Sigvaldi Kaldalóns

Sigvaldi Kaldalóns (Stefánsson) (13 January 1881 – 28 July 1946)[1] was an Icelandic composer and doctor.

[2] Unlike the avant-garde composers of his day, he wrote in a traditional romantic style and composed many of Iceland's most famous and widely performed songs, many of which are now wrongly assumed to be folk songs.

[3] His particular skill was in capturing the spirit of poems in his melodies,[4] making him Iceland's foremost lyric composer.

He was born in Garðastræti, Vaktarabær in the Grjóti neighbourhood of Reykjavík,[6] the son of Stefán Egilsson, a mason, and Sesselja Sigvaldadóttir, a midwife.

[7] On 16 September 1909 he married Karen Margrethe Thomsen (née Mengel), a Danish nurse.