Fader Bergström


Fader Bergström, stäm up och klinga is one of the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's best-known and best-loved songs, from his 1790 collection, Fredman's Epistles, where it is No. 63. The melody is based on a minuet by Carl Envallsson. Bergström was a musician, and the song celebrates dancing and drinking late into the evening.

Context

is the central figure in Swedish song, known for his 1790 Fredman's Songs and his 1791 Fredman's Epistles. He played the cittern, accompanying himself as he performed his songs at the royal court.
Jean Fredman is a fictional character and the supposed narrator in Bellman's epistles and songs, based on a real watchmaker of Bellman's Stockholm. The epistles paint a picture of the demimonde life of the city during the eighteenth century, where strong drink and beautiful "nymphs" like Ulla Winblad create a rococo picture of life, blending classical allusion and pastoral description with harsh reality.

Song

The song is marked "Diktad midt i veckan" ; it was written in September 1773. The melody is in the key of D major, marked Menuetto, and in time. The rhyming pattern is the shifting ABBBC-DDDC-EEEC-ABAB-CDCD-EEED. The melody was derived from a minuet with the "timbre" label "Minuet af d. ä." in 's 1788 Bobis bröllop.
The lyrics have been translated into English by Eva Toller. Bergström was a musician, playing a wind instrument for people's name days in the Katarina Church area of Stockholm, and the song celebrates dancing and drinking late into the evening. The last few lines of Toller's version run:
SwedishTranslation
Väljom nattens sköte under aftonstjärnans klara brand
till vårt glada möte, med pokaln i hand;
och i mörkrets dvala res Cupidos altar, där du spör,
Bacchi källarsvala druvans ångor strör.
Lät den dumma i oket tråka och den sluga sin hjärna bråka!
Vin och flickor och Fredmans stråka natten ljuvlig gör.		Choose the bosom of the night, below the bright flame of the evening star
for our happy gathering, with the goblet in our hands;
and in the drowsy darkness, erect the altar of Cupid, where you see
the cellar-cool vapours of Bacchus's grapes are spread.
Let the dull one be bored in the yoke, and the cunning one exercise his brain!
Wine and girls and the fiddle-bow of Fredman make the night delightful.

Reception

Students of Swedish literature are expected to study Fredman's Songs and Epistles.
Epistle 63 has been recorded by Fred Åkerström on his album Glimmande nymf,
by Fredrik Berg on his 2014 album Angående Fredrik Bergs tolkning av C M Bellman, where it is the first track,
and by Rolf Leanderson on his 2012 album Carl Michael Bellman: Songs & Epistles in Swedish.