Spjutet Självråde

Anteckningar om Wilhelm Peterson-Berger som musikskriftställare

Abstract

The spear of ”Self-Will”:
Notes on Wilhelm Peterson-Berger as music critic
The composer Wilhelm Peterson-Berger (1867–1942) was Sweden’s most influential music critic during the first half of the 20th century, permanently employed at the daily “Dagens Nyheter” from 1896 to 1930. He published ca. 3,000 articles on various musical subjects, most of them with the “dreaded signature” P.-B. The protagonist of his opera Arnljot (1910) carries a magical spear, named “Self-Will,” an epithet that also characterizes the composer/writer himself. This article is a result of an ongoing inventory of P.-B.’s complete oeuvre, which will be published in 2003. His reputation as a mainly negative, destructive and downright mean critic should be balanced by the fact that he also wrote very positive critiques of many artists and composers. Negative judgements on the compositions of contemporary colleagues like Kurt Atterberg, Ture Rangström, Hugo Alfvén, and others, also made bitter enemies, who in turn contributed to a still existing distinct polarization regarding P.-B.’s compositions. His personal style as a writer is closely linked with his personality, which includes many contradictory qualities and narcissistic traits. A thorough analysis of P.-B.’s writings and compositions should include a renewed reading of his life and personality, which also offers interesting gender perspectives. Could not the spear “Självråde” (Self-Will) also be interpreted as a conspicuous Freudian symbol, which P.-B. sharpens all his life, against real and imagined enemies, and on top of it all, in public?