Jón Leifs, Icelandic Composer
by Gay Strandemo
Welcome to our Interesting Icelander series for 2025 with a focus on Icelandic Art and Culture. Our March profile considers the contribution of Jón Leifs (May 1899 - July 1968).
In the early 2000s, I remember standing in my bathrobe with wet hair in a towel, reading an article in the Madison free weekly, Isthmus, about a band that was shortly to be performing in town called Sigur Ros. The delightfully elfin look of the band in matching red stocking caps, plus the description of their music, compelled me to buy a ticket to their show that was happening that very night.
What the heck, I am part Icelandic, I thought, I might as well see what these guys are all about.
I became a fervent fan of the band from that time on. Much has been made of their
sound reflecting the land of Iceland—the hard rock and soft moss, the fire and ice, the wind and water. But they were not the first musicians to put the island to sound. That distinction may belong to Jón Leifs (I322810), an Icelandic composer who deliberately invented an Icelandic sound that took from nature, folk music, and the stories of the sagas. His music, like his personality, could be abrasive to the ear, echoing harsh moments, terrain and climate.
Leifs was born Jón Þorleifsson in 1899 in northwestern Iceland. His family moved to Reykjavík when he was one year old. His interest in music began when his parents purchased a piano for his sisters to play. But it was Jón who most took to the instrument and was given lessons. He attended the Reykjavík Grammar School, at that time, the only grammar school in the country.
Tragedy plagued the family when Jón’s older brother, Bjarni died of acute appendicitis. Spiritualism was popular at the time and the parents hosted seances to contact Bjarni. Jón and his siblings experimented on their own with automatic writing, seances, and talking boards. Though these practices were unsuccessful, Jón said he was moved to consider the important things in life through these experiments.
After completing his exams in spring at the Reykjavík menntaskóli, Jón departed in the autumn of 1916 to study at a conservatory in Leipzig, Germany. To avoid confusion with immigration offices on the continent over the Icelandic alphabet characters in his last name, he received permission to shorten his last name to the second syllable of his given patronymic surname. Jón Leifs was on his way with a new name to a new life as a professional musician.
His education in music in Germany opened Leifs’ eyes to the possibility of developing an Icelandic music identity, cultural exchange with central Europe, and developing musical organizations such as the Icelandic Composers Society, the Performing Rights Society, and the Federation of Icelandic Artists, all of which he helped to form. His view was that for Iceland to become a sovereign state, its culture must be manifest.
With his classical musical training, Leifs composed pieces strongly colored by Icelandic themes of nature and literature, incorporating rímur patterns and stark melodic sequences. These divergent efforts were not completely appreciated in his homeland. He was often ridiculed for his references to the old folk music and for his heavy use of alternate forms of percussion, such as rocks. Many titles of his compositions carry the Icelandic connection: “Three Verses of Hávamál,” “Edda 1,” “Baldr,” and “Hekla.”
Jón Leifs was married three times and divorced twice, a father to two daughters, one for whom, Líf, he wrote “Lullaby” on the occasion of her birth. Sadly, when she was a young woman, Líf drowned off the coast of Hamburgsund, Sweden, in what may have been a suicide. For her funeral, her mother insisted that “Lullaby” be played along with “Requiem” that Leifs composed for the event.
Leifs died of lung cancer in Reykjavík in 1968.
The information included in this article was gleaned from Arni Heimir Ingolfsson’s book, Jon Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland, which I recommend reading for its fascinating story of a time, a place and an individual in the musical realm.
In late fall 2019 my husband Tracy and I attended a performance and lecture about Jón Leifs by the musician and author Árni Heimir Ingólfsson at the Scandinavia House in New York City. “Lullaby” was sung by Icelandic opera singer Dísella Lárusdóttir (I493730). I remember it was a strangely somber, yet sometimes shrill song that seemed at odds with it’s title, though beautiful in its unique way.
Sources
Ingólfsson, Árni Heimir (2019). Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland. Indiana University Press.. https://www.amazon.com/J%C3%B3n-Leifs-Musical-Invention- Iceland/dp/0253044057
“Jón Leifs” in Wikipedia. [website]. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3n_Leifs . Last edited 05 Jan 2025.