Underrated Classical Musicians: Jon Leifs

Scandinavian music is just different. There isn't enormous population density even in the large cities, and so often in place of human expression is an emphasis on natural phenomena. But because it's so close to the Arctic Circle, the phenomena are harsher, more dramatic, more epic than countries residing entirely within temperate zones, where nature is far more hospitable to people.

And therefore when you hear the music of so many Scandinavians expressing in their natural metier: composers like Sibelius, Nielsen, Langgaard, Aho, Sallinen, Norgard, Holmboe, Rautavaara, Saariaho, Lindberg - what you sometimes hear is not so much personal expression of the type one would get from a traditional composer whose influences are grounded in 1800 Vienna. Rather, what you hear is music that imitates direct contact with nature.



But of the nature influenced composers, there is no more 'natural' composer than the Icelandic Jon Leifs, a large part of whose corpus is supposed to be a direct imitation of natural phenomena. His main teacher was, of all people, Ferruccio Busoni, and Leifs probably could have had a career as a concert pianist and conductor had he so chosen. But instead, Busoni encouraged him to follow his own path, and Leifs truly became a composer like no other.

Perhaps his most famous composition now is which Hekla, which depicts the largest volcanic eruption of the century, which he saw in 1947. It requires 19 percussion players, including shotguns,  canons, steel ship chains, anvils, church bells, and 'rocks with a musical quality.' The composer also asks for 'a large wooden stump on a wooden floor.'



He also has a similar piece of literal evocation called 'Geysir', which is, appropriately enough, about a geyser, which are an iconic phenomenon of Iceland. There's also a work called 'Hafis' which is a depiction of drift ice. And a cantata called Dettifoss, depicting the Icelandic waterfall which is about the largest in Europe. Together, these four are said to form the 'Nature Cycle' (there's also a few other natural phenomena pieces that don't seem to be considered part of the official cycle). Together these comprise one of the underperformed yet iconic works of genius in 20th century classical music. Music unlike any ever written before or since, related to Sibelius only in the most extreme tangent, and the influence of Busoni is almost unrecognizable (at least to me). Indeed, if there's a composer Leifs sounds most like, it is Thomas Ades, whom I think is an admirer of Leifs's, and goes to show that Leifs is far more our contemporary, far more the contemporary of au currant northern Europeans like Ades and Lindberg  than the contemporary of Hindemith and Shostakovich to which his chronology would indicate.