The Music in the Finspong Collection

Abstract

The Finspong collection (Finspongssamlingen), kept in the Norrköping City Library, constitutes one of the largest historical book collections in Sweden, comprising about 35,000 volumes. It includes a considerable amount of music: about ninety printed publications and thirty music manuscripts, almost all collections of multiple pieces, dating from 1600 to the late nineteenth century. Many of the pieces included in the manuscript volumes are known to have survived only there and more than a fifth of the printed publications are seemingly unica. The manuscripts and printed publications, as well as the repertoire included in them, have varied origins, such as France, the Southern Netherlands, the Dutch Republic, northern German-speaking regions and Scandinavia. This international character of the collection can provide a point of departure for studies addressing issues related to, for example, music transfer and different ways of adaptation of the music to a local context. In addition, the music in the Finspong collection constitutes a rare example of a music collection accumulated by the same aristocratic family over a period of almost three centuries, reflecting shifting tastes and preferences over time. Although the Finspong collection contains one of the more comprehensive historical music collections surviving in Sweden, it has been without a modern catalogue. This can be compared to contemporary Swedish music collections, such as the Gimo collection, the Leufstabruk collection, or the Düben collection, all of which have modern catalogues. The aim of this publication is thus to present a modern and detailed catalogue with a focus on the material – the printed and handwritten sources, as well as the musical repertoire they include in order to facilitate further studies of this music material. The book also deals with issues related to ownership of the musical items and provides an attempt to produce a chronological reconstruction of the accumulation of the music in the collection. The introduction covers first the history of the family De Geer in Sweden at Finspång and the history of its library. Second, a chronological outline of the acquisition of the music is presented. A third part examines the musical items divided in two groups: printed publications and music manuscripts. The final part of the introduction discusses the music repertoire, focusing on issues such as geographical origin and the different repertoires of secular and sacred music.