Torbjörn Iwan Lundquist, 1920 - 2000:

Torbjörn Iwan Lundquist was deeply rooted in the symphonic tradition. In 1956, his first symphony was published, a chamber symphony. In addition to his traditional composing activities he wrote music for film and theater during the 1950s and 1960s. Through these works, a broader audience came in contact with his music, often without knowing it. Torbjörn Lundquist worked together with film directors such as Alf Sjöberg, Arne Mattson, Kjell Grede and Gunnar Hellström and wrote music to close to 30 films.

Lundquist's breakthrough as a composer of large orchestral works came with the third symphony, Sinfonia dolorosa, in 1976. Manny of his works are infused with his love and consideration for nature and have titles such as Sinfonia Ecologica, Sarek and Humanity. The seventh symphony, Humanity, from 1990 has the subtitle In memoriam Raoul Wallenberg, Folke Bernadotte et Dag Hammarskjöld. In it, Lundquist used some texts from Hammarskjöld’s  Markings. He then set seven poems from Markings to music, creating the song cycle New Bearings for voice and piano. The songs were dedicated to David Aler, the baritone who was also the first to perform them. In the 1990s, took a particular interest in the writings of James Joyce. This resulted in two song cycles. The first, which Lundquist named Irish Love songs, was completed in 1992.

Curt Carlsson