Natures and Cultures

The Landscape in Peterson-Berger's Symfonia lapponica

Abstract

When Peterson-Berger wrote his third symphony and called it Same-ätnam. Lappland, incorporating some recently documented Sami music, and further underlining its relationship with the geographical area of Lapland and its nature in movement headings and programmatic notes, he took part in a contemporary dialogue that surrounded ideas of nature, nation and north in Sweden. This article aims to situate the symphony in its wider ideological context by reading it with particular focus on the perspectives of ‘landscape’ that the symphony engages with.