Rosenberg
Technicians: Curre Forsmark & Olle Bolander
Editors: Suzanne Öhman-Sundén & Erik Hamrefors
Cover image and graphic design: Ingi Kirsebom