City in Sweden, the country’s second largest city. Its oldest churches are the Gustafvi Kyrka (1633) and the Christine Kyrka, built for German and Dutch merchants in 1649. These fostered the city’s earliest music, and in the 17th century two musicians were also employed to perform twice a week on the balcony of the town hall and at other municipal functions.
Although concerts were held as early as 1718, they did not become a regular part of the city’s musical life until the 1750s. In the 1770s the leading figures were Benedictus Schiller and Patrik Alströmer. The orchestra was composed of a few professionals with amateurs from the city’s bourgeoisie who could afford instruments and lessons. From 1781 to 1791 subscription concerts were promoted by a violinist, La Hay, who also started an academy for amateur musicians. There was no permanent concert hall at that time. The early 19th century saw the foundation of various music societies such as the Musikaliska Öfningssällskap (1818) and Orphei Vänner (1821). Göteborg was visited by several German opera companies in the 1830s and interest in stage production increased; the Nya Teater (new theatre), later to become the Stora Teater (grand theatre), was opened in 1859. Opera, however, was later overtaken by operetta as the most popular form of music for the stage. In 1994 a new opera house, situated at the harbour, was inaugurated.
Under the direction of Joseph Czapek, who settled in Göteborg in 1847, subscription concerts became regular events; unlike Stockholm, where the stage enjoyed most favour, Göteborg preferred the concert hall. Smetana arrived in Göteborg in 1856 and stayed for five years. His main occupation was giving private piano lessons to various families, such as the Dicksons, Valentins, Elliots, Röhs, Gumperts, Heymans and Magnus. To commemorate his time in Göteborg the Czech state presented a Smetana Museum to the city in 1961.
It was not until 1905 that Göteborg became an important musical centre with the foundation of the Göteborgs Orkesterförening, financed by local industry. In 1907 Wilhelm Stenhammar was appointed as the orchestra’s conductor, and, subsequently with the help of Tor Aulin, he built up an excellent orchestra. Stenhammar was a noted educationist as well as a composer and was among the first to arrange school concerts; he was also responsible for introducing Nielsen’s music to the Swedish public. Symphony concerts have, since this time, played the most prominent role in the city’s musical life. Other conductors of the Göteborg SO have included Carl Nielsen, Ture Rangström, Tor Mann, Issay Dobrowen, Sixten Eckberg, Dean Dixon, Sten Frykberg, Sergiu Comissiona, Sixten Ehrling and Charles Dutoit. Under Neeme Järvi (conductor from 1984) the orchestra won wide acclaim both on tours and through recordings (e.g. Grieg’s Peer Gynt, the complete symphonies of Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel, Shostakovich’s Symphony no.14). The concert hall (Göteborgs Konserthus), built in 1934 with a capacity of 1371, is internationally known for its excellent acoustics.
The more notable amateur music societies are the Göteborgs Ungdomsorkester (youth orchestra) and the Folkliga Musikskolans Ungdomsorkester, run by the ABF, a national organization giving elementary instrumental teaching. At the city’s university and institutions of higher education there are the Akademiska Kapell, Blåsljud, and the Allianceorkester. Levande Musik (living music), a society devoted to the performance of modern chamber music, gives about seven concerts a year. The most active choirs and choral societies are the Göteborgs Konserthuskör (1962) and Lodolakör (1962). A conservatory, reorganized as the Göteborgs Musikhögskola (school of music), was founded in 1954; the city also has an experimental training college for school music teachers. The university established a department of musicology in 1968. In 1964 the Teater- och Operahögskola was established, and in 1992 it was brought together with the Musikhögskola and the university musicology department to form Artisten, a house in which the exchange among the different branches of music has greatly stimulated the city’s musical life. All three schools are now part of the university.
Jazz has contributed much to the city’s musical life since the 1940s when various bands performed in the Liseberg amusement park, and the jazz club Art Dur has been visited by leading American and European jazz musicians since the 1960s.
GroveO (A. Wiklund)
‘Joseph Czapek’, Nordisk Musik-Tidende, vii/6 (June 1886), 81 [repr. from Svensk Musiktidning]
J. Svanberg: Anteckningar om Stora Teatern i Göteborg (Göteborg, 1894)
W. Berg: Anteckningar om Göteborgs äldre teatrar (Göteborg, 1896–1900)
W. Berg: Bidrag till musikens historia i Göteborg 1754–1892 (Göteborg, 1914)
A. Fromell: Stora Teatern i Göteborg 1893–1929 (Göteborg, 1929)
J. Rabe: Göteborgs teater- och musikliv (Uppsala, 1948)
H. Edlén: ‘Musik i Göteborg’, Svenska musikperspektiv: minnesskrift vid Kungl. Musikaliska Akademins 200-årsjubileum 1971, ed. G. Hilleström (Stockholm, 1971), 429–69
K.-O. Edström: Göteborgs rika musikliv: en översikt mellan världskrigen (Göteborg, 1986)
HAKAN BENGTSSON/ANDERS WIKLUND