Fader Bergström

Fader Bergström, stäm up och klinga (Father Bergström, start playing and sounding) is one of the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's best-known and best-loved songs, from his 1790 collection, Fredman's Epistles, where it is No. 63. The melody is based on a minuet by Carl Envallsson. Bergström was a musician, and the song celebrates dancing and drinking late into the evening.

"Fader Bergström"
Art song
First page of sheet music for the 1810 edition
EnglishFader Bergström
Written1773
Textpoem by Carl Michael Bellman
LanguageSwedish
MelodyCarl Envallsson's Bobis bröllop
Composed1788
Published1790 in Fredman's Epistles
Scoringvoice and cittern

Context

Carl Michael Bellman is a central figure in the Swedish song tradition and a powerful influence in Swedish music, known for his 1790 Fredman's Epistles[1] and his 1791 Fredman's Songs. A solo entertainer, he played the cittern, accompanying himself as he performed his songs at the royal court.[2]

Jean Fredman (1712 or 1713 – 1767) was a real watchmaker of Bellman's Stockholm. The fictional Fredman, alive after 1767, but without employment, is the supposed narrator in Bellman's epistles and songs.[3] The epistles, written and performed in different styles, paint a complex picture of the life of the city during the eighteenth century. A frequent theme is the demimonde, with Fredman's cheerfully drunk Order of Bacchus,[4] a loose company of ragged men who favour strong drink and prostitutes. At the same time as depicting this reality, Bellman creates a rococo picture of life, full of classical allusion, following the French post-baroque poets; the women, including the beautiful Ulla Winblad, are "nymphs", and Neptune's festive troop of followers and sea-creatures sport in Stockholm's waters.[5] The juxtaposition of elegant and low life is humorous, sometimes burlesque, but always graceful and sympathetic.[2] The songs are "most ingeniously" set to their music, which is nearly always borrowed and skilfully adapted.[6]

Song

Music and verse form

The song is marked "Diktad midt i veckan" (Dictated midweek); it was written in September 1773.[7] The melody is in the key of D major, marked Menuetto (a dance), and in 3
4 time. The rhyming pattern is the shifting ABBBC-DDDC-EEEC-ABAB-CDCD-EEED.[8] The melody was derived from a minuet with the "timbre" label "Minuet af herr Böritz d. ä." in Carl Envallsson's 1788 Bobis bröllop.[7][9][10]

Lyrics

The lyrics have been translated into English by Eva Toller. Bergström was a musician, playing a wind instrument for people's name days in the Katarina Church area of Stockholm,[11] and the song celebrates dancing and drinking late into the evening. The last few lines of Toller's version run:[12]

First stanza of epistle 63
Carl Michael Bellman, 1790[1][13]Prose translation
Väljom nattens sköte under aftonstjärnans klara brand
till vårt glada möte, med pokaln i hand;
och i mörkrets dvala res Cupidos altar, där du spör,
Bacchi källarsvala druvans ångor strör.
Lät den dumma i oket tråka och den sluga sin hjärna bråka!
Vin och flickor och Fredmans stråka natten ljuvlig gör.		Choose the bosom of the night, below the bright flame of the evening star
for our happy gathering, with the goblet in our hands;
and in the drowsy darkness, erect the altar of Cupid, where you see (that)
the cellar-cool vapours of Bacchus's grapes are spread.
Let the dull one be bored in the yoke, and the cunning one exercise his brain!
Wine and girls and Fredman's violin-bow make the night delightful.

Reception
Dancing a minuet in 18th century Sweden. Painting by Lorens Pasch, 1760

Students of Swedish literature are expected to study Fredman's Songs and Epistles.[14]

Epistle 63 has been recorded by Fred Åkerström on his album Glimmande nymf,[15][16] by Fredrik Berg on his 2014 album Angående Fredrik Bergs tolkning av C M Bellman, where it is the first track,[17] and by Rolf Leanderson on his 2012 album Carl Michael Bellman: Songs & Epistles in Swedish.[18]

References
  1. Bellman 1790.
  2. "Carl Michael Bellmans liv och verk. En minibiografi (The Life and Works of Carl Michael Bellman. A Short Biography)" (in Swedish). The Bellman Society. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  3. Britten Austin 1967, pp. 60–61.
  4. Britten Austin 1967, p. 39.
  5. Britten Austin 1967, pp. 81–83, 108.
  6. Britten Austin 1967, p. 63.
  7. Massengale 1979, pp. 196–198
  8. Hassler & Dahl 1989, p. 149.
  9. "N:o 63". Bellman.net. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  10. Envallson, Carl (1788). Bobis bröllop, lyrisk comedie uti tre acter [Bobi's Wedding, a lyric comedy in three acts] (in Swedish). Stockholm.
  11. Hassler & Dahl 1989, p. 15.
  12. Toller, Eva (2009). "FADER BERGSTRÖM, STÄM UPP OCH KLINGA – EPISTEL NR 63 FATHER BERGSTRÖM, START PLAYING – EPISTLE NB 63" (PDF). Eva Toller. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  13. Hassler & Dahl 1989, pp. 147–150.
  14. "LITTERATURLISTA V15 LV1150 Moment 2: Klassiker ur Sveriges litteratur". Gothenburg University. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  15. Hassler, paged 281–282.
  16. "Fred Åkerström - Fader Bergström (Fredmans epistel nr:63)". YouTube. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  17. Berg, Fredrik (9 January 2014). Angående Fredrik Bergs tolkning av C M Bellman. Mr Music.
  18. Berg, Rolf (1 April 2012). Carl Michael Bellman: Songs & Epistles in Swedish. Bluebell.

Sources
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