In i nuet via Darmstadt : Fylkingen, Stockhausen och 50-talet

Abstract Håkan Salomonsson: In i nuet via Darmstadt – Fylkingen, Stockhausen och 50-talet. Uppsala Universitet: Institutionen för musikvetenskap, C-uppsats 2006. During the 1950s, Swedens musical avantgarde was mainly lead by the concert organisation Fylkingen. Some of the leading members used to belong to the Mondaygroup in the 1940s and brought a will to update and modernise Swedish music with them into Fylkingen. This resulted in a radical change in the concert programs of Fylkingen and a development that lead to the introduction of the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen in Sweden. The summercourses in Darmstadt became very important to Fylkingen, especially through Bengt Hambraeus' close relationship with the European avantgarde. The aim of this essay is to discuss what kind of influence, if any, Karlheinz Stockhausen had on the Swedish music. If Stockhausen influenced the musical development in Darmstadt during the 1950s and Fylkingen was influenced by Darmstadt, one must ask: How did Stockhausen influence Swedish music? My conclusion is that Fylkingen used Stockhausen as a symbol and an argument for the European avant-garde music in their goal to convince their critics that the new music was of great importance for Sweden's future as a part of the international musical scene.