God in Disguise

Beginning in 1937, the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation—the country's national, publicly-funded radio—employed Larsson as a composer-in-residence, music producer, and conductor;[5] his main task was to write music to accompany various radio programs.[6] One of Larsson's colleagues was the Swedish poet Hjalmar Gullberg, who had joined Swedish Radio the year before and headed its drama division.[7] Together, the two men developed a genre of popular entertainment they called the "lyrical suite",[lower-alpha 1] which alternated recited poetry with musical interludes.[8][7][4] One such radio program was the Times of Day (Dagens stunder), which included poems by—among others—Verner von Heidenstam and Oscar Levertin; Larsson subsequently excerpted his original music as the Pastoral Suite (Pastoralsvit; Op. 19, 1937–1938).[9]

To build on this success, Gullberg approached Larsson at a Christmas party in 1938 about the possibility of expanding the lyrical suite to include parts for vocal soloists and chorus—that is, to be transform it into a quasi-cantata; he suggested the composer set God in Disguise (Förklädd gud), a narrative poem from his 1933 anthology Love in the Twentieth Century (Kärlek i tjugonde seklet).[4] Gullberg's poem was itself a retelling of the prologue to a Hellenic play by Euripides, while also incorporating elements from the stories of Orpheus and Jesus.[4] In it, Apollo—the Greek god of poetry—has been exiled from Olympus and condemned to live as a mortal for one year. "Wear[ing] no wreath around his golden hair", he settles in Thessaly, "disguised ... among the serving-folk" as a flute-playing "goodly" shepherd who "bears his burden on earth ... without complaint".[10]

Gullberg's poem fired Larsson's imagination. "I instantly became deeply fascinated by the task," the composer recalled, "and together [Gullberg and I] planned the disposition of the different parts for soloists, chorus, and recitant ... It was not until the spring of 1940, however, that I felt the subject had matured sufficiently within me for the composition to begin".[11] By then, the Nazi occupation of Denmark and invasion of Norway during World War II had begun, and Gullberg asked Larsson if he could add to his text a new forward in support of Sweden's threatened Nordic neighbors:[11]

God in Disguise tells a story about Apollo, the Greek god of poetry and music, who in exile wanders earth disguised as a flute-playing "goodly" shepherd in Thessaly.

God in Disguise is thus a "protest against violence" that "inspired in listeners a sense of calm and confidence during dark times and instilled in them the firm hope that truth and right would eventually prevail",[12] or as the seventh poem states:

The piece premiered over Swedish Radio on 1 April 1940, with Larsson conducting the Radio Entertainment Orchestra and Chorus (Radiotjänsts Underhållningsorkester och Radiokören) in Stockholm; the narrator was Olof Molander, the soprano was Kerstin Torlind, and the baritone was Hugo Hasslo.[1] God in Disguise dates to a transitional period in Larsson's art, in which he began evolving his established neoclassical style with an emerging neoromanticism.[13]

Hjalmar Gullberg (bottom), Larsson's collaborator on God in Disguise, added a forward to his poem in response to the 1940 Nazi invasion of Denmark and Norway (top).

God in Disguise, which lasts about 30 minutes, comprises ten sections:[1][lower-alpha 2]

• Prelude (Förspel): Andante tranquillo [Orchestra]
• Recitation:

  Förword (Forward). Ej för de starka i världen men de svaga ... (Not for the strong in the world but for the feeble ...)[lower-alpha 3]

  I. Vem spelar på pipa en ... (Who plays upon a pipe ...)

• No. 2: Allegro moderato [Chorus and orchestra]
• Recitation:

  II. Apollon bor i ett tessaliskt stall ... (Apollo stays in a Thessalian steading ...)

  III. Kring höstlig vaktelds bränder ... (Around the fire in autumn ...)

  IV. Välsignelse följer / i gudarnas spår ... (Well-being will follow / the path of a god ...)

• No. 3: Agitato [Baritone, chorus, and orchestra]
• No. 4: Alla marcia [Chorus and orchestra]
• Recitation:

  V. Husbonden må vi prisa säll ... (So let us praise this husbandman ...)

  VI. Vad faller över träden ... (What shimmers in the forest ...)

• No. 5: Andantino quasi allegretto [Soprano, chorus, and orchestra]
• Recitation:

  VII. Än vandrar gudar över denna jord ... (So gods are wandering yet upon the earth ...)

  VIII. Tror du att fåren skulle / beta i morgonglans ... (Think you that sheep would / ever graze in the glowing morn ...)

  IX. Bjuder ett mänskoöga ... (When with a beck'ning glance ...)

• No. 6: Andante—Andante molto tranquillo [Soprano, baritone, chorus, and orchestra]

God in Disguise is scored for narrator, soprano, baritone, mixed choir (sopranos, altos, tenors, and baritones), and orchestra. The orchestra includes the following instruments:[1]

• Woodwinds: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (in B♭), and 2 bassoons
• Brass: 2 horns (in F), 2 trumpets (in C), and trombone
• Percussion: timpani
• Strings: violins, violas, cellos, double basses, and harp

Gehrmans Musikförlag published the cantata in 1946.

The sortable table below lists commercially available recordings of God in Disguise:

Notes

References

Sources