Engel Lund

Who was Engel Lund?

EngelLund was a Danish-Icelandic soprano and a collector and distinguished interpreter of traditional music. Her most notable work is the Book of Folk Songs, a collection of 49 pieces with piano accompaniments by her stage partner, Austrian composer and pianist Ferdinand Rauter. It was first published in 1936 by Oxford University Press.

Lund was born to Danish parents on July 14, 1900 in Reykjavík, where she spent her early childhood. At the age of 11, her parents moved back to Denmark, where she attended grammar school. She studied singing in Copenhagen, Paris, and finally in Germany. During that time, she developed a growing interest in folk songs and began working with Rauter.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, she moved to London, where she would live through most of her professional career, as did Rauter. Concerts led them all over Europe, the United States, and Canada.

Lund was renowned for her ability to present songs from many different countries in their original languages "completely without accent", and for speaking as many as 20 languages fluently.