María Brynjólfsdóttir

María Brynjólfsdóttir (Sigríður María Brynjólfsdóttir) was born in 1919. She lost her parents at a young age and was raised by foster parents in Akureyri, where she first came into contact with music. Illness troubled her throughout her youth; she contracted tuberculosis and was unable to work for long periods. Despite her illness, she studied piano for a time with Árni Kristjánsson, which appears to have been the only formal musical instruction she ever received.

María began composing songs early in life and was clearly among the first women in Iceland to do so. At first, however, her compositions attracted little public attention, and it was not until she was well into middle age that she truly emerged as a composer. In a later radio interview, she stated that encouragement from the composer and choir conductor Áskell Snorrason in Akureyri had been of great importance to her.

She acquired a piano that had belonged to rev. Bjarni Þorsteinsson from Siglufjörður (composer and Iceland's foremost folk song collector) and used it for composing. However, after moving to Reykjavík around 1960, she had no access to an instrument for nearly ten years. Once she obtained a piano again, she resumed composing.

María did not write musical notation herself, but enlisted the musician Carl Billich to notate her music. In 1972 she published a collection of songs arranged by him for solo voice, choir, and piano. Two additional music collections followed during the 1970s, together containing nearly one hundred songs. María is believed to have composed roughly the same number again, though many of those works have not been properly preserved.

Many of María’s songs have been released on recordings by soloists and choirs. Her best-known song is probably Glerbrot (“Broken Glass”), set to a poem by Freysteinn Gunnarsson. Other song titles include Til komi ljósið (“Let There Be Light”), Úr daglega lífinu (“From Everyday Life”), Lestin brunar (“The Train Rushes On”), Tvær litlar hendur (“Two Little Hands”), Blær í faxi (“Breeze in the Mane”), Spörfuglinn (“The Sparrow”), Ef væri ég söngvari (“If I Were a Singer”) and Gamalt lag (“Old Song”).

Among the performers who have recorded her music are Jóhann Már Jóhannsson, Benedikt Benediktsson, Karlakór Keflavíkur, Samkór Mýramanna, Ásgerður Júníusdóttir and Skagfirska söngsveitin. Several of her songs were also recorded by RÚV and are preserved in its archives.

María Brynjólfsdóttir died in 2005 in her ninetieth year. In recent years, her memory and compositions have increasingly been brought back into public awareness, alongside those of other overlooked women in Icelandic music, including through concert performances.

Source: Glatkistan.