Havamal, in which Odin, the god of wisdom and poetry, gives advice in practical and moral questions. Here Leifs’ majestic seriousness is contrasted with his cold laugh within the framework of a few bars. Gloomy chords, heavy dance rhythms, harsh accents and a voice part that is tonally adventurous and richly differentiated in its expressiveness show in succinct form Jon Leifs at his best and most characteristic. Apart from a short period full of contention at the Icelandic State Radio in Reykjavik, Jon Leifs remained in Germany until 1944. But he had difficulties in making a living in his country of residence. In 1932 a society, Felag tonlistar Jons Leifs, was formed to support the publishing of his music in Germany. When the publishing house burnt down after an air raid in 1943, more or less the whole stock of his published compositions was destroyed. His relations with the Germany of Hitler and its authorities is not completely clear. His first wife was a Jew. Leifs has said that his music was prohibited in 1937, but a few performances nevertheless took place. He lived in Sweden for a year in 1945, but when he returned to Iceland he was arrested on the boat, suspected of co- operating with the German authorities. He was immediately released after the intervention of an Icelandic sergeant in the US armed forces, namely Ragnar H. Ragnar, afterwards the legendary music leader in Isafjor5ur. The compositions of Jon Leifs partly change character after around 1935. His glorification of Old Norse assumes monumental proportions, and as if to counterbalance this, he began writing works of an introspective nature, warm and human in expression, often with some connection to tragic events in his own family, and finally as a swan-song before his own death. Two string quartets {Vita et Mors and Mors et Vita) and the Elegy for strings are works that belong to this latter category. The most beautiful pearl is probably the Requiem for mixed choir that Jon Leifs composed during the latter half of the 1940’s after the death of his daughter in a drowning accident outside Stockholm. This little requiem, only five or six minutes long, uses a folk text and a poem by Jonas Hallgrlmsson. It is imbued with a simple and sincere warmth. Shortly before his own death in 1968, he wrote another work in the same vein, Hughreysting (Consolation)

(1) Front Board
(2) Front Board
(3) Front Flyleaf
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(191) Back Cover
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(195) Rear Board
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(197) Spine
(198) Fore Edge
(199) Scale
(200) Color Palette