Draft:Róbert Abraham Ottósson

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Róbert Abraham Ottósson (12 May 1912-10 March 1974) was a German conductor, musicologist, and pianist, who emigrated to Iceland in 1935. He is considered one of the most influential musicians responsible for creating Iceland´s music scene in the mid-twentieth century.

Life

Robert Abraham was born in Berlin, the son of the noted ethnomusicologist Otto Abraham and his wife, Lise Golm. Abraham received a first-class musical upbringing, studying piano and theory at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory, and eventually studying composition and conducting at the Berlin Academy of Music. Although Abraham was raised in the Protestant faith, his parents were both of Jewish heritage, and he left Germany in 1934. He initially went to Paris, where he attended a conducting course led by Hermann Scherchen, then continued to Copenhagen, where he hoped to receive a work permit. Despite the efforts of friends and colleagues, including the noted academic Lis Jacobsen, this proved impossible. Thus, in autumn 1935, Abraham sailed to Iceland, where he would live and work until his death.

Róbert Abraham Ottósson in 1960.

Abraham was advised to start a career in the town of Akureyri, where he would be less noticeable to police and politicians. Iceland had a strict anti-immigration policy in the years leading up to World War II, and most refugees from Nazi Germany were denied asylum there. Abraham, however, was allowed to stay. He founded his own choir in Akureyri, but local antagonism, particularly from the composer-conductor Björgvin Guðmundsson, led him to move to Reykjavík in 1940. There, he worked as a conductor, pianist, and teacher. Among the ensembles he conducted was the National Radio Choir (1948-1950), and he conducted the first performance of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in March 1950. In 1959, he became the first conductor of the Philharmonia Choral Society (Söngsveitin Fílharmónía), and with them he gave the Icelandic premieres of many key works, including Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Missa Solemnis, Igor Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, Verdi's Requiem, and Brahms's A German Requiem. Among the soloists he worked with as conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra were the pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy and the violinist Isaac Stern.

Abraham also became a leading musicologist, and defended his doctoral dissertation on the Icelandic rhymed office (Reimoffizium) of Saint Thorlak (known in Icelandic as Þorlákstíðir) at the University of Iceland in 1959; this was published in the renowned scholarly series Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana. He would later contribute articles on Icelandic music to several leading international publications, including Kulturhistorisk Leksikon for Nordisk Middelalder and the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Also, from 1959, he was Director of Music for the Icelandic Lutheran Church. He took the Icelandic form of his name, Róbert Abraham Ottósson, after receiving Icelandic citizenship in 1949. He married Guðríður Magnúsdóttir in 1942, and they had one son, Grétar Ottó.

Róbert Abraham Ottósson also composed and arranged works, especially for local choirs. His arrangements include Vinaspegill ("Forðum tíð einn brjótur brands") and Björt mey og hrein, which have been popular among local choirs. In 2009, the Hamrahlíð Choir received a Platinum CD for their best-selling CD, Íslensk þjóðlög, which includes arrangements by Róbert Abraham Ottósson of Icelandic folk songs. Original compositions include Miskunnarbæn (Icelandic Kyrie) and Svarkurinn. His works are published by the Icelandic Music Information Center.

Ottósson received several prestigious awards for his work on behalf of Icelandic music. In 1970, he was made a Knight of the Order of the Falcon by the President of Iceland, for his outstanding work on behalf of music. That year, he was also awarded the "Student Star," an award presented to an outstanding faculty member of the University of Iceland.

Róbert Abraham Ottósson passed away suddenly in Lund, Sweden in March 1974, while attending a hymnology conference there. He is buried in Reykjavík. He was among Iceland's leading musicians around the middle of the 20th century, leading local orchestras and choirs and giving local premieres of countless works from the Western classical canon. A recent book by the Icelandic musicologist Árni Heimir Ingólfsson, Music at World's End: Three Exiled Musicians from Nazi Germany and Austria and Their Contribution to Music in Iceland, discusses Róbert Abraham's life and career in detail.