Bjarni Thorsteinsson (also spelled Bjarni Þorsteinsson; 14 October 1861 – 2 August 1938) was an Icelandic priest, church musician and composer, best known as an important collector, transcriber and publisher of folk songs.[1][2][3]
Career
He was born in Mýrasýsla and studied at the Reykjavík Latin School (Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík), and also took lessons in organ playing and theory during his student years. Having completed his education as a priest, he was appointed priest at Siglufjörður in northern Iceland, where he served for 47 years.[4]
Although he had only received a fairly rudimentary musical education, Bjarni was also a composer, mostly writing songs for voice and piano. Most of them were published during his lifetime and many were also recorded on 78rpm records, including Sólsetursljóð, which remains his most popular composition.[4] He also wrote a set of choral responds for feast days (Hátíðasöngvar, 1899), of which the ones for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are still frequently performed at Icelandic church services.[5]
Bjarni's most significant contribution to music, however, was in collecting and publishing Icelandic folk songs, along with transcriptions from medieval manuscripts and printed music books of the early modern era. His publication, Íslenzk þjóðlög (Icelandic Folk Songs) was published in Copenhagen between 1906 and 1909. In the preface, he recounted how the Icelandic Literature Society had rejected his application to finance the publication of the work, and that publication only became possible through the last-minute support of the Danish Carlsberg Foundation.[6]
The biography of Bjarni Þorsteinsson, Eldhugi við ysta haf, written by the Icelandic scholar Viðar Hreinsson, was published in 2011 and received positive reviews.[7]
Publications
- Bjarni Þorsteinsson. Hátíðasöngvar. Copenhagen, 1899, and subsequent reprints.
- Bjarni Þorsteinsson. Íslenzk sálmasöngsbók með fjórum röddum. Reykjavík, 1903.
- Bjarni Þorsteinsson. Íslenzk þjóðlög. Copenhagen, 1906-1909.
- Bjarni Þorsteinsson. 24 sönglög fyrir eina rödd með fortepiano. Reykjavík, 1928.
References
- ^ A Short History of Icelandic Music Hjálmar Helgi Ragnarsson · 1986 p 30 ... Bjarni Þorsteinsson ( 1861-1938 ), a self - taught musician and composer . Bjarni Þorsteinsson published the results of his work in a book of almost 1000 pages, Íslenzk þjóðlög, which was printed in Copenhagen, 1906-1909 .
- ^ Ars Et Musica in Liturgia 1994 "... Bjarni Þorsteinsson was referred to above in connection with his transcription of old Icelandic folk songs and " Tvísöngur ” .
- ^ World Music: Africa, Europe and the Middle East - Volume 1 - 1999 p168 ... Bjarni Þorsteinsson was published between 1906 and 1909, but much of what was distinctive - the sound and style of the singing - is hard to convey on paper "
- ^ a b Helgi Jónsson (11 September 2018). "Bjarni Þorsteinsson". Glatkistan. Retrieved 10 November 2025.
- ^ "Hátíðasöngvar séra Bjarna". Þjóðkirkjan.is. 2019. Retrieved 10 November 2025.
- ^ Árni Heimir Ingólfsson (2019). Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 45–46. ISBN 9780253044051.
- ^ Hjalti Hugason (2012). "Eldhugi við ysta haf: Book Review". Saga. 50 (2): 181–185 – via Timarit.is.
