Swedish Musical Heritage is a six-year-long project whose purpose is to make music, that is rarely played, more accessible so that it might gain a new audience. The project is funded by the Swedish Royal Academy of Music. Biographical texts on more than 300 Swedish composers, mainly unknown even for specialists in Swedish music history, provide a background for the use of the musical works, whether for performance or for research. The writing of these biographical texts is the topic of this article – the subject of which more precisely contains discussions around this rather old-fashioned task. The authors of this article are involved in this work in various ways and write from their respective starting points. The conclusion we have reached collectively is that the writing of biographies is of great value; the image of Swedish music history is deep- ened, female composers have become more visible, the musical life outside of Stockholm is described, and the great variety of roles a composer could have becomes clear.