Ja, må han (hon) leva

Ex A: "Ja, må han (hon) leva" as printed in the songbook "Gula visboken", 1953.[1] Listen! 
Ex B: "Ja, må han (hon) leva" as sung lately.  Listen! 
Ex C: "Venus Minerva", Fredman's song no 12 with lyrics by Carl Michael Bellman.[2][3]  Listen! 
Ex D: "Portugal, Spanjen", Fredman's song no 11 with lyrics by Carl Michael Bellman.[4][5]  Listen! 

Ja, må han (hon) leva (Yes, may he (she) live) is a Swedish birthday song. It origins from the 18th century, but the use as well as its lyrics and melody has changed over the years. It is a song that "every Swede" knows and it is therefore rarely printed in songbooks. Both lyrics and melody is of unknown origin.[6] It has a similar melody as the Dutch birthday song "Lang zal hij leven".[7]

Music

James Massengale states that the melody is of a common 18th century form, used by both Mozart and Haydn, and was therefore well known in Austria at the end of the 18th century.[8]

Carl Michael Bellman uses the melody in different shapes for three different songs. Fredman's song no. 11 (“Portugal, Spanjen”) has the form of a light 3/8 Contra dance while no. 12 (”Venus Minerva”) is a steady march in 4/4. This melody is also used in the song "Högtid beredes och Ganymedes".[8][9]

In Germany the melody was published in 1877 in a songbook for high schools with the words ”Hoch soll er leben”.[10] In the Netherlands the song "Lang zal hij leven" is used at birthdays. The three first bars of this songs are equal to ”Ja må han leva”.[11]

Lyrics

The three songs by Bellman have all words concerning drinking and feast. The wedding song "Brudgum och bruden vilka i skruden" published in a broadsheet around 1800 is noted to be sung to the melody of "Venus Minerva".[8]

The Swedish Salvation Army published in “Stridsropet” (The War Cry) in 1884 a hymn "Jesus allena mitt hjärta skall äga" ("Jesus alone shall own my heart") to the melody of ”Venus Minerva”.[12]

The first time the song appears with the lyrics "Ja må han leva" is in a student songbook in 1914,[13] then used as a drinking song and the first confirmation of the use of the song as a birthday song is as late as of around 1940.[14] Consequently, the song was mainly used as a drinking song during the 19th century but from around 1940 mainly as a birthday song.[15]

References

Notes
  1. ↑ Ralf, p 206
  2. ↑ Bellman 1, p 38
  3. ↑ Bellman 2, p 21
  4. ↑ Bellman 1, p 36
  5. ↑ Bellman 2, p 20
  6. ↑ Danielson, p 7, 16
  7. ↑ "Lang zal hij leven" (in Dutch). www.kinderliedjes.overtuin.net/. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  8. 1 2 3 Danielson, p 8
  9. ↑ Bellman, Carl Michael; Völschow Carl Matthias von (1814). C.M. Bellmans Skaldestycken, efter C.M. Völschows manuscripter första gången utgifna. I tvenne delar. Stockholm. Hos Strinnholm och Häggström. =1-2. 1814.=. (in Swedish). Stockholm.
  10. ↑ Danielson, p 11
  11. ↑ "Lang zal hij leven" (in Dutch). www.kinderliedjes.overtuin.net/. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  12. ↑ Danielson, p 9
  13. ↑ Knut Sigurd Stenbäck; Ragnar Hollmérus; Fritiof Freudenthal, eds. (1914). Nylänningarnas sångbok. Nyländska afdelningen.
  14. ↑ Danielson, p 15
  15. ↑ Danielson, pp 15-16
Printed sources

See also

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