Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

SONG 583
present century. The music of her secular songs*
is of an ecclesiastical character ; instrumental
music hardly exists ; the old scales or modes
are retained, ^ for the wave of modern tonality
which swept over Europe in the 17 th century
never reached Iceland. An even stronger
evidence of mediaevalism than the modal tonality
is afforded by the peculiar form of part-singing
in Iceland, called Tmsongur, which closely
resembles Hucbald's Organum. Examples are
to be found in the Arnamagnaan MS. of the
15th century ; and although earlier traces of it
are extant in other countries, Iceland alone has
retained it for her secular music down to the
present day. This is proved by the following
example taken from the ' Icelandic Student's
Songbok," of 1894 3 :_
Ex. 8.
Lento.
National Song— Island.
Given by Pastor Thorsteinsson.
:^
hrimhvita mfidirl
^^^^^^m
i^^^Bg^^^^fe g
HTarerpinfoTii.al.darfraegS frels-iO o^mann-ddli-iiibeztl
Until the last generation the Tvisongur held
its own aU over Iceland ; but now in the 20th
century it only exists in certain isolated
localities. The increasing development of communication
with other countries, coupled with
the knowledge of musical notation, the spread
of choral societies, and the publication of
numerous collections of songs and hymns, have
all combined to induce the Icelanders to adopt
at last the more modern methods of music.
'The Tiiisimgur is, therefore, fast dying out,
and with it the last remains of an interesting
episode in musical history.'*
The so-called Scandinavian school of music
is of very recent birth ; for until the close of
the 18 th century it was greatly under foreign
influence. Thus, during the 16th century, the
Court-music of Denmark was chiefly in the
hands of Flemish musicians, whilst in the 17th,
Dowland and many other Englishmen, besides
French, German, Polish, and Italian composers,
visited and settled in Copenhagen and Stockholm.
The latter part of the 17th and the
* See especiajly Olftfur DaTidsson'a
'
leleuzkar Skemtanir.'
2 The IcelaBdera have an especial love for the Lydian mode Trith
its trltone.
3 The parallel fifths do not sound so harsh if the melody is taken
by loud full voices, and the second (upper) part by a few singers,
very subdued, and the whole song Bung very slowly and emphatical^.
* Stvdi^niib&riiUiTidUeheMuatk.'byA.'H&TDiaenciilSam'rmtbilnde
of the I.M.&. 1. iii. 1900), to whom the writer is indebted for the
above information.
first part of the 18th were monopolised by
the ballet, and French melodies (especially in
Sweden) predominated over all others. A fresh
impetus was given to northern music by the
operas and Siugspiele of German composers,
such as B. Keiser, J. A. P. Schulz, and Knnzen.
And in the imitations of these by Weyse,
Kuhlau, and Hartmann,* Scandinavian folksongs
were first iutroduced on the stage. The
compositions in which the vernacular was first
used were the sacred and secular cantatas,
oratorios and hymns, both by Danish and
German composers, such as Iversen, A. Scheibe,
and J. E. Hartmann in Denmark, and in
Sweden, J. Roman, Per Frigel, and J. B. Struve.
But the chief impulse towards a national school
of music was given by the literature of the
country. Towards the end of the 18th century
the didactic school of poetry began to give way
to a more natural lyrical style ; and by the
beginning of the 19th (influenced by the
romanticism of Germany) a strong inteUeotual
national movement arose in Northern poetry.
It was greatly promoted in Denmark by the
poet Oehlenschlager, in Norway and Sweden
by the patriotic 'Norwegian Society,' and by
the founding of the so-called Gotiska ' fdrbundet
' (Gothic union). About this time the first
collections of national songs appeared. Poets
and musicians became interested in the old
epics and ballads, with their beautiful melodies,
and their wealth of new materials both in ideas
and form, and hastened to avail themselves of
the treasure. Thus within the last hundred
years or so a new school of music has arisen, containing
in its ranks the distinguished names
of Lindblad, Gade, Kjerulf, Grieg, Sjogren,
Sinding, etc.
Denmark. — In Denmark the homely, humorous,
or idyllic Singspiele especially took
root, and it would be legitimate to say that
the KuTistlied originated in the theatre-songs.
Some of these melodies by the elder Hartmann,
Schulz, Kunzen, and Zinck—singing of
social pleasures, friendship, and wine, or those
of a more romantic and sentimental type—are
still popular in Denmark, in the Faroe Islands,
and far into the north of Norway. It is worthy
of notice that the three founders of the Danish
school of music, C. E. F. Weyse, F. Kuhlau,
and J. Hartmann, were Germans by birth, and
that a strong tinge of the German element has
prevailed through the works of Danish musicians
to the present flay. J. Hartmann, the founder
of the Hartmann family of composers, is the
author of one of Denmark's most national songs,
'King Christian stood by the mast.' Weyse
is considered the creator of the Danish romance.
Full of romantic feeling, and possessing a fluent
gift of melody, the songs from his Singspiele,
his child -like, pious 'Morning and Evening
fi
Kuhlau's romantic 'Der ErlenhUgel' (1828), and later J. P
Hartraann's "Liden Kirsten' (1846), (the latter consisting almost
wholly of folk-songs) are still popular in Denmark.