Hilding Hallnäs


Hilding Hallnäs was a Swedish composer. Hallnäs was married to the actress Gun Holmquist.

Life and career

Hallnäs's father had been a tenor and sang in choirs. After matriculation in his home town, he entered the Kungliga Musikhögskolan i Stockholm in 1924, studying with Gustaf Hägg and Otto Olsson, and graduated as an organist and music teacher. He pursued organ studies in Paris with Alexandre Eugène Cellier, and studied composition in Leipzig with Hermann Grabner.
In 1933 Hallnäs became organist of the Johanneberg church in Gothenburg, remaining until his retirement in 1968, teaching harmony at the Gothenburg Orchestral Society and becoming a leading light in the musical world of Gothenburg. He was active in the Levande Musik concert association and the Gothenburg Composers' Association. In 1974 he settled in Stockholm.
Prior to the Second World War Hallnäs was counted among neoclassicists such as Dag Wirén and Lars-Erik Larsson, but after he began using his own 12-tone system, first heard in his fourth symphony Metamorfosi sinfonice.

Selected compositions

Music for the stage