Oskar Lindberg (composer)

Oskar Fredrik Lindberg (23 February 1887 – 10 April 1955) was a Swedish composer, church musician, teacher and professor. In 1939 he edited the Church of Sweden's hymnbook. His 1912 Requiem was of particular importance to the history of Swedish liturgical works.

Biography
At the age of fourteen, Lindberg was already playing the organ at the high mass in his native Gagnef. He studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music from 1903 to 1911, where he graduated as an organist in 1906. At the same time, Lindberg studied composition with Ernst Ellberg and Andreas Hallén, but supplemented this with studies in conducting at the Academy in Sondershausen, with further specialization in Germany and Austria. From 1906 to 1914 he worked as organist at Trefaldighetskyrkan in Stockholm and from 1914 to 1955 at Engelbrektskyrkan. He taught harmony at the Royal Academy of Music from 1919 to 1952 and was appointed professor there in 1936.

At a meeting in Gagnefs missionary hall, he heard a song that made a deep impression on him. For a radio broadcast in 1936, he arranged an organ piece based on this melody which became known as the Gammal fäbodpsalm från Dalarna. Today this is his best-known and most frequently performed work. He wrote in a romantic idiom which blended features of composers such as Rachmaninoff and Sibelius with folk music and impressionistic elements.

Lindberg was also prominent as a teacher, holding posts in the conservatory in Stockholm as well as in local high schools. He was a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of music from 1926 until his death.

Lindberg participated in the production of the 1939 choral book. He also wrote many non-religious works, including a symphony and symphonic poems. At a meeting in the Gagnef mission house, he heard a song that stuck in his mind. For a radio broadcast in 1936, he wrote an arrangement for organ based on this melody. He called the piece Gammal fäbodpsalm från Dalarna and it is probably the most widely performed work by Lindberg today.

Lindberg was born in Gagnef, Dalarna, Sweden in 1887. He died in Stockholm in 1955. He was the uncle of jazz musician and composer Nils Lindberg.