Abstract
Though in common usage, the term ‘Scandinavia’ is not well defined — or rather, it is variously defined. The Scandinavian peninsula consists only of Norway and Sweden; it stretches down from the Arctic with the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Gulf of Bothnia to the east and at its southern tip divides, Norway to the west, Sweden to the east, as if to make room for Denmark, projecting up from the northern edge of the mainland of Europe. The three countries were once connected when the Baltic Sea was enclosed as an inland sea, and they are populated by related peoples who speak related languages and whose cultures and histories have always been closely interrelated. Norway, Sweden and Denmark, then, make a natural group and for most people comprise the essential Scandinavia. By all other criteria than geographical proximity, however, the islands that for more than a thousand years have been Scandinavian outposts stretching across the North Atlantic must also be included: no longer the Shetland and Orkneys, now counted among the British Isles, but the Faroes and Greenland, which are still in union with Denmark, and Iceland, an independent republic since 1944. On the eastern side, though separated from the Scandinavian peninsula for most of its length by water, Finland has boundaries with Norway and Sweden in the north.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
M. C. Bradbrook, Ibsen the Norwegian: a Revaluation (London, 1966), 21.
See, for example, C. Dahlhaus, Die Musik des 19. Jahrhunderts (Wiesbaden and Laaber, 1980), 65, 220.
See J. Bergsagel, ‘J. P. Jacobsen and Music’, in J. P. Jacobsens Spor, 1885–1985 (Copenhagen, 1985), 283–313.
See E. Tawaststjerna, ‘Sibelius’s Eighth Symphony: an Insoluble Mystery’, Finnish Musical Quarterly (1985), 61.
Bibliographical Note Historical and cultural background
Whereas the geographical, linguistic and cultural community of the Scandinavian peoples is obvious to foreigners and is generally taken for granted, the differences between them, which define them as five independent nations, are often subtle and to some extent subjective and difficult to appreciate without a knowledge of Scandinavian languages. However, there is a useful annotated list of books and articles in English compiled by S. P. Oakley, Scandinavian History 1520–1970, ‘Helps for Students of History Series, 91’ (Historical Association, 59a Kennington Park Road, London SE11 4JH, 1984).
Of those works which attempt to treat Scandinavia as a whole, the most comprehensive is Scandinavia Past and Present, ed. J. Bukdahl and others, 3 vols., ([Odense], 1959), which provides in translation a series of studies of all aspects of the history, cultural as well as political, of the Scandinavian countries as seen by Scandinavian specialists. Relevant to this period is vol.ii, Through Revolutions to Liberty, which alone runs to 652 pages and is richly illustrated. Of more modest proportions, T. K. Derry, A History of Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland (London, 1979), can be recommended as offering the unified view of a single, knowledgeable, outside observer.
E. Bredsdorff, B. Mortensen and R. Popperwell, An Introduction to Scandinavian Literature (Cambridge and Copenhagen, 1951/R1970), provides a good, short survey, though ‘Scandinavia’ is limited here to Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
C. Laurin, E. Hannover and J. Thiis, Scandinavian Art (New York, 1922),
by now a venerable standard guide, can be supplemented by such exhibition catalogues as C. W. Eckersberg og hans elever [Statens Museum for Kunst] (Copenhagen, 1983);
Eckersberg i Rom [Thorvaldsens Museum] (Copenhagen, 1987);
Danish Painting: the Golden Age [National Gallery] (London, 1984);
J.C. Dahl i Italien 1820–1821 [Thorvaldsens Museum] (Copenhagen, 1987);
1880–erne i nordisk maleri [Statens Museum for Kunst] (Copenhagen, 1986);
K. Varnedoe, Northern Light: Realism and Symbolism in Scandinavian Painting, 1880–1910 [Brooklyn Museum] (New York, 1982);
R. Nesgaard, The Mystic North [Art Gallery of Ontario] (Toronto, 1984) and
Dreams of a Summer Night: Scandinavian Painting at the Turn of the Century [Arts Council of Great Britain] (London, 1986).
To these may be added R. Rosenblum, Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic Tradition: Friedrich to Rothko (New York, 1975);
K. Voss, Skagensmalerne og denes billeder pâ Skagens Museum (Copenhagen, 1975);
W. Vaughan, Romantic Art (London, 1978);
and the revised version of the 1982 catalogue by K. Varnedoe published in book form as Northern Light: Nordic Art at the Turn of the Century (New Haven and London, 1988).
Music
An interesting work in German with no counterpart in English is W. Niemann, Das Nordlandbuch: eine Einführung in die gesamte nordische Natur und Kultur (Berlin, 1909), a document of the period under consideration.
The author, an enthusiastic admirer of Scandinavia, was an excellent musician who also wrote Die Musik Skandinaviens (Leipzig, 1906), one of the very few attempts to provide a comprehensive survey of the music of the area (including Finland) as a cultural whole,
and Die nordische Klavier-Musik (Leipzig, 1918),
as well as the studies Grieg (with G. Schjelderup) (Leipzig, 1908) and
Sibelius (Leipzig, 1917).
Of peculiar interest for the immediacy of its firsthand observations is H. von Bülow, Skandinavische Concertreiseskizzen (April und Mai 1882) (Charlottenburg and Berlin, 1882–;
repr. in H. von Bülow: Briefe und Schriften, iii (Leipzig, 1896), 408–37).
The only general survey in English is J. Horton, Scandinavian Music: a Short History (London, 1963).
Such brief English-language introductions to the music of the individual nations as Music in Denmark, ed. K. Ketting (Copenhagen, 1987),
K. Lange and A. Östvedt, Norwegian Music: a Brief Survey (London, 1958),
B. Alander, Swedish Music (Stockholm, 1956) and
T. Mäkinen and S. Nummi, Musica fennica (Helsinki, 1965),
are no substitutes for the national histories by N. Schiørring, Musikkens historie i Danmark, 3 vols. (Copenhagen, 1977–8),
N. Grinde, Norsk Musikkhistorie (Oslo, Bergen and Tromsø, 1971, rev. 3/1981),
A. Aulin and H. Connor, Svensk musik, 2 vols. (Stockholm, 1974–7), and
T. Haapanen, Finlands musikhistoria [in Swedish] (Helsinki, 1956), which have not been translated.
Some assistance in understanding the musical environment in Scandinavia can nevertheless be obtained from the individual studies of some of its leading composers. R. Layton, Franz Berwald (London, 1959), contributed significantly to the twentieth-century recognition of Berwald outside Sweden.
Similarly, R. Simpson, Carl Nielsen, Symphonist (London, 1952, rev. 2/1979),
which includes a biographical essay by Nielsen’s Danish biographer T. Meyer, provided a qualified examination of the music which was influential in consolidating the largely postwar international interest in the great Danish composer. A collection of studies by specialists was published on the centenary of his birth in two parallel editions, the English version being Carl Nielsen, 1865–1965: Centenary Essays, ed. J. Balzer (Copenhagen, 1965).
Observing the fact that Nielsen’s centenary was also Sibelius’s, R. Simpson published Sibelius and Nielsen: a Centenary Essay (London, 1965).
Ole Bull is a key figure in the creation of Norwegian national consciousness, both at home and abroad; but M. Smith, The Life of Ole Bull (Princeton, 1943/R1973),
perhaps represents Bull’s American second family too much to be entirely satisfactory from a Norwegian point of view. W. Behrend, Niels W. Gade (German edn., Leipzig, 1918), remains the only book in a non-Scandinavian language on this central figure in nineteenth-century Scandinavian music, though this situation may be improved now that the centenary of his death has been reached.
Grieg, on the other hand, has been the subject of many studies in a variety of languages; they are all now superseded (but not necessarily invalidated — for example, Grieg: a Symposium, ed. G. Abraham (London, 1948), and
J. Horton, Grieg (London, 1974
by the splendidly thorough and lavishly produced book by F. Benestad and D. Schjelderup-Ebbe, Edward Grieg: the Man and the Artist (Gloucester, 1988),
an excellent translation by W. L. Halverson and L. B. Sateren of the original Norwegian Edvard Grieg: mennesket og kunstner (Oslo, 1980).
Berestad and Schjelderup-Ebbe have recently completed a corresponding Johan Svendsen: mennesket og kunstner (Oslo, 1990), the long-awaited, first full-scale study of this important figure in Scandinavian musical life.
Sibelius too has not lacked international attention but all earlier treatments pale beside the monumental achievement of E. Tawaststjerna. Originally written in Swedish, it was published first in a Finnish translation (5 vols.) prepared under the author’s guidance. This was reworked for the Swedish edition (3 vols.), and the English edition is yet another revision resulting from the close collaboration of the author with the translator, R. Layton, himself a noted Sibelius authority — Sibelius (London, 1965, rev. 2/1978) and
Sibelius and his World (London, 1970, rev. 3/1983);
the superb result, of which two volumes of the projected three have appeared, is E. Tawaststjerna, Sibelius (London, 1976-).
Editor information
Copyright information
© 1991 Granada Group and The Macmillan Press Ltd
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bergsagel, J. (1991). Scandinavia: Unity in Diversity. In: Samson, J. (eds) The Late Romantic Era. Man & Music. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11300-2_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11300-2_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-11302-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-11300-2
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)