Spring songs are a big deal in Sweden. For one thing, the winter is really long and Swedes look forward to some warmer weather, but also because it is such a good excuse to sing spring songs.
Perhaps the best known of all spring songs is “Vårsång”, which does mean spring song, but it is usually referred to as Glad sås. The reason for this is that in choirs song are often named after the first few syllables in the first line of the song. In this case the first line is Glad såsom fågeln i morgonstunden which translates to – Happy as the bird in the early hour of morning.
However, by cutting the second word in half for brevity, the meaning changes completely. The word såsom means as or like, but when you only say the first syllable it means sauce or gravy. So “Glad Sås” becomes “Happy Gravy”, A funny little internal joke among choir people.
Also very interesting is the composer of the song. His name was Frans Gustav Oscar from the house of Bernadotte. He usually goes by Prins Gustav. He was a trained musician and was second in line for the throne of Sweden and Norway when he was born in 1827. He wrote several master pieces at a very young age before he dies from typhoid fever at the age of 25!!!
Click below to listen to “Glad sås” where the music, lyrics and choir arrangement were all written by the young prince.