''Fredmans sånger'' (in English, ''Fredman's Songs'' or ''Songs of Fredman'') is a collection of 65 poems and songs published in 1791 by the Swedish poet

Carl Michael Bellman Carl Michael Bellman (; 4 February 1740 – 11 February 1795) was a Swedish songwriter, composer, musician, poet, and entertainer. He is a central figure in the Swedish song tradition and remains a powerful influence in Swedish music, as wel ...

. As a follow-up to ''

Fredmans epistlar ''Fredmans epistlar'' (English: ''Fredman's Epistles'') is a collection of 82 poems set to music by Carl Michael Bellman, a major figure in Swedish 18th century song. Though first published in 1790, it was created over a period of twenty year ...

'' from the previous year, the book contains songs from a longer period. There are bible travesties (" Gubben Noak", "Gubben Loth och hans gamla Fru", "Joachim uti Babylon"),

drinking song A drinking song is a song that is sung before or during Alcoholic beverage, alcohol consumption. Most drinking songs are Folk music, folk songs or commercium songs, and may be varied from person to person and region to region, in both the lyri ...

s ("Bacchi Proclama", "Til buteljen"),

rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

pastorale Pastorale refers to something of a pastoral nature in music, whether in form or in mood. In Baroque music, a pastorale is a movement of a melody in thirds over a drone bass, recalling the Christmas music of ''pifferari'', players of the traditi ...

s (''

Opp Amaryllis! Opp Amaryllis! (Up, Amaryllis!) is one of the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's songs from his 1791 collection, ''Fredman's Songs'', where it is No. 31. The song is a graceful pastorale in rococo style, involving a sleeping nymph ...

''), and lyrical passages (" Fjäriln vingad syns på Haga"). Several of these songs including ''Gubben Noak'' and ''Fjäriln vingad'' are known by heart by many Swedes.

Grouping of the songs

Bellman had public performances known as the '' Bacchi orden'' ("Order of Bacchus"). These consisted largely of travesties of the

chivalric Chivalry, or the chivalric language, is an informal and varying code of conduct that developed in Europe between 1170 and 1220. It is associated with the medieval Christian institution of knighthood, with knights being members of various chival ...

and society orders of the time, some of which Bellman himself was a member. These orders held strict ceremonials, and members were often expected to live a decent and "christian life". To be knighted in the ''Order of Bacchus'', the candidate had to have been observed publicly lying in a stupor in the gutter, at least twice. Several of the songs from these performances are collected in ''Songs of Fredman'' (songs 1–6). Bellman wrote drinking songs and bible travesties, and also mixed the two genres. The holy men from the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

were portrayed as drunks. The travesties became popular all over the country, being spread (anonymously) by broadsheets and

transcript Transcript may refer to: * Transcript (biology), a molecule of RNA transcribed from DNA * Transcript (education), a copy of a student's permanent academic record * Transcript (law), a written record of spoken language in court proceedings * Transc ...

s. Some of Bellman's bible travesties offended the church authorities. As shown in a 1768 letter from the

Lund Lund (, ;"Lund"
(US) and ) is a city in the provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, southern Swed ...

chapter Chapter or Chapters may refer to: Books * Chapter (books), a main division of a piece of writing or document * Chapter book, a story book intended for intermediate readers, generally age 7–10 * Chapters (bookstore), Canadian big box bookstore ...

, the church attempted to collect all prints and transcripts in circulation of the most popular song, " Gubben Noak", as well as other songs. It and eight other biblical travesties are songs 35–43. There is some thematic grouping among the songs. For instance, songs 18–21 are about

death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...

, 35–43 are biblical

parodies A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satirical or ironic imitation. Often its subject is an original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, etc), but a parody can als ...

and 47–54 are part of a song play about "Bacchus's bankruptcy" (''Bacchi konkurs'').

Songs

Persons

The songs portray a series of persons, mostly people lapsed into heavy drinking. Named persons are Kolmodin (treasurer), Holmström, Nystedt (pub owner), Meissner (brewer), Steindecker (royal kettledrummer), Lundholm (brewer and distiller), Appelstubbe (customs officer), Österman (workshop owner), Halling (baker), Agrell (customs officer), Kämpendal, Nybom, Planberg, Joseph Israelson (student and poet) and Knapen (musician). In addition to these are the biblical figures such as Adam and Susanna; and the characters from

classical mythology Classical mythology, also known as Greco-Roman mythology or Greek and Roman mythology, is the collective body and study of myths from the ancient Greeks and ancient Romans. Mythology, along with philosophy and political thought, is one of the m ...

Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Gre ...

and

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

, plus a few more.

References

External links

Facsimile of 1791 book
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fredmans sanger Swedish poetry 1791 books Song books Works by Carl Michael Bellman