To please his father, Ole Bull studied assiduously to fit himself for
the preliminary examination of the university, but he found time also to
pursue his beloved music. At the age of eighteen he was entered at the
University of Christiania as a candidate for admission, and went to that
city somewhat in advance of the day of ordeal to finish his studies.
He had hardly entered Christiania before he was seduced to play at a
concert, which beginning gave full play to the music-madness beyond all
self-restraint. As a result Ole Bull was "plucked," and at first he
did not dare write to his father of this downfall of the hopes of the
paternal Bull.
We are told that he found consolation from one of the very professors
who had plucked him. "It's the best thing could have happened to you,"
said the latter, by way of encouragement.
"How so?" inquired Ole.
"My dear fellow," was the reply, "do you believe you are a fit man for
a curacy in Finmarken or a mission among the Laps? Nature has made you a
musician; stick to your violin, and you will never regret it."
"But my father, think of his disappointed hopes," said Ole Bull.
"Your father will never regret it either," answered the professor.
As good fortune ordered for the forlorn youth, his musical friends did
not desert him, but secured for him the temporary position of director
of the Philharmonic Society of Christiania, the regular incumbent being
ill. On the death of the latter shortly afterward, Ole Bull was tendered
the place. As the new duties were very well paid, and relieved the youth
from dependence on his father's purse, further opposition to his musical
career was withdrawn.
In the summer of 1829 Ole Bull made a holiday trip into Germany, and
heard Dr. Spohr, then director of the opera at Cassel. "From this
excursion," said one of Ole Bull's friends, "he returned completely
disappointed. He had fancied that a violin-player like Spohr must be
a man who, by his personal appearance, by the poetic character of his
performance, or by the flash of genius, would enchant and overwhelm his
hearers. Instead of this, he found in Spohr a correct teacher, exacting
from the young Norwegian the same cool precision which characterized
his own performance, and quite unable to appreciate the wild, strange
melodies he brought from the land of the North." Spohr was a man of
clock-work mechanism in all his methods and theories--young Ole Bull was
all poetry, romance, and enthusiasm.
At Minden our young violinist met with an adventure not of the
pleasantest sort. He had joined a party of students about to give
a concert at that place, and was persuaded to take the place of the
violinist of the party, who had been rather free in his libations, and
became "a victim of the rosy god." Ole Bull was very warmly applauded at
the concert, and so much nettled was the student whose failure had made
the vacancy for Ole Bull's talent, that the latter received a challenge
to fight a duel, which was promptly accepted. Ole Bull proved that he
could handle a sword as well as a fiddle-bow, for in a few passes he
wounded and disabled his antagonist. He was advised, however, to leave
that locality as soon as possible, and so he returned straight to
Christiania, "feeling as if the very soil of Europe repelled him" (to
use an expression from one of his letters).
Ole Bull remained in Norway for two years, but he felt that he must
bestir himself, and go to the great centers of musical culture if
he would find a proper development and field for the genius which he
believed he possessed. His friends at Christiania idolized him, and were
loath to let him go, but nothing could stay him, so with pilgrim's staff
and violin-case he started on his journey. Scarcely twenty-one years
of age, nearly penniless, with no letters of introduction to people who
could help him, but with boundless hope and resolution, he first
set foot in Paris in 1831. The town was agog over Paganini and Mme.
Malibran, and of course the first impulse of the young artist was to
hear these great people. One night he returned from hearing Malibran,
and went to bed so late that he slept till nearly noon the next day. To
his infinite consternation, he discovered that his landlord had decamped
during the early morning, taking away the household furniture of any
value, and even abstracting the modest trunk which contained Ole Bull's
clothes and his violin. After such an overwhelming calamity as this, the
Seine seemed the only resource, and the young Norwegian, it is said,
had nearly concluded to find relief from his troubles in its turbid
and sin-weighted waters. But it happened that the young man had still a
little money left, enough to support him for a week, and he concluded to
delay the fatal plunge till the last sou was gone. It was while he was
slowly enjoying the last dinner which he was able to pay for, that he
made the acquaintance of a remarkable character, to whom he confided his
misery and his determination to find a tomb in the Seine.