Laura Valborg Aulin (1860 - 1928) Sweden
- andreachamizoalber
- Sep 2
- 2 min read
Pianist and composer. Her musical career began when she took piano lessons with her grandmother. At 12, she began classes with Hilda Thegerstrom (a pianist and composer—not yet featured on this blog). At 17, she entered the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. I'm sharing her Valse élégiaque with you; you can see the score in the video itself.
Her first public performance was in 1880, and she later toured with her brother, the violinist Tor Aulin. She studied composition and piano for five years, winning a scholarship that allowed her to study in Copenhagen with Niels Gade and then in Paris with renowned composers such as Jules Massenet, Ernest Guiraud, and Benjamin Godard. During her time in Paris, she composed several important works, one of which was Tableaux Parisiens for orchestra. I share this with you below; you can also see the score in the video.
Back in Sweden, she worked as a teacher, pianist, and composer, and joined the women's association Nya Idun. She gave recitals of her own compositions and frequently played with her brother in the Aulin Quartet.
Her works include lieder, piano pieces, two string quartets, and organ music. However, at the age of 43, he moved to Örebro, where she stopped composing, although she continued to teach and give concerts.
I share with you her Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 14. Now there is a link to download the score :)
Aulin's most highly regarded compositions are her two string quartets, considered among the most important of their kind in Sweden in the 1880s. She composed the second at the age of 29, and both were successfully premiered by the Aulin Quartet, conducted by her brother Tor. It is curious that Aulin never wrote any more quartets after these well-received works.
The reasons for her creative withdrawal are uncertain, but the challenging musical environment in Stockholm, her role as a female composer, family conflicts, the dissolution of the Aulin Quartet, and the deaths of key mentors are thought to have influenced her. Her music fell into obscurity until her Quartet No. 2 was performed again in 1991, 100 years after its premiere. You can hear it in the following video.
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