Evert Taube
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| Evert Taube | |
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 Evert Taube in the early 1940s (from sheet music cover).
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Evert Axel Taube |
| Born | March 12, 1890 Gothenburg, Sweden |
| Died | January 31, 1976 (aged 85) Stockholm, Sweden |
| Genre(s) | Folk music |
| Occupation(s) | Musician Author |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, Lute |
| Years active | 1918-1974 |
| Website | Everttaube.info (unofficial) |
Evert Axel Taube (March 12, 1890-January 31, 1976) was a Swedish author, artist, composer and singer. He was born in Gothenburg, and brought up on the island of Vinga, Bohuslän, where his father, Carl Gunnar Taube, a ship's captain, was the lighthouse keeper. His mother was Julia Sofia Jacobsdotter.
In 1925, he married Astri Linnéa Mathilda Bergman, a painter and sculptress. He died in Stockholm and is buried on the graveyard of Maria Magdalena Church on Södermalm.
Having spent two years (1907-1909) sailing around the Red Sea, Ceylon and South Africa, Taube began his career as a singer-songwriter and collector of sailors' songs, and on Christmas Eve 1908, on board the Norwegian ship SS Bergen headed for Spain, he performed "Turalleri, piken fra Hamburg".
Following a five-year stay (1910-1915) in Argentina, he developed an interest in Latin American music and introduced the Argentinian tango to Sweden in the twenties. Contrary to widespread perceptions, Taube did not work as a gaucho (cowboy) on the Pampas but as a foreman supervising workers who were digging canals designed to prevent flooding on the vast plains.
He is perhaps best known as a depictor of the idyllic, with motifs from the Swedish archipelagoes and from the Mediterranean, from a perspective every Swedish four-week holiday tourist could recognize. But he also wrote the most hitting anti-fascist anti-war poem in the Swedish language, "Målaren och Maria Pia", about the italian war in abyssinia, from the late 30s, as well as the anthem of the budding environmental movement in the 70s, "Änglamark" (originally written for the successful 1971 "Hasseåtage"-film The Apple War).
On his 60th birthday in 1950, Taube received the Bellman Award from the Swedish Academy and in 1960 he received an honorary doctorate from Gothenburg University. He was elected as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 1970.
Among Taube's most famous songs are "Calle Schewens vals", "Min älskling (du är som en ros)", "Dans på Sunnanö", "Flickan i Havanna", "Änglamark'", "Så skimrande var aldrig havet" and "Så länge skutan kan gå".
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[edit] Children
- Per-Evert Arvid Joachim Taube (born 1926)
- Rose Marie Astrid Elisabet Taube (1928 - 1928)
- Ellinor Gunnel Astri Elisabeth Taube (1930 - 1998)
- Sven-Bertil Taube (born 1934)
- Kirsten Kruse
[edit] See also
[edit] Publications
- Sjösalaboken (1942), with illustrations by Roland Svensson.
[edit] His works in English
- Sea Ballads & Other Songs (1940) - (trans. by Helen Asbury)
- I Come From A Raging Sea (1967) - (trans. by Paul Britten Austin)
- CD: A Talk While Dancing (1999) - (trans. by Emily Melcher)
[edit] Biography in English
- I Come From A Raging Sea (1967) - (Foreword by Inga-Britt Fredholm)
- A History of Swedish Literature (1989) - (Ingemar Algulin)
- A History of Swedish Literature (1996) - (Lars G. Warme)
[edit] External links
- Evert Taube's (unofficial) home page
- Taube Society (Swedish only)
- Helen Asbury's translations at Evert Taubes hörna
- Taube biography at All Music Guide - Enter "Evert Taube" in Artist/Group window.
[edit] Fritiof in Arcadia
- On Colla Bella's heights, where goats are bounding
- And pine-trees thinly shade the yellow sand,
- There is a grassy glade, with palms surrounding
- And gently sloping to the vine-clad strand.
- There one sees Corsica in clearer weather
- And distant provinces in azure rows:
- There one can smell the clover and the heather,
- And one can wander lightly as a feather
- Up in the mountain, without any clothes.
- I rambled nude and happy there one morning:
- I'd come from Gothenburg across the seas.
- A fig-leaf wreath my body was adorning,
- And in a box I carried bread and cheese.
- It was a lovely day: above me singing
- I heard the little nightingale so rare:
- Just like a bird set free from prison winging,
- I gamboled gaily, back to Nature springing,
- For I would lie upon Earth's bosom fair.
- The goats and sheep were leaping all around me:
- Like little clouds they looked, so white and small.
- I felt the nightingale's sweet song surround me –
- I was a part of all this pastoral!
- But in a while, about my dinner thinking,
- Upon the grass I sat to taste my fare:
- My wine I opened and I soon was drinking,
- But when my head I turned I started blinking –
- I saw a naked maiden smiling there!
- In all my life I'd seen such beauty never!
- She came and stood quite near me on the green,
- And then before I got my wits together
- Two other lovely maids came on the scene.
- They laughed and frolicked there without chemises
- And sang: "Oh, happy days are here again!"
- Then up I sprang, forgetting wine and cheeses!
- I tossed my fig-leaf girdle to the breezes!
- The maidens ran while I pursued in vain.
- But in the evening I was in the city,
- And there again I met the lovely three,
- And they were clad in dresses white and pretty,
- As sweet three graces as a man could see.
- But one so boldly took me by the hand then,
- And said "I'm leaving on an early train".
- We walked beneath the palms along the strand, then:
- We talked and drew some pictures in the sand, then,
- And sang: "Oh, happy days are here again!"
- "I come from San Francisco," said the maiden,
- "That's why I like to climb about the hills.
- I like to frolic without clothing laden,
- For I love Nature without fuss or frills.
- Yes, in America we're far more clever,
- While here in Europe you are more mondaine!
- But you and I are much the same, however –
- Oh let us wander side by side forever!
- Oh, darling, happy days are here again!"
- Evert Taube Himlajord
- English lyrics by Helen Asbury 1940
