| Name | Ole Bull |
|---|---|
| Background | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
| Birth name | Ole Bornemann Bull |
| Born | February 05, 1810 |
| Died | August 17, 1880 |
| Origin | Bergen, Norway |
| Instrument | Violin |
| Genre | Classical |
| Occupation | Musician |
His father wished for him to become a minister, but he desired a musical career. At the age of four or five, he could play all of the songs he had heard his mother play on the violin. At age nine, he played first violin in the orchestra of Bergen's theatre and was a soloist with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. At eighteen, he was sent to the University of Christiania, but failed his examinations. He joined the Musical Lyceum, a musical society, and after its director Waldemar Thane took ill, Bull became the director of Musical Lyceum and the Theater Orchestra in 1828. during which visit he also travelled to some of the more remote parts of Britain. Bull became very famous and made a huge fortune. He is believed to have composed more than 70 works, but only about 10 are known today. Best known is Sæterjentens søndag (The dairymaid's Sunday). He also was a clever luthier, after studies in Paris with Vuillaume. He collected many beautiful violins and violas of Amati, Gasparo da Salò, Guarneri, Stradivari and others. He was the owner of one of the finest violins of the world, made by Gasparo da Salò about 1574 for Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria. He played a Guarneri del Gesù. The violin, a gift of his widow to Bull's birthplace, is now in the Bergen Vestlandske Kustindustrimuseum. A commercial signature line of Ole Bull violins was manufactured in Germany.
Bull was caught up in the rising tide of Norwegian romantic nationalism and acclaimed the idea of Norway as a sovereign state, separate from Sweden, an idea which would become reality in 1905. In 1850, he co-founded the first theater in which the actors spoke the Norwegian language, rather than Danish, namely Det Norske Theater in Bergen, which later became Den Nationale Scene.
In the summer of 1858, Bull met the 15-year-old Edvard Grieg. Bull was a friend of the Grieg family, since Ole Bull's brother was married to the sister of Grieg's mother. Bull noticed Edvard's talent and persuaded his parents to send him to further develop his talents at the Leipzig Conservatory.
Robert Schumann once wrote that Bull was among "the greatest of all," and that he was on a level with Niccolò Paganini for the speed and clarity of his playing. Bull was also a friend of Franz Liszt and played with him on several occasions.
Bull visited the United States several times and was met with great success. In 1852, he obtained a large tract of land in Pennsylvania and founded a colony, which was called New Norway but which is commonly referred to as Ole Bull Colony. On 24 May 1852, he formally purchased for $10,388. The land consisted of four communities: New Bergen, now known as Carter Camp; Oleana, named after him and his mother, six miles (10 km) south of New Bergen; New Norway, one mile south of New Bergen; and Valhalla.
Bull called the highest point in Valhalla, Nordjenskald, which became the location of his unfinished castle. This venture was soon given up, as there was scarcely any land to till, and Bull went back to giving concerts.
In 1868 Bull met Sara Chapman Thorp (1850–1911), the daughter of a prosperous lumber merchant, after a concert in Madison, Wisconsin. On a return visit in 1870 (and despite their age difference; he was 60, she was 20), Bull began a courtship, and the couple was secretly married in Norway in June 1870, with a formal wedding in Madison later that year. They had one daughter, Olea (1871–1913).
purchased in 1871]] In 1871, he bought a summer home on a rise in West Lebanon, Maine. Extolling the purity and health benefits of its well water, he named the property Ironwell.Sara traveled with Bull for the remainder of his career, sometimes accompanying him on the piano. After Bull's death, the family lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Sara became a figure in local intellectual life. She translated two of the works of Jonas Lie into English. In 1883 she published a memoir of Bull's life. In her later life she became interested in Indian religious thought and helped sponsor early visits to the United States by gurus.
*Oleona, in Potter County, Pennsylvania, is situated in the mountains of northern Pennsylvania at the intersection of Pennsylvania routes 44 and 144 (Ole Bull Road).
*Ole Bull State Park in the Susquehannock State Forest is on the original site chosen for Bull's colony. The unfinished Ole Bull Castle is maintained by the park and can be visited by hikers. A monument to honor Ole Bull was placed in the park on the 150th anniversary of New Norway in 2002.
*Mammoth Cave in Kentucky has a room called Ole Bull's Concert Hall where he once gave performances.
*Loring Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota is the site of a bronze statue memorializing Ole Bull.
*Ole Bull Cottage, originally purchased to be a school for music by Ole Bull and his wife, is at Green Acre Baha'i School in Eliot, Maine. Erected in 1896, the Ole Bull Cottage currently serves as the school library building.
*Ole Bull Academy (Ole Bull Akademiet) in Voss, Norway is a music education institution founded in 1977.
*Ole Bull Scene is a stage for cabaret, music and theater at the Ole Bull Plass in Bergen, Norway.
*In 2006, director Aslak Aarhus released a motion picture titled Ole Bull—The Titan, the story of Bull's exploits and the impact it had on his French wife and children, who remained neglected in Bergen.
*In 2010 the Norwegian record label 2L released world premiere recordings of Ole Bull's violin concertos and his Spanish fantasy La Verbena de San Juan and a previously unknown version for violin and strings of A Sæterbesøg. The performers on the disc are Annar Follesø, violin, and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra conducted by Ole Kristian Ruud.
Category:Norwegian classical violinists Category:Norwegian composers Category:Romantic composers Category:People from Bergen Category:1810 births Category:1880 deaths
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
His father was a music teacher and Svendsen learned both the violin and clarinet from him. By the time he finished school, he was working as an orchestral musician, and occasionally made short concert tours as a violinist. In Lübeck, on one of his tours, he came to the attention of a wealthy merchant who made it possible for him to study from 1863-67 at the Leipzig Conservatory. He began his studies with Ferdinand David, but problems with his hand forced him to switch to composition, which he studied with Carl Reinecke. He completed his studies in Leipzig in 1867, receiving first prize in composition. During this period, Svendsen had a son out of wedlock, Johann Richard Rudolph (1867–1933).
Gradually his attention turned to conducting. After spending time in Paris (1868–70) and Leipzig (1870–72), he returned to Christiania. In the summer of 1871, he went to New York City to marry Sarah (Sally, later changed to Bergljot) Levett Schmidt, whom he had met in Paris. He was conductor of the Musical Society Concerts in Christiania (1872–77), then spent three years in Germany, Italy, England and France. He returned to teach and conduct in Kristiania (1880–1883). In 1883, he was appointed principal conductor of the Royal Theater Orchestra in Copenhagen, where he lived until his death.
In 1884, he and his wife separated, and she moved to Paris. Their relationship had been chaotic for several years. In 1883, in a fit of anger, she had thrown the only copy of his Symphony No. 3 in the fire. This incident was used by Henrik Ibsen in Hedda Gabler. Following a divorce from Sarah (10 December 1901), he married (23 December 1901) Juliette Haase with whom he had been living and had three children.
In stark contrast to his more famous contemporary and close friend, Edvard Grieg, Svendsen was famous for his skill of orchestration rather than that of harmonic value. While Grieg composed mostly for small instrumentation, Svendsen composed primarily for orchestras and large ensembles. His most famous work is his Romance for Violin and Orchestra. He was very popular in Denmark and Norway during his lifetime, both as a composer and a conductor, winning many national awards and honors. However this popularity did not translate into acceptance into the international repertory of classical music. He died in Copenhagen, aged 70.
Svendsen's first published work, the String Quartet in A minor, Op. 1, achieved great popular success. He quickly followed with the Op. 3 String Octet and Op. 5 String Quintet, both of which added to his early fame. All of Svendsen's chamber music was written while he was at the Leipzig Conservatory, yet these works are not considered student works. By general consensus, Svendsen was regarded as one of the most talented students then at the Conservatory. His works won prizes and received public performances to much acclaim.
Svendsen was at one time intimate friends with the German composer Richard Wagner.
Svendsen's output includes two symphonies, a violin concerto, and the Romance for violin, as well as a number of Norwegian Rhapsodies for orchestra.
;Orchestra
;String Orchestra
;Chamber
;Vocal
;Ballet
About 50 other minor works, not included in his numbered catalog
Category:1840 births Category:1911 deaths Category:Norwegian composers Category:Romantic composers Category:Norwegian conductors (music) Category:Norwegian classical violinists Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
He was born and raised in Trondheim, Norway. When he was 6 years old, he began playing the violin in 'Trondheims musikkskole' (the music school in Trondheim). In 1955, he began his studies at the Music Conservatory of Copenhagen and, in 1959, he had his debut in Universitetets Aula, Oslo.
In his long career as a soloist, he has played with many of the world's greatest orchestras and conductors. He has made many recordings and received many awards, including the Harriet Cohen International Music Award.
In August 2009 he received an honorary degree at the Norwegian Academy of Music. There is a statue of him in Trondheim.
Category:1936 births Category:Living people Category:Norwegian classical violinists Category:Spellemannprisen winners Category:People from Trondheim
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
![Elmwood, also known as the Oliver-Gerry-Lowell House,[2] is a registered historic house in Cambridge, Massachusetts, known for its several prominent former residents, including: Andrew Oliver (1706–74), royal Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts; Elbridge Gerry (1744–1814), signer of the US Declaration of Independence and whose political tactics earned the term gerrymandering, and Vice President of the United States; and James Russell Lowell (1819–1891), noted American writer, poet, and foreign](http://web.archive.org./web/20110319053511im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/53/4a/e31ff7761de1337a4a9bb923a63e_grande.jpg "Elmwood, also known as the Oliver-Gerry-Lowell House,[2] is a registered historic house in Cambridge, Massachusetts, known for its several prominent former residents, including: Andrew Oliver (1706–74), royal Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts; Elbridge Gerry (1744–1814), signer of the US Declaration of Independence and whose political tactics earned the term gerrymandering, and Vice President of the United States; and James Russell Lowell (1819–1891), noted American writer, poet, and foreign")
![Elmwood, also known as the Oliver-Gerry-Lowell House,[2] is a registered historic house in Cambridge, Massachusetts, known for its several prominent former residents, including: Andrew Oliver (1706–74), royal Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts; Elbridge Gerry (1744–1814), signer of the US Declaration of Independence and whose political tactics earned the term gerrymandering, and Vice President of the United States; and James Russell Lowell (1819–1891), noted American writer, poet, and foreign](http://web.archive.org./web/20110319053511im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/53/4a/e31ff7761de1337a4a9bb923a63e_thumb.jpg "Elmwood, also known as the Oliver-Gerry-Lowell House,[2] is a registered historic house in Cambridge, Massachusetts, known for its several prominent former residents, including: Andrew Oliver (1706–74), royal Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts; Elbridge Gerry (1744–1814), signer of the US Declaration of Independence and whose political tactics earned the term gerrymandering, and Vice President of the United States; and James Russell Lowell (1819–1891), noted American writer, poet, and foreign")
