September 2012

Johan Wikmanson-A Sadly Forgotten but Important 18th Century Swedish Composer

In the opinion of many, the three published string quartets by Johan Wikmanson (1753-1800) are the finest 18th century string quartets written by a Swede. All three are available from Edition Silvertrust and you can hear soundbites of all of them on our website. Scholars and players, who are familiar with these works, regularly aver that they are as good as Haydn’s Op.64 quartets. This is not faint praise. So, who then was Johan Wikmanson? Unfortunately, not a great deal is known about him and this may be an indication that Wikmanson’s personal life was unremarkable, and not out of the ordinary. We do know that he was born in Stockholm,  There is record of Wikmanson having been a fine singer, so he must have received instruction in singing. There is also some indication that he received clavier and organ lessons from one the most prominent musicians then active in Stockholm. In 1770, upon graduating from school, Wikmanson went to Copenhagen for approximately 18 months. There, he studied watch-making and mathematics. Upon his return to Stockholm in 1772, he obtained a menial job with the postal service, but within two years, he was able to gain employment at the Royal Swedish Lottery. By 1790, he had risen to the fairly important rank of Accountant, a position he held until his death in 1800. Having a non-musical job was a necessity for most musicians then living in Stockholm as it was nearly impossible to make ends meet solely from music. Wikmanson provides an excellent example of this situation. Records indicate he was an excellent cellist and an outstanding organist. In fact, for the last 19 years of his life, he served as the organist of Stockholm’s principal church, the Storkyrkan, but the salary he received from this prestigious post was insufficient on which to live. Wikmanson received a modicum of recognition during his lifetime for his contributions. He was on friendly terms with Joseph Kraus, Kapellmeister of the Royal Court and with Abbé Vogler, director of the Royal Opera. In documents which make mention of him, he is regularly referred to as “Accountant Wikmanson”. This is a reflection of the fact that the position of Accountant of the Royal Lottery held considerably more social prestige than that of a mere professional musician.

There are not a great number of Wikmanson’s compositions which have survived, but this is probably nothing more than an indication that, because of his professional responsibilities at the Lottery, he had little time for composing. He wrote several vocal pieces, a few works for orchestra, including a symphony that has been lost, and some sonatas for clavier. But it is the three string quartets—the so-called Op.1—published after his death, which are regarded as his most significant works. To be sure, they are not his Op.1, but certainly among the last, if not the last, works he wrote. These quartets were published by Wikmanson's close friend Gustav Silverstolpe a few months after the composer’s death, and it is his name that appears as the publisher on the title page of that edition. Silverstolpe, a chamber music enthusiast, was given access to Wikmanson’s papers. Among them, he found five completed string quartets as well as a sixth, upon which the composer had been working at the time of his death. The fact that Silverstolpe only chose to have three published probably was an indication he realized the remaining two were not of the same quality as the others. This supposition was buttressed when a copy of one of the unpublished quartets, long missing, surfaced in 1976. It is clearly inferior to the published works and was probably composed many years prior to them.

The Op.1 string quartets bear a dedication to Haydn signed by Wikmanson’s daughter and this has led to the speculation that Wikmanson may have known Haydn. But there is no evidence of this. Wikmanson never traveled to Austria and Haydn never journeyed to Scandinavia, nor is there any known correspondence between the two. There is no question, however, that Wikmanson was very familiar with Haydn’s string quartets, judging from his own. It is thought that Wikmanson may even have had access to a copy of Haydn’s latest effort, the Op.76 quartets, before they were published in 1799. Silverstolpe subsequently sold the rights to the Op.1 to Breitkopf & Härtel in the hopes that republication by this famous firm would lead to their greater circulation. Unfortunately, Breitkopf & Härtel never did publish the quartets. Hence, were it not for Silverstolpe’s private edition, it is very likely that these works would have been lost to us forever since the manuscript has vanished.

String Quartet in d minor, Op. No.1 is in four movements which is fairly remarkable if we consider that these works were composed sometime during the mid-late 1790’s, when many composers such as Kozeluch, who were living in Vienna and who would have been conversant with what Haydn was doing, still followed the three movement Mannheim pattern established by Stamitz. The opening movement begins with a straight-forward, chromatic, dance-like theme. The development section is rather lengthy, a common Haydn trait. The unisono coda is unusual sounding and appears to be dying away when the movement is suddenly brought to an end by an abrupt and loud chord. The powerful Adagio which follows is a most striking movement and its great breadth and grandiose pathos matches anything Haydn or Mozart ever produced. It begins with a grim and unrelenting unison march passage and is unquestionably a funeral march. The slow quality of the march adds solemn dignity to the music which extends to the following movements as well. The mood of the Adagio spills over beyond its boundaries and also affects the somewhat slow Minuet which follows. The main theme is more subdued than normal and is permeated with a vaguely grave undertone. In the trio, the gloom is at last lifted by a pleasantly contrasting country dance. The finale resembles the first movement in mood and in the downward chromatic direction of its main theme, characterized by its use of appoggiaturas. Its feverish tempo and the fact there is no positive resolution in the coda, in contrast to what is often the case in Haydn, is a harbinger of the early romantic movement. The movement closes with a soft pizzicato ending in the minor.

The String Quartet in e minor, Op.1 No.2, though perhaps not as striking as his first, nonetheless, it is far better than the ordinary fare which was being served up in Scandinavia at this time. The opening movement, Allegro di molto, starts in the minor, giving off an uncertain mood. The second subject sounds exactly like an Austrian ländler. Wikmanson clearly must have been fond of these Austrian country dances for they appear in each of the Op.1 quartets. There is also a canonic episode which is similar to the canonic minuet of Haydn's Op.76 No.2, The Quinten. Whereas the First Quartet had only a few touches which sounded of Haydn, this quartetwill fool many a listener and bears considerable affinity with the Opp. 20, 33 and 64 quartets of Haydn. The second movement, Un poco adagio, is muted but not elegiac. It is consists of a stately but not somber theme and a series of variations. Scholars believe Wikmanson used the Gott Erhalte Franz den Kaiser variations of Op.76 No.3 as his model, but Haydn wrote a similar set of variations in his Op.20 No.4 Quartet. There, the cello is treated in a similar fashion, particularly in that the player must climb well into the tenor clef. The third movement, a stately Minuetto, is quite simple The Prestissimo finale is quite exciting. The music takes off immediately and does not relax until the final measures which end on a calm note.

Of the three, String Quartet in B Flat Major, Op.1 No.3 is perhaps the most Haydnesque. The opening Allegretto begins with a very genial theme. The development is by way of variation. A Romance follows the Allegretto. Again, development is by way of variation, each of which is better than the unadorned theme. Again, Wikmanson places a haydnesque Menuetto third. The finale, Scherzando poco presto, is also of a type one comes across fairly often in Haydn’s Op.33, 64, 71 and 74 quartets.

These are very worthwhile quartets not only from an historical perspective but also because they are, in and of themselves, fresh and of good quality. They will provide considerable pleasure to quartet players who are fans of music from this era.