Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland (eBook)

1. It is the first major study of an important Icelandic composer (Jón Leifs) who has been lauded as a creative personality "among the most radical and original of the 20th century."
2. This book is a musical biography that should have wide appeal. The author is widely known for his previous scholarship and for his conducting. He has worked closely with famous musicians such as Bjork and will do much to promote his own work.
3. The Icelandic publication of this book was favorably reviewed in The New Yorker. This translation has been greatly revised to reach an English-speaking audience and is more thoroughly and critically engage with Leifs' musical output

In Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland, Árni Heimir Ingólfsson provides a striking account of the dramatic career of Iceland's iconic composer. Leifs (1899–1968) was the first Icelander to devote himself fully to composition at a time when a local music scene was only beginning to take form. He was a fervent nationalist in his art, fashioning an idiosyncratic and uncompromising 'Icelandic' sound from traditions of vernacular music with the aim to legitimize Iceland as an independent, culturally empowered nation.

In addition to exploring Leifs's career, Ingólfsson provides detailed descriptions of Leifs's major works and their cultural contexts. Leifs's music was inspired by the Icelandic landscape and includes auditory depictions of volcanos, geysers, and waterfalls. The raw quality of his orchestral music is frequently enhanced by an expansive percussion section, including anvils, stones, sirens, bells, ships' chains, shotguns, and cannons.

Largely neglected in his own lifetime, Leifs's music has been rediscovered in recent years and hailed as a singular and deeply original contribution to twentieth-century music. Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland enriches our understanding and appreciation of Leifs and his music by exploring the political, literary and environmental contexts that influenced his work.