Sweden Books

Latin liturgical drama in thirteenth century Sweden? Who could possibly be interested in that?

Actually, the Swedish aspects of this study are of minor interest compared to the clarity and utility the author brings to the whole subject of music dramas inside the Christian churches of the Middle Ages. The surviving manuscripts from Sweden, and the accounts written by observers at the time, reveal that the practices among the relatively new converts to Christianity of the far North were almost identical to those of France, England, and Germany. In other words, the clergy and the monastic communities did indeed carry a uniform Christian culture with them wherever they thrived.

These musical occasions were liturgical first and only dramatic in clearly circumscribed fashion. They were inseparable from the ordinary rituals of the liturgical calendar - only performed as highlighters of specific holy days; always sung by clergy, monks, or nuns (and in large monasteries in France, by oblates, children given to the church) in the course of normal musical devotions, rather than by lay people; extremely seldom involving instruments other than bells; always sung in churches, though more frequently at side chapels or special locations than at the high altar; not essentially public performances or occasions for popular participation. The essential musical elements were the chants associated with the Hours, the Gregorian chants in almost all cases, particularly Matins and Vespers; thus the form of the "dramatic portions" of the ritual was the "trope", that is, the extension or decoration of the traditional chant. Most of the performance would have been the tonal recitations of the psalms, with their proper poetic antiphons and hymns.

A parallel culture of religious drama existed among the laity in Franc and England, that is, the Corpus Christi plays, performed on movable stages outdoors, each segmnet of drama being the possessiona nd production of a guild. Aside from subject matter, there's very little resemblance between the liturgical dramas and the Corpus Christi plays.

The conduct of liturgical music-drama is described clearly and in detail in Audrey Ekdahl Davidson's excellent book. Original Latin texts and solid English translations are included for seven dramas and dramatic processionals, and the music for three of the most complete has been transcribed in simple modern notation. Davidson also recounts the history of such ritual dramas in later centuries - their fate subsequent to the arrival of Lutheranism, and the lingering traces of them in Swedish church communities up to the present.

Don't imagine that you can buy the book and stage a liturgical drama meaningfully in your local church or synagogue! A lot of scholarship has been devoted to comprehending the music and re-conceiving the ritual. The music alone requires a substantial understanding of chant, and an ability to find the propers in the liturgical sources such as the Liber Usualis. The best way to get close to this serene spiritual art, after reading about it, is to hear it on a CD. The recorded performances by Le Reverdie and Ensemble Organum are excellent.

My sisters and I loved this book growing up in the 1970's; now, reading it to my children, I can't believe it's out of print. My 10-year-old says, "it's magical and dreamlike, even though there isn't any magic or dreams."
Josephine is a lonely first grader, until free-spirited Hugo comes to school. Her real name is Anna but she hates being called that. Only Hugo understands. He is too busy noticing plants and animals to get to school on time most days.
You will read this book over and over again, and never tire of it.

The book tells the little known story of how the unselfish average Danish population made an extra effort and put their own lives in danger to save Denmark's Jewish population to safety from the German occupants during WWII.

Well, this is it...

Bergman is notorioiusly difficult to sum up - we've had biographical, psychoanalytical, religious, aesthetic, God-knows-what-else approaches... But this book is about the best you'll get. Cowie, rightly regarded as an expert on Swedish (and Finnish9 film, provides a readable, informative and sensitive history. It has that perfect combination of enough fact for the uninitiated and enough interpretation for the devotee. As if that wasn't sufficient, it's been updated up to 1992 and contains lots of handsome images - not only of the great man and his entourage, but also of the films themslves, just right for stoking the embers of mnemory (especially if you haven't got a video-recorder...)

Quite simply an authoritative, genial account of a 'difficult' genius.

There are many things in life for which I'm grateful (and doubtlessly, because of my thickness, many more for which I should be but aren't). One of the things I'm most grateful for is Ingmar Bergman. He's simply the greatest film maker of my lifetime (and there have been some very good ones--e.g., Kurosawa, Herzog, Tarkovsky, and Fellini). As both writer and director, he reaches depths that most other film makers--especially Hollywood ones--can't even approximate.

A man of Bergman's genius deserves a talented interpreter, and Robert Emmet Long fills that bill. His Ingmar Bergman: Film and Stage is simply the best commentary on Bergman I know. Beautifully illustrated, drawing on Bergman's print and film interviews as well as the film maker's own autobiographies, Long's book explores the "personal myth" that Bergman documented in film after film. That personal myth--or worldview--born of both Bergman's private life and his philosophical reflections, includes themes generally referred to as "existential": human contingency, the absence of God, alienation, meaning or purpose, fluidity of self, loneliness and despair. In making his films, Bergman was really engaging in both autobiography and philosophy: exorcising his personal demons and trying to find meaning in the universe. The final speech Carl Gustav makes in "Fanny and Alexander," urging his listeners to celebrate the little joys of life that always have as their broader background the indifference of the universe, is the position that Bergman finally seems to have arrived at.

All this is wonderfully captured in Long's interpretive summaries of Bergman's films and theatre productions. Long doesn't merely provide plot synopses. He always strives to interpret, in the best sense of the word, what he describes. To take one example, from Long's perceptive reflection on "The Silence": the film, writes Long, "introduces a new dimension in Bergman's conception of cinema. Realistic perception is replaced by a total immersion in a subjective world in which characters embody psychic states" (p. 107). Ester and Alma, like the two lead characters in Bergman's later "Persona," "are different parts of a single psyche."

Highly recommended. As a nice complement, because of its incredibly detailed (but relatively noninterpretive) plot summaries, the reader might consider Hubert I. Cohen's Ingmar Bergman: The Art of Confession (1993).

This is the one basic and essential reference on the studio andperformances recordings of Jussi Bjorling. Henrysson documents all thestudio sessions and live performances and X-references each selection to the vinyl, tape or CD on which it appears.

Despite the enormous number of CD's currently available ( Amazon has about 150 items, for example) the number of things recorded is relatively small, so this book is really the only way to keep from being covered up with duplicates.

It is possible to locate a particular session or go the other way, and find out what's on a record. Items recorded in the studio are numbered in sequence; live recordings have a year prefix, followed by numbers in sequence for that year.

This is as close as it gets to a critical biography of Bjorling and certainly makes listening to all the wonderful things currently available much more fun.

My favorite book since early childhood, I have read and reread this novel and all of its subsequent parts too many times to count. This is a book for kids by arguably the most talented kids' writer that's ever lived. Lindgren remembered what it was like to be a child when she wrote, and it's obvious. Reading her writings is effortless and all-encompassing. I gladly drown in Karlsson On The Roof again and again. This novel is not nearly as well-known here as it is in Europe, and what a shame. American kids have been missing out for decades.

The Screech Owls are going to Sweden to face off in a International Peewee Hockey Tounrmanet. The thirteend russian phenomenon Slava Shadrin is there and he has his own bodygaurds. The police suspect the Russian Mob to kidnap him and hold him for ransom. When Slave and his new friends the Screech Owls give the bodygaurds the slip the Mob moves in. But they end up with more captives then they bargained for.

A short review is all that is necessary: Irstam's study is one of the pillars for understanding sacral kingship not only in Africa, but beyond. A widely cited and impressive piece of scholarship.

First of all I must say Maria Gripe is my favorite writer since I was at school(now I'm 20). But last year when I discovered this long story of the shadows, I couldn't believe it! I was fascinated reading this first part, when the beautiful friendship between Berta and Carolin begins, and I loved all the mysteries around Carolin. She was such a rare girl! But then when that tremendous secret was revealed I understood a little more about her behaviour. I recomend this book and I hope I can read the last part soon.