OF the musical instruments used by the peasant of Norway the most highly cherished from time immemorial is the fiddle. In these musically endowed peasant families, familiar to the readers of Bjornstjerne Bjornson and Ktistofer Janson, the fiddle and the family tune handed down on it from father to son, are the choicest heirlooms. The famous fiddle of the Hardanger region, with its four delicate under strings whose vibrations add weird harmonies to the tones produced by the stroke of the bow on the four principal strings, is well adapted to give expression to the trembling unrest, the quiver of pain amid sunlight and flowers and the most tumultuous bursts of gladness, that is peculiar to the scenery and the life of Norway. Among other musical instruments of which we read in the olden time, the most prominent seems to be the long-harp (Langeleg, Langeleik, Langspel, or Lang-horpe), a long, narrow stringed instrument. The first, city musician whose name is found on record is Peter Trompeter, who was made guardian of the music of Christiania in the year 1637. We regret to state, however, that Peter, in the heat of passion, slew a comrade, and as such an action was not part of his prescribed prerogatives he found himself obliged to retreat from the scene of his duties. In 1660 the privileges of the office were bestowed on Paul Roder, in whose commission it was stated that he and his apprentices alone would be permitted to furnish music for any wedding-feast, or merrymaking of note, within his district. Paul had no small cause of complaint, however, from the interference of a certain Jochum Warnecke and other strolling fiddlers, and although prompt royal protection was afforded the incensed official, his territory continued to be invaded throughout the entire period of his rule. Complaints of a similar nature were uttered by more then one city musician, and it is very evident that these strolling fiddlers, who were doubtless representatives of our friends in the rural districts, were as irrepressible as some of their ancestors had been in other fields. When Paul died his son Peter succeeded to his post, according to a promise given the father by Christian V. The organist and cantor usually enjoyed a more thorough musical education for his day then the city musician, and came by degrees to exercise more and more influence as an instructor of youth, besides leaving his impress on the public taste through Passion music concerts, as well as music in the church service. Next to members of the Lindeman family, which may lie traced back to a very early date, the most frequently mentioned organist in the primitive records of Norway is Andreas Flintenberg, who was born at Trondhjem in 1735, and died in 1813 at Christiania, where he had for some time officiated as organist of "Vor Frelser's Kirke," and cantor of the Latin school, whose pupils under his leadership formed the church choir. After his death the Latin school pupils ceased to officiate, and in the place of their "tolerably good four-part chorals " was heard the "squalling of a lot of children from the orphan asylum." So we read in a pamphlet on the musical condition of Norway, issued in 1815, by Lars Roverud, literateur and music teacher, as his title-page states, who eventually became organist and cantor in the same church, and it is to be hoped transformed the squalling of the orphans into a tolerably good four-part chorus. To Roverud's honour be it said that ha advocated in his pamphlet the establishment of a national musical academy, afterward one of Ole Bull's pet ideas. Roverud lived until 1850, and travelled much through the country at public cost to improve the state of church music. He was the first piano and harmony teacher of Halfdan Kjerulf. In the lists of concerts given during the past century appear the names of sundry distinguished guests, among them no less a person then Gluck, who visited Christiania in 1749. Altogether, little though the atmosphere may have been calculated to develop that delicate plant, musical art, it is very evident that no efforts were spared in the two last centuries to cultivate music, and however feeble some of them may appear to us they should by no means be undervalued. During the latter part of the eighteenth century music took a prominent part in the social life of Norway, and some of the highest officials of the land became quite skilful as dilettanti on various musical instruments. In Christiania, James Collet, Bernt Anker, and others, had reunions in their own homes of the vocal and instrumental forces of the city. The most interesting of the home concerts were these of Paul Thrane, who with his children and some of their comrades formed an orchestra that met every Thursday evening at his house to play symphonies of Haydn, Mozart, &c. To this family belonged the celebrated Waldemar Thrane, who, in 1825, in his "Fjeldeventyret" was the first to introduce Norse peasant melodies at a city public entertainment. It was one fair spring morning, May 17, 1811, that far-away little Norway, armed with a flag and a constitution of her own, had taken her place among the free nations of the earth. The national spirit had roused from its long slumber, shaken off its lethargy, and was ready to proclaim its dreams to a world it innocently believed would rejoice to hear them. On February 5, 1810, Ole Bull first saw the light of day; in 1812, Ludvig Mathias Lindeman was born; in 1815, Halfdan Kjerulf opened his eyes upon this strange world. Without this golden trio the musical development of Norway would not so soon have attained its present height. Whatever others might or might not have accomplished, these three men laid the foundation for a national school of music. Ole Bull was the path-finder. What Wergeland was to the literature, he was to the music of Norway. When he went forth to conquer the world with his magic bow, he carried with him the stirring national songs that had flashed into being with the new-born sense of freedom; carried with him, too, the rare music of the peasants, and he taught the civilised world more about Norway, her mountains, her sea-girt shore, her rare treasure-trove, than an entire embassy of diplomats and philosophers could have succeeded in making known. Ole was designed for the priesthood, and was only allowed to study music for his own pleasure. His true career, however, opened before him in 1828, when he failed in his examination preparatory to entering the University of Christiania, and the professor at whose house he had passed the time in playing quartets that should have been given to Latin, assuring him that he was much better fitted for music then for theology, procured for him the leadership of the "Musical Lyceum" during the illness of Thrane, When the latter died Ole Bull was made his successor. His life from this time forth until the day of his death, August 17, 1880, was one long romance.
Auber Forestier, June 1885
An Astronomical Dream
Central Asia 1885
Table of Contents
Miracles of healing - Christian Miracles or Healing
History of Russia: Christian Versus Barbarian
History of Japan: Early Christian Martyrs
The Jesus of History
The Assyrian Origin of Devil Worshippers
The Christ Of Dogma
The early history of Constantinople
