“I asked my friend, the poet Einar Askestad, if he could write a poem for me about love between father and son, brothers and God. I felt that these forms of love are seldom sung about. The poem moved me greatly and I have tried to put music to these words which is simple yet full of beauty. In the four movements of this suite-like piece, various aspects of these relationships are conveyed”. (Mårten Jansson)

Biography:
'My music is my own and I have never tried to be original. That has always been my motto and I have only tried to use music to express all the feelings life consists of. This has led people to describe my music as both “so sad that it sounds like birds who have lost their wings” and “the happiest classical music we ever heard”. I have also always preferred beautiful music to atonal music and that is surely the reason why the most part of my music is more on the sad side – but what a dream it would be to be able to create beautiful music that’s bubbling over with joy! My compositions consist of almost only sacral music. This is to express my own faith but also my appreciation and respect for the timeless texts that have been used for centuries after centuries.

In 1994 I was lucky enough to start conducting the female choir Carmen and I conducted them until we decided to disunite 2010. This is of course the biggest reason why most of my compositions are for female choirs – the knowledge that what I write during the night will be tested the next evening is a driving force that not so many are lucky enough to have.

I work as a voice, music theory and conducting teacher and conductor in Uppsala were I was born -65 and still live. My education is in short: two years of musicology at Uppsala University and a MFA in Music Education, and Dalcroize Rhythmics at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm.'