Ida Moberg (1859-1947) was a Finnish composer. She studied in Helsinki, St. Peterburg
and Dresden and was on the brink of a breakthrough to the national scene in the early
1900’s. She debuted quite late and gave a composition concert in 1906 with her
Symphony (lost) and cantata Vaknen (Awake). The critics were, however, unenthusiastic
and composer Oskar Merikanto wrote the infamous words “A brisk woman but only just a
woman”. Despite the critique, Moberg continued to gain some success, e.g., with her
cantata “Tyrannens natt” (Night of the Tyrant) for tenor soloist, male choir, and orchestra,
which was an anonymous composition competition but failed to impress after the
composer’s identity was revealed.
In addition to composing, Moberg was an avid pedagogue, who was enthusiastic about the
pedagogical innovations of the early 20th century, especially Rudolf Steiner and his ideas.
Furthermore, Mober became interested in Buddhism and anthroposophy, both of which
would be reflected in her later compositions. Until approximately 1911, Moberg had her
works performed in, e.g., Helsinki and Vyborg, but after the 1st World War, information
becomes scarce and many of her compositions remain to be premiered.
Moberg’s style was harmonically conservative but structurally innovative and is reminiscent of postmodernism in its continuous melody with little recapitulation, especially in her later works.
Moberg’s works were preserved as manuscripts in various institutions, such as Sibelius
Academy (current Aalto University), MusicFinland, and the National Archives of Finland.
The copyright of her works has expired, but the society has been fortunate to get to know
some of her relatives and been able to discuss with them some aspects of her life.
Generally, Moberg’s handwriting was thin and – at the first glance – many works appeared
incomplete. However, closer examination revealed that practically all the compositions
were complete and of high quality, but any performance would be impossible without
engraving and careful layout editing. It was also apparent that Moberg would have
composed at a quick pace, which was reflected in quite a few discrepancies regarding
accidentals and time signature markings, but these were relatively easily resolved based
on the whole handwritten scores. Another problem arose with the lyrics, but we were
honored to get assistance from Swedish-language experts providing us with insights into
the archaic grammar and orthography of Moberg’s texts. The song, cantata and opera
lyrics have been reproduced as Moberg wrote them without modernizing the Swedish
language. Hence, we often wrote “af” instead of “av”, used the archaic form of the second
person plural personal pronoun “I”, left unchanged the plural forms of verbs “vi ärö, vi kalla,
i ären”, etc.
This project would have been impossible without funding and enthusiastic persons who
participated in the process by text editing, performing selected works and encouragement.
The society wishes to express their gratitude to several organizations and persons, as
follows:
Svenska Kulturfonden
Kone Foundation
Aalto University Library
MusicFinland
Carita Rosenberg-Wolff
Jari Eskola
Fennica Gehrman
Philipp Kröll (Schott Music)
Petri Bäckström
Ann-Christin Högnabba
Johannes Gustavsson
Mirka Malmi
Emilia Hoving
Musicians of the Savo Music Society Orchestra
Singers of Chamber Choir Ancora
Ossi Jauhiainen
Per-Olof Moberg
Please enjoy browsing Moberg’s compositions and don’t hesitate to mail or call us for
further information.