Kjell-Åke Hamrén

Sven Karpe and the Swedish violin pedagogy

During World War II, when most of Sweden was set on war footing, Swedes were forced to concern themselves with emergency preparedness and supply problems. Not only public administration, businesses and nonprofit Sweden were forced to a time out from normal living and working circumstances, also the cultural sphere halted pending the outcome of the war. When peace finally came Sweden, as well as Western countries in general, saw a prolonged boom that in some respects lasted until the early 1970s. The state took one initiative after another and made large investments in education, public welfare and infrastructure.

My thesis is examining a post-war phenomenon of precisely this nature, namely the professionalization of violin teaching violin at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. He is also looking into how an entirely new profession, that of violin pedagogues for the community music schools, arose at the Royal College at the same time, and how this was critical for the long-term improvement of standards in the violinist profession. A special case study is devoted to the violinist and pedagogue Sven Karpe, whose work as a teacher at the Royal College from 1950 and at summer courses for talented young violinists in Kall in Jämtland from 1954, came to be highly influential in the development of violin teaching methods. The emphasis of the thesis is on the possible interaction between the state initiated reform policy within higher music education and the work led by Sven Karpe to identify teaching methods that would promote sufficient teaching outreach to allow for real top level results in Swedish violin playing.