Ole Bull: Norway's Romantic Musician and Cosmopolitan Patriot

Front Cover
Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1993 - Biography & Autobiography - 354 pages
A child prodigy, Bull was admitted to the Bergen orchestra as first violin at the age of eight. He soon was idolized on both sides of the Atlantic for his superb improvisations and his ability to play the violin polyphonically. Though he was hailed as "the Paganini of the North," some critics labeled him a charlatan for his apparently magic tricks on the violin.
Bull counted among his friends the great names of his era: Schumann and Lizst, Emerson and Wagner. Longfellow and Hans Christian Andersen modeled characters on him, and he was in part the inspiration for Ibsen's Peer Gynt.
Although he spent most of his adult life abroad, Bull was a tireless promoter of Norwegian art and culture. His concert improvisations were rooted in his native slåtter (folkdance tunes), and he modified his own instrument using the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle as a model. By mid-century, Bull realized his dream of establishing a national theater in Bergen. He gave Henrik Ibsen a start in theater management, employed the poet Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, and promoted the music of Edvard Grieg. His attempt to establish a Norwegian colony, "Oleana," in the United States, however, failed through poor management.
The words of the poet Aasmund Vinje, "That surely would be a man to write a book about," have been taken to heart by authors Einar Haugen and Camilla Cai. In addition to providing the first comprehensive listing of Bull's works (with full descriptions of all known sources), analyses of his compositions and their influences, and reviews of his performances, this biography gives life once again to a fascinating and flamboyant figure.
 

Contents

Nation and Family
3
Ole Bull Meets Henrik Wergeland 18281831
13
Pleasures and Problems 18311833
20
Breakthrough in Italy 18331835
26
Recognition 18351836
37
Back to Norway via Moscow 18361838
46
Touring Europe 18381843
58
American Adventure 18431845
78
Last YearsBull and Boston 18761880
184
The Violinist and Folk Music
203
The Violinist as a Cosmopolitan
211
The Italian Style
225
Music for the Public
250
The Norwegian Style
259
THE MAN AND THE MYTH
269
The Myth
277

From Algiers to Revolution 18451848
92
Norwegian Theater and Henrik Ibsen 18481852
102
OleanaA Paternalistic Colony 18521857
115
An Academy of Music 18621867
149
NorwegianAmerican 18671872
161
Second FamilyBull and Madison 18721876
174
List of Works
293
Appendix A The Bull Name
315
Musical Dedications
321
Bibliography
329
Index
337
Copyright

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