Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland

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Composers of fearsome originality seldom have an easy path in the world. Jón Leifs, who translated the landscapes and legends of Iceland into sound, comes vividly to life in this brilliant, panoramic biography, his myriad personal and political conflicts delineated with clarity and candor. A major twentieth-century figure at last receives his due.

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~Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker and author of The Rest Is Noise

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Árni Heimir Ingólfsson's Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland is a book with three parallel stories, expertly told: a nuanced and detailed look into the life of a composer, the development of Iceland's musical identity through the 20th century — from a 19th century frugality towards its modern rich reputation; and, perhaps most interestingly, the way in which Iceland's relationship to Europe and the world is connected in subtle ways both political and cultural. Árni Heimir takes an unflinching look at Leifs' relationship to the Nazis, not just through the traditional stereotypes of Nordic ethno/artistic unity, but through a more subcutaneous network of German composers, Nazi cultural ministers, and music critics. Árni Heimir is equally comfortable discussing the minute musical details of Leifs' visionary cantatas and pantomimes as he is teasing out, through letters and diaries the composer's emotional development.

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~Nico Muhly, Composer

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Jón Leifs was the first major Icelandic composer and it is insane that most of his pieces were not performed or recorded until recently. His works were almost just a myth to us Icelanders and therefore this book is so magnificently important. He pioneered in notating glaciers and orchestrating eruptions, sometimes masterpieces (sometimes not), but he had the courage to embrace the cliché and show us the way. This book is incredibly well written and Árni Heimir's analysis of the music is deeply satisfying. I listened to each work as it was being discussed, which turned the experience from black and white to color! An extraordinary achievement!

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~Björk, singer/songwriter

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At last, a thorough account in English of Iceland's foremost composer. Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland expertly teases out the roots of Leifs's music in Iceland's folk traditions, her awe-inspiring landscape and an idiosyncratic, mid-twentieth-century European modernism. Ingólfsson's account of the composer's tortured life, his controversial politics and the uneasy reception of his music is a page turner. This is a book for music lovers and experts alike, and will surely draw many new fans to his music.

Claudia Macdonald, Professor Emerita of Musicology, Oberlin College

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"A thoroughly absorbing study of a formidable and sometimes troubling figure who possessed one of the more original musical voices of the twentieth century."

~Alex Ross: the Rest is Noise

"By intertwining the narrative of Leifs's personal turmoil and joys, political maneuverings, professional strug-gles, and creative triumphs, Ingólfsson allows the full view of Leifs as artist, composer, and man to become discernable. That complete and detailed picture is what makes this biography compelling."

~Dan White, Music Reference Services Quarterly