Titanic-songs
Due to the the sinking of Titanic, the Scania Music Collections one hundred years later, in april 2012, exposed two Titanic-songs from the archive. The songs where originally published by Nils Lindström publ., Malmö in 1912. The Lindström print (acc no SMS S 05) can be read using this link: Fem nya vackra visor. N:o 104. Lindströms förlag, 1912. The copyright is extinguished. The first song, Titanics undergång (”The loss of Titanic”) is authored by Nils Lindström (1863–1913) himself. The melody is the same as the one of the swedish traditional chanty Skeppet Skuldas undergång (”The loss of Skulda”) which previously has been published in a print. The fact is, Lindström used an already extisting song about a shipwreck to discribe a similar incident. Use the this link to listen to music archivist Patrik Sandgren’s interpretation of the Nils Lindström song. The recording is from april 2012.
- Titanics undergång (mp3)
For comparison listen to Ragnar Johnsson (b. 1906) who sings ”The loss of Skulda” on a recordning from 1986 (acc no SMS B238a).
Patrik Sandgren performes his version of the song based on Ragnar Johnsson’s.
The second song, Titanics dödshymn (”The death anthem of Titanic”), is a swedish translation of the hymn Nearer My God to Thee; according to say the hymn was played by the Titanic orchestra while the ship sank. The music for the hymn is written by Lowell Mason (1792–1872) and the original english lyrics by Sarah Flower Adams (1805–1848). In Swedish the hymn is known as ”Närmare gud till dig” (no 271 in the swedish hymnbook of 1986). The swedish translation in this book was done by Emanuel Linderholm (1872–1937) and was initialy published in 1912. Interestingly enough this is a different translation than the one published in Lindström's print, which instead is done by Axel Åkerblom (1864–1937). The translation done by Åkerblom was admittedly published the same year and with the same title, but according to the print's index with the slightly altered title Titanics dödspsalm (”The death hymn of Titanic”). It shows certain similarities with Linderholm’s translation, but has also features of it’s own. Patrik Sandgren here performes an interpreation of ”The death anthem of Titanic”, singing and plaing using Åkerblom’s lyrics. The recording is from april 2012.
- Titanics dödshymn (Närmare gud till dig) (mp3)
