Concert Band

The Last Flower of Autumn

for Male Voice Choir and Concert Band

Grade 6 | 10 Mins

The Last Flower of Autumn was commissioned by Orphei Drängar and Uppsala Blåsarsymfoniker (Sweden) who gave the premiere in Stockholm on the 9th April 2022, under the baton of Leif Karlssohn.

Edith Södergran (1892 – 1923) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish poet and one of the first modernists within Swedish-language literature. She was born in Saint Petersburg and released her first collection of poems, which included The Last Flower of Autumn, at the age of 24. Her affluent middle-class family lost their fortune during the Russian Revolution and she died tragically young at the age of 31, having contracted tuberculosis as a teenager. She did not live to experience the worldwide appreciation of her poetry, which has influenced many lyrical poets. She is considered to have been one of the greatest modern poets writing in the Swedish language.

Philip Sparke’s setting of the poem for male voice choir and concert band echoes the mood of the poem, which is largely pastoral and romantic in nature but, as an allegory of human existence, stresses the hardship of living through life’s inevitable difficulties.