Emma Klingenberg follows Tove Jansson’s life through a musical lens in new book Tove and Her Music
27 May 2025
Emma Klingenberg follows Tove Jansson’s life through a musical lens in new book Tove and Her Music
This spring Emma Klingenberg presents Tove Jansson’s musical treasure trove in her new book Tove and Her Music (Detta är min målarsång: Tove Jansson och musiken) and on stage with a set of ‘Tove Jansson – The Songwriter’ concerts in Sweden, Finland and Norway.
Music played a significant role in Tove Jansson’s life. The multi-talented writer and artist best known as the creator of the Moomin stories also wrote song lyrics. Singer and actor Emma Klingenberg spent several years researching Tove Jansson’s lyrics which resulted in a concert performance that premiered at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki in February 2020 and has since toured successfully around the Nordic countries.
Klingenberg who was drawn into Tove’s musical world and spent a five-year-long research into the musical themes in Tove’s work has now compiled her golden finds. In her newly published book Tove and Her Music (Detta är min målarsång: Tove Jansson och musiken, Förlaget 2025) Klingenberg follows Tove’s life through music. This is a new, intimate glimpse into the life of Tove Jansson, uncovering the songs that inspired the artist and those which she composed herself, from Moomin melodies to hidden love song lyrics. Tove and Her Music is a collection of over sixty original song lyrics and includes everything from Moomin songs to the beloved ‘Autumn Song’, illustrated throughout with unique material in the form of diary sketches, photographs and handwritten documents.
This spring Klingenberg draws on Tove Jansson’s song lyrics in her evocative concert performance, which offers both emotion and humour. Last week, on May 21 Klingenberg and pianist Kristian Nyman performed at Prince Eugen’s Waldemarsudde in Sweden. The concert ‘Tove Jansson – The Songwriter’ presents newly discovered poems by Tove Jansson in entirely new compositions and arrangements. Concert guests also had a chance to hear songs from Tove’s poetry collection.
Other upcoming concerts include Lippulaiva Library in Espoo, Finland on 27 May and the Norwegian Literature Festival in Lillehammer on 7 June.
