Born on 21st September 1893 in Helsinki, died 5th March 1977 in Stockholm. He settled in Sweden in 1915 and became a Swedish citizen in 1918. He studied at the University of Helsinki, and was taught the violin at the St Petersburg Conservatory and opera conducting at Sternsches Musik konservatorium, Berlin. He was a self-taught composer. He spent the early years of the 1920s in Paris. He reviewed music for the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet 1923-1938, Nya Dagligt Allehanda 1938-1939, Aftontidningen 1942-1956 and Stockholms Tidningen 1957-1964, and his collected articles and reviews were published in Svenska tonsättare (1943), Vandring med fru Musica (1943) and Ny vandring med fru Musica (1944). He founded and directed the Orchestra of the Jewish Music Society in Stockholm and became a Member of the Royal Academy of Music in 1952. Pergament was the leading Swedish critic of his time, impartial and educational in his style. As a composer he was one of our first and greatest modernists. He derived inspiration from the Continent, from his Jewish upbringing and from the natural scenery of Scandinavia. His solo songs, choral songs and choral settings of folk songs have an unmistakeable Scandinavian sound. There is a Jewish quality which permeates a great deal of his output, but even this music has a universal humanist quality, as in the case of the choral symphony The Jewish Song (1944), perhaps his most important composition, his operas Himlens Hemlighet (1953) and Eli (1959) and his Rhapsodia Ebraica. As a counterpoise he also wrote a Swedish Rhapsody. In his compositions, late Romanticism and Expressionism are merged into a personal and relevant tonal language.
The dynamic, colourful ballet Krelantems och Eldeling occupies a special position among his hundred or more compositions. He began writing it in Paris and it was performed in Stockholm in 1928. It is dynamic music of great emotional intensity, featuring polytonality, rhetorical rhythm and a very large orchestra. He also wrote a succession of concertante works, viz. for two violins, for cello, for viola and for piano. He wrote incidental music for three films (Med livet som insats, Flickan och Djävulen, Barabbas). He also composed a great deal of chamber music, including a violin sonata, a piano trio, three string quartets – but also a duet for violin and cello and a Pezzo intimo for 16 cellos. Of his vocal works, mention should also be made of the oratorio De sju dödssynderna (The Seven Deadly Sins) and Kol Nidre for baritone, mixed choir and orchestra. SJ