Swedish Rhapsody No. 1
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Swedish Rhapsody No. 1 (Midsommarvaka, Midsummer Vigil) is a symphonic rhapsody by the Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén. Although the first of three similarly named works, it is often simply called the "Swedish Rhapsody".
The Rhapsody was written in 1903. It is the best known piece by Alfvén, and also one of the best known pieces of music in Sweden.
There are several pop culture references to the main theme of Alfvén's Swedish Rhapsody No. 1:
- It is played repeatedly in the 1952 short film The Stranger Left No Card, which has no dialogue, but only music.
- It was arranged and recorded as a fingerstyle guitar solo in 1957 by American guitarist Chet Atkins, and became one of Atkins' best-known recordings.
- Another arrangement appeared on Steve Howe's live album Not Necessarily Acoustic.
- The original version of a popular song "Mah Nà Mah Nà" interpolates its melody.
- It is featured in The Simpsons episode "Little Orphan Millie", erroneously depicting Danish culture.
- The melody has been used on ice cream vans in some parts of the United Kingdom.
- Ritchie Blackmore included a theme from it on the live version of Lazy found on Deep Purple's Made in Japan.
- The melody is used throughout The Wiggles Big Big Show.
- It is featured in the film Matchstick Men.
- An arrangement, formed from a couple of bars, was used as the interval signal for a German language numbers station as recently as 2009. As a result, the station is known as the "Swedish Rhapsody" station.
