No one scores natural phenomena quite like Jón Leifs.
Leifs, who was born on a farm in northwestern Iceland, traveled to Germany to study music at the Leipzig Conservatory in 1916. Soon after graduation, he married the pianist Annie Reithof, a decision that necessitated some careful maneuvering in the perilous years to come.
Leifs remained in Nazi Germany through much of World War II. On the surface, his celebration of Norse heroism should have been just the thing to endear him to the National Socialists. However, two things worked against him: the modernistic language of his music, and the fact that his wife and children were Jewish.
Performances of Leifs’ music were derided or discouraged. This, apparently, he took in his stride, finding solace in re-reading the Icelandic Sagas and finding strength in the exploits of their heroes. Above all, on account of his family, Leifs tried not to attract a lot of unwanted attention. He was still useful for propaganda purposes in Germany’s relations with Scandinavia.
Leifs finally managed to obtain permission to leave Germany in 1944, his family temporarily settling in Sweden. He and his wife divorced, and Leifs returned to Iceland. There, he was regarded with suspicion due to his Nazi “associations.”
Also, much of his music was conceived on such a gargantuan scale, and scored for such outlandish instruments, there was no way they could be practically performed. Therefore much of it went unheard in his lifetime.
In particular, “Hekla,” his evocation of a volcano in eruption, has been called the loudest piece of classical music ever written, requiring 19 percussionists hammering away at a most unconventional arsenal: anvils, stones, sirens, plate bells, chains, shotguns, cannons, and a large wooden stump. For their own well-being, the performers are instructed to wear earplugs.
His “Saga Symphony,” inspired by prose accounts of battles, feuds, and power struggles of early Viking settlers, is enlivened by tuned anvils, stones, whip, shields of iron, leather, and wood, great wooden containers (played by large hammers), and six lurs – copies of ancient long horns.
Leifs’ music can be austere to the Nth degree. The severity of his art is reflective of the unforgiving-yet-sublime Icelandic landscape and the stoicism of the heroes of the sagas. His is a wholly unique voice in 20th century music that deserves to be much better known. `
Join me this afternoon, as we remember Leifs on the 50th anniversary of his death. I’ll go easy on you by vaulting over the volcanoes and geysers and presenting instead the elemental “Iceland Overture” and the “Variazioni pastorale” – his variations on a theme by Beethoven.
The Viking longboat will be well-provisioned. Be ready to row, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
PHOTOS: Jón Leifs and Hekla
