Born on November 6, 1922, in Karlstad. His musical career began with studies in Arvika; afterwards, he attended the Royal College of Music in Stockholm from 1942-1947, studying piano and receiving degrees in music pedagogy as well as cantor and organist degrees. He has also studied harpsichord, organ, Gregorian chant, and music theory. He was a church organist between 1948-1960 in Tranås and Södertälje. He has also been a teacher at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm (ear training). Since 1971 he has been a freelance composer, but has also appeared as a musician and conductor. He became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 1975.

Lars Edlund is one of the most important figures in Swedish choral music, and has worked with both the sonorous qualities of choir as well as textual adaptation in his compositions. Like early masters of the madrigal, he enhances the drama and architecture of his choral texts while always putting the purely musical principles of the piece at the fore. His interest in older vocal arts can be seen in part in his direct allusions to, for example, Caccini (in Elegi, to a poem by Gunnar Ekelöf). His work Nenia is based on an extant fragment of a work by Monteverdi. His studies and experience within the realm of vocal music have resulted in among other things the important textbooks Modus Novus (1963) and Modus Vetus (1967).

In addition to his feel for musical form, Edlund also possesses great expressive and emotional power, characteristics that are prominent in Adonai, where the organ and percussion enhance the expression of the vocal parts.

He has also written a great deal of instrumental music, such as Tracce. Chamber music has also shown itself to be an inspiration to him, exemplified for example by his second string quartet. Its subtitle, Reflexer av en hymn (“Reflections of a hymn”) bears witness to the fact that his creativity often works with the many fruitful sources that can be found by an artist who delves into musical tradition and heritage. The three movements for choir a cappella, in which he has set to music texts taken from Dante’s Paradiso, is one of the clearest and most accomplished works in the history of Swedish choral music. He has returned to the poetry of Gunnar Ekelöf in Näverbitar (“Pieces of Birchbark”), for choir and chamber orchestra; Ikoner (“Icons”), for a similar setting, is a collection of musical settings of the poetry of Tomas Tranströmer.
Hans-Gunnar Peterson 2002 (Engl. translation: Geroge Kentros)