Karl Fritjof Valentin

Karl Fritjof Valentin (Gothenburg, 1853 – Stockholm, 1918) was a Swedish composer, music critic and conductor active in the second half of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, engaged in concert life and music teaching.

He trained with J. A. Josephson at Uppsala University between 1873 and 1879 and then at the conservatory and university of Leipzig, from 1879 to 1884. He earned his doctorate with a dissertation on Swedish folk songs. Settling in Gothenburg, he worked as a music critic for the Göteborgs Handelstidning and, in 1886, revived the Harmonic Society, which he conducted until 1897, performing numerous large-scale works for chorus and orchestra. In 1897 he moved to Stockholm, where he was critic for Svenska Dagbladet until 1902 and professor of music history at the conservatory, a post he advanced to full professor in 1912. That same year he entered the Academy of Music, of which he had been secretary since 1901.

His recognition as a composer came in Leipzig in 1886, when some of his songs were performed at the festival of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein. His output includes cantatas and occasional pieces for chorus and orchestra, eleven collections of songs for solo voice, an Adagio for violin and orchestra and two sets of piano pieces. His legacy is also associated with his Illustrated History of Music, published in 1900–1901 and revised in 1916, and with numerous articles in Swedish music journals.