Jón Leifs - a new biography
Jón Leifs is one of Iceland's most important artists of the 20th century. His story is that of a man who was to some extent too big for the Iceland of that time.
The composer Jón Leifs was one of Iceland's most important and idiosyncratic artists of the 20th century. At the height of the First World War he sailed to Germany, then only seventeen years old, determined to become a musician even though he had only a vague idea of what that involved. He married a woman of Jewish origin but lived, nevertheless, in Germany until 1944, when he moved to Sweden, where a new love and great sorrow awaited; finally he returned to Iceland – to fight another kind of war and to find yet another new love.
His story is that of a man who was to some extent too big for the Iceland of that time – his grand ambition and rock-solid belief in a sacred musical vocation turned out to be both his fortune and his misfortune. Leifs was in many ways ahead of his time: he was the first Icelander to conduct a full symphony orchestra, he recorded Icelandic folk music at a time when it was not really appreciated, he founded the composers' copyright union STEF, and composed music which many people considered to be intolerable noise but which is now ranked by some to be amongst the most important achievements in Icelandic music to date. His works are still played frequently in Germany.
Árni Heimir Ingólfsson, a doctor of musicology from Harvard University and music director of the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, has recorded the course of Jón Leifs' life in this dramatic biography, leaving no stone unturned in his quest for relevant source material. Ingólfsson has spent thirteen years researching Leifs' life and work, during which time he has written numerous articles about the composer. His book is a unique key to the life of this controversial artist. This is a detailed biography with bibliography, list of compositions and index of names. The book includes a number of previously unpublished photographs. It is published by Mál og Menning.
Jón Viðar Jónsson, the DV critic (Daily Newspaper), says that nothing previously written about Jón Leifs matches Líf í tónum: “While Ingólfsson has often demonstrated an ability to write about music in a professional yet at the same time informal way, he has probably never succeeded as he has done in this volume [...] There has been a popular film about Jón Leifs, a Swedish scholar produced a book about him ten years ago, and much else has been written about him. This ambitious and elaborate biography, however, outshines them all. Jón Leifs has received the treatment he richly deserves.”
Páll Baldvin Baldvinsson at Fréttablaðið newspaper says that the book is a seminal work: “Ingólfsson has produced an extremely well crafted work [...] with a great deal of contemporary documentation, and thorough analysis of Leifs' principal compositions, couched in straightforward language, which is bound to open a new door for all those interested in becoming acquainted with this important Icelandic composer. For that reason Ingólfsson's biography is a seminal work. [...] Ingólfsson should be very happy with his achievement: it must be regarded as one of the most remarkable publications so far this year, and will remain the key work about this remarkable, yet fallible, man for many years to come.”
Helgi Jónsson, the Víðsjá critic (culture radio programme, National Radio), agrees: “A definite turning point in Icelandic music historiography. [...] A truly fantastic book. [...] If I were doling out stars I'd award it the full complement. [...] A seminal work.”