Extremes meet. Ole Bull was at once the most perfect cosmopolitan
and the most zealous patriot. Having spent much of his time abroad
in the various European countries and in America, he had
thoroughly learned the peculiarities of all nationalities. He was
a keen observer. Mastering quickly the various European
vernaculars, and winning easily the hearts of the people, he
became conversant with the political and social questions that
agitate the different nations. He was earnest in proclaiming their
merits, but usually silent as to their faults. His face would
brighten at every evidence he found of progress toward freedom of
thought and the establishment of liberal governments in the
various monarchical countries of Europe.
Ole Bull’s best thoughts were given to his own country, to Norway.
During all the years of conquest in his profession, and all the
honors bestowed upon him in foreign lands, he never forgot his
dear “Gamle Norge.” He ever talked with loving tenderness of
Norway’s gray mountains. He was but four years old when the young
Norway was born. When he went out into the world the names Norway
and Norwegian were scarcely to be found in the European
vocabularies, these terms having previously been absorbed by
Denmark and Dane. With his fame and name, attention was everywhere
called to the fact that Norway had cast off the yoke of Denmark,
and asserted her right to exist as an independent nation; and when
people saw Ole Bull they said, “A land that can foster such sons
has an inalienable right to its independence.”
His name was now to become a household word through the length and
breadth of the United States. At first circumstances seemed unfavorable.
There were already two violinists in New York—Vieuxtemps, who was
assisted by the famous singer Madame Damoreau, and Artot. The French,
loyal to their countrymen, made a formidable opposition, and many
difficulties had to be encountered. Ole Bull gave his first concert as
early as the 23d of November. The contest between the parties continued
with much vigor; the fact that not a Frenchman was present at the
Norwegian’s first concert made it now a question between the French and
Americans. The papers were filled with contributions in prose and in
verse, witty epigrams, and cartoons. Victory soon inclined to Ole Bull.
With his first concert, he won the good–will of the Americans, and ever
afterwards held it. His audiences kept growing, until he was obliged to
play in larger halls than were intended for concert purposes, and
oftentimes many were unable to gain admission. The rapidity with which
he traveled, and the frequency of his performances, were also
remarkable. As an illustration of this, we will give a list of his
concerts for the month of December, 1843. After appearing in New York
again on the 29th of November, he gave the following concerts in
December:—
December 1. Philadelphia.
„ 3. New York.
„ 5. New York.
„ 7. Philadelphia.
„ 9. Philadelphia.
„ 12. New York.
„ 15. Philadelphia.
„ 16. Philadelphia.
„ 18. New York.
„ 19. New York.
„ 21. Baltimore.
„ 23. Baltimore.
„ 25. Washington.
„ 26. Baltimore.
„ 27. Washington.
„ 28. Richmond.
„ 29. Petersburg.
„ 30. Richmond.
And up to 1879 many months of winter and spring, and sometimes nine
months of a year, would show similar records of travel and work. It was
not his fine physique alone that enabled him to bear the strain, but a
rigid adherence to simple diet and habits, with an almost total
abstinence from stimulants during the season of work, and constant
exercise in the open air during the summer vacation in Norway. He
doubtless traveled more miles and was heard by a larger number of people
than any other man among his contemporaries.
Mrs. Child’s account of his New York concerts written for the _Boston
Courier_, and published later in her “Letters from New York,” will be of
interest. She did not speak from the judgment of a cultivated musical
ear. She analyzed and expressed the effects of Ole Bull’s performance on
the multitude.