Norwegian Life Part 10

The official paper of the Swedish government is _Post och Inriches Tidning_, which was founded as far back as 1645, and is one of the oldest periodicals in the world. For more than a century it has been published under the auspices of the Swedish Academy, an organization of eighteen of the most learned scholars and philosophers in the kingdom. The editor is Dr. J.A. Spilhammar, a very learned gentleman, who, on account of his position, is naturally conservative and discreet in all his utterances.

_Aftonbladet_, a liberal evening paper, to which I have already alluded, has the greatest circulation in Sweden, the daily edition varying from one hundred and fifty thousand to one hundred and sixty thousand copies, and it is one of the most influential forces in the kingdom. The editor, Harald Sohlman, is regarded is an able writer and shrewd business man. He is also editor and publisher of _Dagen_, a morning paper, liberal in politics, which has a circulation of about forty thousand copies, and is sold at three _ore_--about three-quarters of a cent. _Aftonbladet's_ semi-weekly edition goes into every corner of the kingdom, has a high literary standard, contains correspondence from all the European capitals, and has a special department devoted to news concerning the Swedes and Swedish affairs in America.

The most conservative of all Swedish papers is _Nya Dagligt Allehanda_, edited by Dr. J.A. Bjorklund. Its circulation is confined almost exclusively to the n.o.bility and wealthier cla.s.ses, and is said to be more loyal to the government than royalty itself.

_Vart Land_, another conservative paper, edited by Professor Gustaf Torelius, an eminent author and scholar, is an organ of the Swedish state church, and on that account is taken by every Lutheran clergyman and active layman in the kingdom. It contains the official announcement of the minister of religion and the archbishop, and is especially given to news of an ecclesiastical character. Its most prominent writer is Dr. C.D. af Wirsen, one of "the immortal eighteen"

of the Swedish Academy and a lyric poet of reputation.

_Svenska Morgonbladet_, another religious daily, opposes _Vart Land_, and represents the dissenters from the established church. Its circulation, according to its sarcastic compet.i.tors, "is limited to those who have been saved." Its most eminent contributor and patron is Dr. Peter Paul Waldenstrom, founder and leader of the Free Lutheran Church, "the Swedish Moody." Scarcely a week pa.s.ses without an article from his pen in _Morgonbladet_, which gives that paper its standing among Free Lutherans.

_Dagbladet_ is the only paper in Stockholm which is issued twice a day, and it has also a Sunday edition. It styles itself in politics a "moderate," but is more popular among the conservatives than the liberals. Having the city printing, it is not inclined to quarrel with its bread and b.u.t.ter.

_Dagens Nyheter_, a liberal morning paper, made a fortune for Rudolph Wall, its founder, who died a millionaire. It is considered one of the most profitable newspaper properties in Europe. It sells for a cent and a quarter, and has a circulation of about thirty thousand.

The Stockholm paper which imitates the American press most closely is _Svenska Dagbladet_, ably edited by Helmer Key, a doctor of philosophy, and C.G. Tengwall, who is regarded as one of the best all-around newspaper men in Sweden. It has the best cla.s.s of contributors of any of the Swedish papers in a literary way, including Professor Oscar Levertin, Verner von Heidenstam, the poet, Tor Hedberg, an art and literary critic, and Ellen Key, the auth.o.r.ess, and the most influential woman in Sweden. The paper has a large circulation among the thinking people of the country, and exercises a wide influence.

The official organ of the Royal Yacht Club, the Royal Jockey Club, and all representative Swedish sport clubs, is the _Ny Tidning for Idrott_, which is owned by Count Clarence von Rosen, one of the grandsons of the late Mrs. Bloomfield Moore, of Philadelphia. The count, himself the finest rider in the Swedish army, edits the horse news, while Colonel Victor Balck, the father of modern Swedish sports, and Alex. Lindman are the editors. _Ny Tidning for Idrott_ has a regular correspondent in America. Hjalmar Branting, leader of the socialists in Sweden and a member of the second chamber of parliament, is editor of _Social Demokraten_, the organ of his party. Although a man of aristocratic origin, he has cast his lot with the laboring cla.s.ses. He is a man of great force of character, an able writer, an eloquent speaker, and is generally respected even by those who can not approve his views. The circulation of his paper is almost exclusively confined to the laboring cla.s.ses.

The compensation of newspaper men in Sweden is much less than in the United States. The highest salary paid to an editor-in-chief is $4,000, while the lowest for that position is about $1,500. Managing editors are paid from $1,200 to $2,000 a year, and ordinary reporters from $300 to $750 a year. Contributors of fame receive special rates.

The price for news items is two and one-half cents a line. s.p.a.ce writers seem to be paid more in proportion than the regular members of the staff, but the difference is more apparent than real, because of the tendency to condensation. Articles in the Swedish papers are seldom more than half a column long.

Stockholm has several comic papers, even more in proportion to population than we have in the United States. The most prominent are _Strix, Puck, Sondags-Nisse, Kasper_ and _Nya Nisse_. They are small and comparatively insignificant, and sell for two and one-half cents a copy. They satirize politicians with good humor, and their cartoons are based upon current events. There are several literary weeklies, monthlies, and other periodicals, for Swedes are great readers and, unlike the Americans, have not lost their taste for poetry. A poet enjoys a much higher position and larger income from his writings in Sweden than at home.

There is a Press Club in Stockholm with four hundred and forty members, of whom twenty-two are women. In 1901 the club arranged "a week of festivals," including military tournaments, public entertainments and a fair, and closed with a masquerade ball at the Royal Opera House to raise funds for a building. It was a great success. King Oscar accepted an invitation, and enjoyed himself very much among his "colleagues," as he called them. The king was always considerate to newspaper men. He appreciated the purpose and understood the requirements of reporters, and never failed to a.s.sist them whenever he was able to do so. Hence he was very popular among them, and they reciprocated by showing their appreciation in every possible way. The old king once said to Hjalmar Branting, the socialist editor:

"We have different opinions, Branting, but we are both working for the welfare of our country."

In 1897, during the international congress of the press at Stockholm, the king gave the editors a banquet at the Royal Castle at Drottningholm, and mingled among them as "one of yourselves." He also proposed a toast in most complimentary language.

Oscar II made many speeches, and upon occasions of great formality he used ma.n.u.script, but generally spoke without notes, preparing himself in advance by study and reflection. When he spoke from ma.n.u.script, he invariably furnished copies to the press, and was never known to request that part of his speech be suppressed.

Reporters are invariably admitted to state ceremonials. There is very little secrecy about the Stockholm court, and intrigue is entirely unknown in Swedish politics. There are no mysteries in the council chamber and no skeletons in the royal closet. Hence the doors are open, and the reporters can come and go as they please. As a natural consequence comparatively little attention is paid to affairs at the palace. There is an announcement every morning of the movements of the king and the royal family and occurrences of public interest, but with very little detail, and the newspapers depend upon the officials to furnish the information voluntarily. Reporters are seldom sent to the palace unless some special inquiry is necessary.

The story is told that once when Oscar II went to Gothenburg to attend a dedication or opening of something or other, where he was expected to make a speech, he was intercepted at the railway station by an enterprising reporter who wanted a copy of his speech. The paper was to be published that afternoon, and there would be no time for a stenographer to write out his notes afterward. The king greeted him pleasantly and explained that he had no ma.n.u.script; that he intended to speak without notes. The reporter was very much dissappointed, and confided to the king that he was a new man and that his future standing with his employer might be seriously affected if he failed to get the speech. King Oscar responded sympathetically, invited the reporter to get into his carriage, and while they were driving to the hotel, gave a brief synopsis of what he expected to say.

Newspapers in Norway are not so good an investment; in fact, none of them may be considered financial ventures. As a rule, they have to be a.s.sisted by the government or by political clubs in order to survive.

Their subscription lists are limited, the largest circulation in Norway not exceeding fifteen thousand and few publications print more than five thousand copies, while advertising pays not more than ten or twelve cents a line at top prices in the most expensive papers.

An ordinary newspaper reporter in Norway receives a salary of about $5 a week, while the most competent editors are satisfied with $20 or $25. Norway was the last of the European countries, except Turkey, to adopt the art of printing, notwithstanding its early famous literature, but to-day has four hundred and twenty-nine newspapers and periodicals, an average of one to every five thousand of the population; one hundred and ninety-six are political newspapers; eighty-eight are literary weeklies, and one hundred and forty-five are reviews, magazines, professional, religious, and scientific publications.

_Norske Intelligens-Seddeler_ is one of the oldest papers in the world, having been founded in Christiania in 1763, and has been the organ of the government from the beginning. For a century and a quarter its contents were limited to advertis.e.m.e.nts and official announcements. It was a sort of a government gazette, but when Hjalmar Loken took hold of it, ten or twelve years ago, he changed its character entirely and has turned it into a good modern newspaper and a vigorous advocate of government measures, exercising a wide influence through its columns.

Monopolies were formerly granted to newspapers in Norway. The government allowed only one paper to be published within the limits of an ecclesiastical diocese, or at least only the favored paper was permitted to receive money for the publication of advertis.e.m.e.nts.

Compet.i.tors resorted to all sorts of ingenious methods, by issuing pamphlets and 'handbills and such things, that a free discussion of political issues might be had, but it was not until 1786 that the last monopoly, which happened to be in the city of Trondhjem, expired. In 1814 freedom of the press was granted by the new const.i.tution, and from that date the political agitators have found expression in various publications, and partisanship has often risen to a bitterness that would not be permitted in other countries. The Norway newspapers have not known a censor since that date.

_Morganbladet_, the first daily, was established in 1819, and has played an important part in the political affairs of the. country. It is still very influential, being edited with great ability by Mr.

Nils Vogt. Bjornson, the author, has been connected with two newspapers--the first, _Krydseren_, a literary weekly which survived only a few years, and _Verdens Gang_, which has been published since 1868 as the leading organ of the liberal party. Among its editors and contributors have been other distinguished men, poets, dramatists, and novelists. Nearly every writer of distinction has contributed to its columns, for most of the thinking men of Norway are liberals. Since 1878 Mr. Thommessen has been the editor, and he was the first to modernize the Norwegian press by printing cable dispatches, cartoons, caricatures and other ill.u.s.trations.

_Dagbladet_ is also a widely read and influential daily, under the editorship of Mr. A.T. Omholt, and has a large circulation. Its list of contributors has included some of the most distinguished writers of the country. There are numerous other dailies of more or less influence and circulation, and all the trades and occupations have organs, as in the United States. In every town and almost every village, a weekly or semi-weekly is published, usually by the liberal party, and sometimes by other parties. Even Hammerfest, the most northerly town in the world, which lies in the Arctic Circle, has two enterprising weeklies.[q]

CHAPTER XVIII

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_, Bjornson 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, partic.i.p.ate. 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 a.s.sert 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 Bjornson'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 Th.e.l.lefsen (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-Grondahl and Catharinus Elling. Mrs. Backer-Grondahl was a pupil, first of Kjerulf and Winter-Hjelm, and later of Kullak, Hans von Bulow, 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 Bjornson'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.