I denna ljuva sommartid

I denna ljuva sommartid
Gå ut, min själ, och gläd dig vid
Den store Gudens gåvor.
Se, hur i prydning jorden står,
Se, hur för dig och mig hon får
Så underbara håvor.


Av rika löv är grenen full,
Och jorden täckt sin svarta mull
Med sköna gröna kläder.
De fagra blommors myckenhet
Med större prakt och härlighet
Än Salomos dig gläder.

Lyrics: P Gerhardt
Music: In the tradition of Vickes Karin, Malung
Arrangement: Anders Nyberg

In many ways a special song, that became something of a Fjedur signature-melody.

The birth of this arrangement was one of those occasions when the music just landed and I was happy to be there when it happened so that I could catch it and get it down on paper. I did not write it, it was written. My opus one, and in some way the one I remember with greatest joy.

My father had the melody from Knekt Lydia, who later became our neighbor on "Gucku-battsin", (the Cucko Hill) in Äsisela, the fäbod out in the woods west of Malung. Lydia had the song from her mother Vittsis Karin.

My father jotted down the melody from Lydia and as he was leading the school-choir at Malungs folkhögskola at the time, they were going to sing it in unison at the graduation celebration in the nearby church. It was going to be the very first time for the melody to be sung publicly. But when they came down to the church to rehearse a bit before the celebrations, they had to wait because the church was cleared after a funeral that just had finished, and it had taken longer than expected. It was Vittsis Karin who had been buried. She just missed hearing her amazing melody performed.

Or maybe she was just sitting in that faraway "fäbod", where she just had arrived and where the cuckoo never ceases to call, singing her heart out...

One dark November night many years later, I was sitting in the vicarage next to the church and as I was playing "I denna ljuva sommartid" thinking of Äsisiela and Lydia the arrangement came to me with such clarity and ease. I feel very grateful and indebted to these grand souls and skillful musicians from my heritage that I have been fortunate to cross paths with and from whom I then and still draw a lot of inspiration.