Hjalmar Borgström

Borgstrøm’s idea of musical meaning is in practice very close to the ‘metaphysics of form’
which characterized the so-called aesthetics of autonomy – that is, the notion that music
possesses its own logic, independent and non-transferrable. Strangely enough it was such
an aesthetic approach against which Borgstrøm polemicized throughout his career. He
called Brahms’s music boring and attacked Brahms’s advocate, the famous music critic
Eduard Hanslick – who was one of the foremost opponents of programme music.
Borgstrøm defended Wagner’s musical drama and the symphonic poems of Liszt, Berlioz
and Richard Strauss. In his own music, however, he resembles his adversaries. His five
symphonic poems employ a sober harmonic language, something his Norwegian opponents
apparently did not hear. Borgstrøm also wrote a number of instrumental works in
classical form (symphonies, concertos and chamber music) in which the style is closer
to a moderate, early romantic idiom – not to mention classical – than to a radical, ‘neo-
German’ music.
His strong advocacy of French and German programme music was a provocation to
many at home in Norway. Following a broad presentation of Borgstrøm’s music at the
National Theatre in 1912 the ageing music critic and composer Otto Winter-Hjelm again
wrote negatively about programme music, stating that Borgstrøm “is a radical disciple
of this ‘new’ school”. “With opinions…, which differ so strongly from those of Mr Borgstrøm,
one can only lament the fact that such a skilled [man] seeks his ideals in a direction
which does not seem able to assert itself with regard to inner soundness and outward
beauty…” Winter-Hjelm goes on to write that Jesus i Gethsemane is a piece “in which attractive
motifs are faced with an unattainable goal.” This is just one example of the general
attitude towards Borgstrøm; his texts and programmes may well have stood in the way
of unbiased appreciation of the music itself.
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