NORWEGIAN FOLK SONGS
If the dwellers of the deep fjords, the somber fir-clad mountain
valleys, and the bleak ice-fields do not "open their lips so readily
for song" as the people of southern lands where the sun creates an
eternal spring, it is not because they are without lyric power, as is
clearly apparent from the rich and varied folk-songs and the splendid
creative work of Edvard Grieg.
The Norwegian folk-songs, spring dances, hallings, and wedding
marches, have been well characterized as the outpourings of the inner
lives of the common people, the expression of their dauntless energy,
their struggles and aspirations. The folk-song of Norway, more than in
any other land, embodies the character and expresses the tendencies of
Viking life, ancient and modern. It bears the unmistakable marks
of weal and woe of Norse life, the strongly marked and regularly
introduced rythms of the developed and developing national character.
And while an undercurrent of melancholy runs through most of it, it
is, after all, the faithful interpreter of the lives of isolated and
solitary occupants of fjords, fjelds, and dalen.
The folk-songs of Norway are singularly typical of the country and its
inhabitants. Some "seem to take us into the dense forest among mocking
echoes from, the life outside; others show us the trolls tobogganing
down the highest peaks of Norway; in some we feel human souls hovering
over reefs; in others, memories of the old sun-lit land flit before
us; but in none do we meet with sentimentalism, despondency, or
disconsolateness." But with their weird and minor strains, and their
odd jumps from low tones to high, on first acquaintance they strike
the hearer as strange and elusive.
Some of the epic songs, as Telemarken, are of great antiquity. But it
was not until the last century that Norse tone artists discovered the
wealth that had long been cherished by the peasants of the fjords and
mountain valleys. Lindeman (1812-1887) was the first to recognize
the musical significance of Norwegian folk-songs. He collected many
hundred national ballads, hymns and dances, and called attention
to their richness and variety as thematic material for a school of
national music. In Lindeman's collection will be found songs which
tell of the heroic exploits of old Norse vikings, kings, and earls
of the heathen days of Thor and Odin, together with lyrics, deep and
ardent, which sing of the loves, the joys, and the sorrows of the
humbler Christian folks.
The Hardanger violin, the lur and the langeleik have played a leading
role in the development of Norwegian folk-songs and dances. The
Hardanger instrument is more arched than the ordinary violin; there
are four strings over the finger-board and four underneath, the latter
of fine steel wire, acting as sympathetic strings. The men of the
Hardanger fjord have long been distinguished for the workmanship and
tonal qualities of their violins, and with them the peasants have
improvised the rich and varied impressions of nature which we find
embodied in folk-songs. The lur is a long wooden instrument, of the
trumpet order, and is usually made of birch bark. It is much used in
the mountains. The langeleik, or Norwegian harp, is a long, narrow,
box-like stringed instrument, something of the character of the
ancient zither. It has seven strings and sound holes, but its tone is
weak and monotonous.
The national dances of Norway have bold rythms which at once arrest
the attention. Perhaps the most characteristic is the hailing, a solo
dance in two-four time. It is usually danced by young men in country
barns, and its most striking feature is the kicking of the beam of
the ceiling. In the story of Nils the fiddler, in his novel _Arne_,
Björnson has given this account of the hailing: "The music struck up,
a deep silence followed, and he began. He dashed forward along the
floor, his body inclining to one side, half aslant, keeping time to
the fiddle. Crouching down, he balanced himself, now on one foot, now
on the other, flung his legs crosswise under him, sprang up again,
and then moved on aslant as before. The fiddle was handled by skilful
fingers, and more and more fire was thrown into the tune. Nils threw
his head back and suddenly his boot heel touched the beam."
The spring dance is less vigorous, but more graceful than the hailing.
It is a round dance in three-quarter time, in which two persons, or
groups of two, participate. It is danced with a light, springing step,
and has been compared with the mazurka by Liszt. Like the hailing,
however, it is markedly individual in its pleasing combinations of
tones. Forestier says of the spring dance of Norway: "There is a
freshness, a sparkle, and energy, a graceful life about it that is
invigorating."
If Lindeman was the first to collect folk-songs and dances in Norway,
Ole Bull (1810-1880) was the first to popularize them. He was, as
Grieg once declared, a pathbreaker for the young national music.
At the early age of nineteen he sallied forth with his fiddle and
wherever he appeared in Europe and America he played the folk-music
and national dances of Norway. The favor which he found encouraged his
countrymen. His brilliant career glorified musical Norway; gave it
confidence to assert itself, and serve as the inspiration of a long
list of creative tone artists--Kjerulf, Nordraak, Grieg, Svendsen,
Winter-Hjelm, Sindling, and Behrens--to write out and arrange for
voice and modern instruments the music that had so long been preserved
in the memories of the people.
The best art-made music of Norway has been built upon the folk-songs
and dances of the common people. Halfdan Kjerulf (1815-1868) was the
first serious composer of the new art school. He lived during the
trying period of Norwegian storm and stress, but he wrote something
like a hundred compositions, and in his songs is found "the bud of
national feeling which has burst into full bloom in Grieg."
Richard Nordraak (1842-1866), during his brief career, set to music
several of Björnson's plays, and composed some strong pianoforte
pieces and songs. "He was," says Siewers, "a man with a bold fresh way
of looking at things, strong artistic interests, an untiring love of
work, and deep national feeling. He had decided influence upon his
friend Grieg's artistic views, and he is the connecting link between
Kjerulf and Grieg in the chain of Norwegian musical art."
Otto Winter-Hjelm, who, with Grieg, attempted to establish a
conservatory of music at Christiania after their return from Germany
in the sixties, contributed much to the national art of Norway by his
excellent arrangements of hallings and spring dances for piano and
violin. Thomas Thellefsen (1823-1874), a pupil and friend of Chopin,
was distinguished as a national composer as well as a pianist, and
Carl F.E. Neupert (1842-1888), who lived in America six years, did
much by his concert tours and teaching to dignify Norse music.
Johan Severin Svendsen, while a Norwegian by birth and training, has
expatriated himself by his long residence in Denmark. So far as his
compositions have national flavor they are German. Johan Selmer, while
a prolific composer, will probably be best remembered as a conductor.
Christian Sinding, after Grieg, is the best-known Norwegian composer.
His productions range from symphonies and symphonic poems through
chamber music to romances. He is credited with a wide range of musical
ideas, deep artistic earnestness, and bold power of expression; but
his compositions in the larger forms are thought unduly noisy and
restless.
Two women who have helped to make the music history of Norway are
Agatha Backer-Gröndahl and Catharinus Elling. Mrs. Backer-Gröndahl was
a pupil, first of Kjerulf and Winter-Hjelm, and later of Kullak,
Hans von Bülow, and Liszt. Many of her songs and instrumental pieces
display fine artistic feeling and musical scholarship of no mean
order. Catharinus Elling has ventured into the larger fields of
music-forms, and has produced operas, symphonies, and oratorios, as
well as chamber music and songs. Her music drama, "The Cossacks," is
her most ambitious work.
Says Henry T. Finck, an able American music critic: "When I had
revelled in the music of Chopin and Wagner, Liszt and Franz, to the
point of intoxication, I fancied that the last word had been said in
harmony and melody; when lo! I came across the songs and piano pieces
of Grieg, and once more found myself moved to tears of delight."
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) undoubtedly occupies the foremost place among
Norwegian composers. He is the highest representative of the Norse
element in music, "the great beating heart of Norwegian musical art."
Grieg's _genere_ pieces represent the pearls of his compositions. The
arrangements of folk-songs and dances for the piano in "Pictures of
Popular Life" (opus 19) are characterized by consummate lyric skill;
and Ole Bull once declared that they were the finest representations
of Norse life that had been attempted. Grieg wrote one hundred and
twenty-five songs, most of which take high rank. Finck is of the
opinion that fewer fall below par than in the list of any other song
writer. He adds: "I myself believe that Grieg in some of his songs
equals Schubert at his best; indeed, I think he should and will be
ranked ultimately as second to Schubert only; but it is in his later
works that he rises to such heights, not in the earliest ones, in
which he was still a little afraid to rely on his wings."
When it is recalled that Grieg was a pianist of exceptional merit,
the large place occupied by pianoforte pieces--twenty-eight of the
seventy-three opus numbers--it is easily understood. Grieg's piano
pieces are brief, but they are veritable gems. The Jumbo idea in music
still lingers with minor professionals. They shrug their shoulders,
remarks Finck, and exclaim: "Yes, that humming bird _is_ very
beautiful, but of course it can not be ranked as high as an ostrich.
Don't you see how small it is?"
Grieg composed nine works for the orchestra; and here, as in lyric
art-songs and pianoforte pieces, he reveals himself as a consummate
master in painting delicate yet glowing colors. The music which he set
to Ibsen's _Peer Gynt_ brought him the largest measure of fame as an
orchestral composer. Indeed it was more cordially received than the
drama, as is indicated by this criticism by Hanslick: "Perhaps in a
few years Ibsen's _Peer Gynt_ will live only through Grieg's music,
which, to my taste, has more poetry and artistic intelligence in every
number than the whole five-act monstrosity of Ibsen." Among other
notable orchestral and chamber music numbers may be mentioned a
setting of Björnson's _Sigurd the Crusader, Bergliot_, based upon
the sagas of the Norse kings, a suite composed for the two hundredth
anniversary of Ludwig Holberg, and a number of choice chamber music
pieces.
It may be remarked that Edvard Grieg has not only given Norway a
conspicuous place on the map of musical Europe, but that he has
influenced unmistakably composers of the rank of Tschaikowsky,
the Russian; Paderewski, the Pole; Eugene d'Albert, the
Scotch-English-German; Richard Strauss, the German; and our own
lamented Edward McDowell, the American. "From every point of view that
interests the music lover," says Mr. Finck, "Grieg is one of the most
original geniuses in the musical world of the present or past. His
songs are a mine of melody, surpassed in wealth only by Schubert's,
and that only because there are more of Schubert's. In originality of
harmony and modulation he has only six equals: Bach, Schubert, Chopin,
Schumann, Wagner, and Liszt. In rythmic invention and combination
he is inexhaustible, and as orchestrator he ranks among the most
fascinating. To speak of such a man--seven-eighths of whose works are
still music of the future--as a writer of 'dialect,' is surely the
acme of unintelligence. If Grieg did stick to the fjord and never got
out of it, even his German critics ought to thank heaven for it. Grieg
in a fjord is much more picturesque and more interesting to the world
than he would have been in the Elbe or the Spree."
While Norway has neither permanent opera nor permanent orchestras, she
has produced concert virtuosi of a high order. Ole Bull, the so-called
violin-king, already referred to, was unsurpassed in his day. Among
piano artists may be named the talented composer, Mrs. Agatha
Backer-Gröndahl, Thomas Thellefsen, Edmund Neupert, Martin Knutzen,
and the great composer Edvard Grieg. The flutist Olaf Svenssen and the
vocal artists Thorvald Lammers, Ingeborg Oselio-Björnson, and Ellen
Gulbranson, have also brought distinction to their country.
The male choirs of Norway have always played a leading rôle in the
music life of the nation. The students', merchants', and artists'
singing clubs at Christiania during the past seventy-five years, have
had artistic as well as patriotic aims. Festivals, after the
pattern of those held at Cincinnati, and Worcester and Springfield,
Massachusetts, have also contributed toward the development of
national music. The most eminent choral leaders in Norway have been
Johan D. Behrens, F.A. Reissinger, and O.A. Gröndahl. The Norwegian
Musical Union has also been active in the development of tonal ideals.
Its aim has been to provide chamber concerts of a high order. Grieg
and Svendsen were its first conductors. They were succeded by Ole
Olsen, who combined the talents of orchestral leader with those of
composer, chorister, and band leader. For many years he directed the
Second Brigade Band at Christiania with the rank of captain. Johan
Selmer, also a composer, succeeded Olsen in the direction of the
Musical Union; and Iver Holier, a composer of symphonies, orchestral
suites, chamber music, and vocal scores, followed Selmer. Other
orchestral leaders are Johan Hennum, Per Winge, and Johan Halvorsen,