Friday, January 08, 2016

Allt eins og blómstrið eina -- Icelandic funeral hymn by Hallgrímur Pétursson

Allt eins og blómstrið eina is a traditional Icelandic funeral hymn. Words by Hallgrímur Pétursson, who lived in the 1600s and has a good claim to be Iceland's national religious poet -- at least since saga times -- or, as Wikipedia has it, Iceland's answer to Lutheran chorale composer Paul Gerhardt (bio and bare-bones details at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallgr%C3%ADmur_Pétursson).

Wikipedia has an important note for non-speakers of Icelandic: "This is an Icelandic name. The last name is a patronymic, not a family name; this person is properly referred to by the given name Hallgrímur."

Hallgrím's funeral psalm was appended to his Passion Hymns, or psalms, which are still read on Iceland's state radio during Holy Week.

Beautiful solo arrangement by Ragnheiður Gröndal on the rom the album Þjóðlög

Sung by Kór Langholtskirkju (choir of Langholts church) in Rekjavik

  • Allt eins og blómstrið eina · Kór Langholtskirkju

  • Mín sál, þinn söngur hljómi (Google: Mín sál, þinn söngur hljómi)
  • ℗ 1998 1998 Fálkinn
  • Released on: 2015-11-26
  • Composer: Erlent lag (foreign song)
  • Lyricist: Hallgrímur Pétursson
I can't find sheet music on line, but here's the melody as it appears in Ari Sæmundsen, Leiðarvísir til að spila á langspil (1855; see blog post immediately below on Jan. 5). Sæmundsen's tab is similar to sifferskrift (although, since it uses letters instead of numbers, I guess it would be something like bokstaverskrift in Norwegian. Since the letters reflect the note values of standard notation, I wonder how it would compare to today's ABC notation.

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