Ole Bull – “an enthusiastic partisan of liberty and free institutions”

In the early years after the Revolution, music quickly became an important means to encourage patriotism, and also to promote the ideologies of different political movements. Like other artists in the 19th century, musicians identified strongly with the ideals of the French Revolution: liberty, equality and fraternity.

Foremost among these idealists in Norway where the violinist Ole Bull. As an eight-year-old boy he was admitted to play in the orchestra of the music society “Harmonien” in his hometown of Bergen. In 1828 he arrived in Christiania to study theology at the university, but after having failed in Latin he was appointed leader of the music society “Det musicalske Lyceum” and of the Christiania Theatre orchestra. Ole Bull’s ambition was to become a celebrated international violin virtuoso, like Paganini, whose technically advanced and brilliant caprices he had already studied in his childhood.

Censorship and patriotism

There are many examples of music’s extraordinary potential as a political weapon. There are several instances in Norway’s history: for example, the drinking and fighting song “For Norge, Kjempers fødeland” (To Norway, birthplace of fighters), was forbidden while Norway was under Danish rule. Under the Union with Sweden, King Karl Johan tried to prevent Norwegians from singing their national hymn on the 17th of May as he saw the Norwegians’ celebration as a show of rebellion to mark the date on which the national assembly in Eidsvold elected the Danish prince Christian Fredrik King of Norway. Karl Johan felt that it was Union Day, 4th November, that should be celebrated, and tried to stop the declarations of independence by arresting people heard singing patriotic songs; however, the students were not to be cowed and continued their singing.
 

The dispute over the celebration of the National Day reached a climax on the 17th of May 1829. A crowd had gathered in the main square in Christiania (now Oslo), singing patriotic songs – a situation that the authorities decided to resolve by sending in the police and army to disperse the gathering. The song “Sønner av Norge” (Sons of Norway) by Henrik Anker Bjerregaard and Christian Blom, which had been chosen as national hymn after a competition in 1820, was neither rebellious nor revolutionary. However, its role as the song of the crowds at political demonstrations led to its assuming a power that the authors could never have dreamt of. 

The prominent Norwegian poet Henrik Wergeland (1808–45), who was a student in Christiania in 1829, was considered one of the most nationalistic of the activists. His patriotism inspired many of his musical friends, one of them being Ole Bull.

Ole Bull heard Wergeland speak passionately about the utopian socialism of Saint-Simon. His poems “Norges Frihed” (The Freedom of Norway) and “I Tordenen” (In the Thunder) were among the first that the young violin virtuoso set to music. Wergeland and Bull were both caught up in the tide of enthusiasm for the liberalist movements that were gathering force elsewhere in Europe. Artists such as Heinrich Heine, Hector Berlioz and Franz Liszt played an active part in the meetings of the Saint-Simonists, not least because in his ideas about social revolution, Claude Henri de Saint-Simon had advocated brotherhood between nations, and had assigned artists a central role in the new order.1

When Ole Bull arrived in Paris in 1831, he could hardly have avoided coming into contact with the political movements with which he sympathised, and on his concert tours in Europe and America he met many people who were fighting against oppression and for freedom. In northern Italy he experienced the hate and the opposition of the Italians against the Austrian supremacy in 1834, and was even accused of being a spy.2 In Prague, Bull improvised on Bohemian folk tunes, and was in return hailed in poetic tributes by patriots working to undermine the Austrian regime.3 His violin fantasia Polacca Guerriera was written in homage to the Poles whom he met in exile, while in Cuba he composed Los Recuerdos de la Habana on Creole tunes and played together with musicians from the oppressed black population.4 

The musical robin hood

The great dilemma for musicians such as Ole Bull was that the people with whom they sympathised were not able to pay for their artistic services. Musicians and composers were still dependent on engagements from the courts, the aristocracy and the rich. Heinrich Heine claimed irritatedly that performing musicians had no political conscience – by performing for the wealthy and well-heeled, they were merely supporting the old, class-based status quo.5

Although Ole Bull was a republican at heart, he continued to play for wealthy patrons. However, he emerges as a musical Robin Hood, charging his upper-class employers triple his normal fee, while playing for highly reduced fees in venues that were the domain of the working classes, and playing for free for peasants and workmen whom he met on his tours.6

Ole Bull had no respect for the authorities, and was not afraid to express his opinions in meetings with the political elite. When he met King Karl Johan for the first time in Stockholm in 1838, a newspaper article described him as “typically Norwegian and outspoken”, and reported that he spoke like “a true citizen of a free and independent state”!7 He felt free to speak his mind, because, as he announced when he arrived in America for the first time in 1843, he was “an enthusiastic partisan of liberty and free institutions”, and, in a reference to the Norwegian constitution, “a son of the freest people in Europe”.

a clean norwegian flag

Ole Bull’s republican and liberal views were once again fired up by the February Revolution in 1848. Bull was in Nantes when the news came that King Louis Philippe had abdicated and fled, and the new republic was proclaimed. While other artists fled Paris, Ole Bull climbed over the barricades in order to experience the revolution at close hand. It was not long before lengthy advertisements announced that Bull intended to give a concert in support of those injured in the fighting on the 23-th and 24th of February.8

During the early weeks of the new French Republic, Hungarian and Bohemian delegations visited the Parisian town hall in order to pay tribute to the Republic and the provisory French government headed by foreign minister Alphonse de Lamartine. Their purpose was to win sympathy and moral support in connection with the struggle for freedom and independence in their homelands.

The Scandinavian Society (Det skandinaviske Selskab) in Paris had planned to send a Scandinavian delegation to the town hall. However, Ole Bull was not a lover of Scandinavianism, and beat the Society to it. On Wednesday 15th March, he led a procession of 24 Norwegians, headed by flag-bearers carrying the Norwegian and French flags, to the Hôtel de Ville. Ole Bull had for the occasion ordered a Norwegian flag in silk, made without the Swedish-Norwegian Union badge introduced by King Oscar in 1844, and with “La Norvège” in gold embroidery.9 The other Scandinavians reproached the Norwegians for their “divisive attitude” and accused them of being “enemies of the brotherhood”; but for Ole Bull, Norwegian nationalism came before both Scandinavianism and international socialist fraternisation. He wished to demonstrate that Norway was a country independent of Sweden.10

The Norwegian flag was presented to Lamartine and raised outside the town hall together with the flags of the other countries that supported the revolution. Later on the flag hung in the assembly hall of the Hôtel de Ville, until it was burned during the Communard rebellion in 1871.

As the flag was handed over, Ole Bull held a short but dignified speech as a greeting from an independent Norway to the French Republic:

Lamartine then made a speech of thanks, and Ole Bull later maintained that Lamartine spoke of Norway as an independent and individual nation.12

A norwegian musical revolution

In the autumn of 1848, Ole Bull travelled to the Norwegian capital Christiania, in order to start a revolution in Norway. The governor Severin Løvenskiold, who had kept the radicals under close watch since the political unrest in March that year, informed King Oscar I about plans to establish a Democratic Society. Løvenskiold wrote that he intended to follow the development of this society closely, mentioning also that Ole Bull, who had recently experienced the politics of Paris, had played an active role in establishing the society. Rumours were circulating that Bull had donated 1000 speciedaler to the society – a considerable amount of money!13
   

Bull also visited the Student Union, where he fired the students up by playing the Marseillaise and telling them about the revolution in Paris. Through his friend, the writer Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, he sent for the renowned harding-fiddler Myllarguten (Torgeir Audunsson), who was to play Norwegian folk-music from Telemark in order to show that Norwegian folk-music was equal in value to art music. “Our national music stands in full flower in the mountains,” he declared. He invited Myllarguten to appear with him in the concert halls of the bourgeoisie, who until then had regarded folk music as inferior.
   

Ole Bull never made a secret of his political views. He shocked his well-heeled audience by drinking a toast to the Hungarian freedom-fighter Lajos Kossuth.14 The newspapers in Bergen commented: “Bull’s heart beats for the people – he is a democrat in the noblest sense of the word, but he abhors violent mob rule and the red republic as much as he detests the red reactionaries and absolute royal rule.”15

In Bergen, Bull allied himself with the craftsmen, who, like the sailors, felt that they were underpaid and taken advantage of. In 1850, Bull was appointed chairman of the city’s committee in charge of the 17th of May celebrations, and composed for the celebrations a freedom march.

Disappointment and friendships

Ole Bull felt that, as an artist, he had to fight for justice. He wanted to serve as an example, and consciously used his status to promote his political views. While he lived in Bergen in 1849–50 he succeeded in founding the first Norwegian-language theatre in Norway, but was disappointed that his countrymen did not appreciate his contribution to his native land. So in 1852 he again left for America, and this time he had great ambitions. He wanted to found a democratic and free Norwegian colony in the USA. With his usual simple-mindedness he bought a tract of land in Pennsylvania near Coudersport, Potter County, and invited Norwegian immigrants to build up a colony called Oleana. He applied for American citizenship and designed a flag for the colony, a combination of the Norwegian and American flags. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was not long before Ole Bull’s colony collapsed, but he had an incredible ability to put such disappointments behind him.

In America, Bull’s best friends included some of the foremost abolitionists, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. After the Republican Party having been founded by anti-slavery activists in 1854, Ole Bull donated $500 to the campaign of the first Republican presidential candidate, John C. Frémont, in 1856. “His violin will not, perhaps, hereafter sound so sweetly to Southern ears,” wrote the Louisville Democrat.16  It is typical of his strong opinions on the matter that he gave a concert to raise money for a Lincoln Monument  on his return to the United States after the civil war in 1868.17
Another example of his engagement in the plight of the oppressed was his sympathy for Native Americans. The so-called “Cornplanter Tribe” (a branch of the Senecas) appointed Bull honorary chief under the name Hauhau Nioh Tirorech Aogarraine, meaning “he who makes divine music on the violin”.18

On his worldwide concert tours, Ole Bull always considered the Jews as his “allies” and maintained that he owed half of his success to them.19 Ole Bull also reacted to the growing anti-Semitism in Europe and criticised Richard Wagner for his open hostility towards Meyerbeer and Mendelssohn because they were Jews.20
In Norway he not only encouraged the composers Rikard Nordraak, Johan Svendsen and Edvard Grieg to create national music, but also inspired poets like Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Jonas Lie and Aasmund Olavsson Vinje.

First meetings with ole bull

Edvard Grieg, 1858: “... when his right hand touched mine, it was as if an electric shock ran through me.”22

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, 1859: “This man is the greatest I have met, [...] he is almost greater than I could imagine [...] his face is [...] so noble, so bright, that a sun enters wherever he opens the door.”23

Rikard Nordraak 1860: “When one has stood facing him, one has felt the closeness of God.”24

Johan Svendsen, 1860: “I have even spoken with Ole Bull. What an honour for me, a poor, insignificant musician, to be able to say that I have shaken the great man’s hand!”25

an ideal for the future

“Ole Bull was the first and the greatest moment of celebration in the life of our people. He gave us self-confidence – the greatest thing that could be given us at that time,” Bjørnson said at Bull’s funeral in 1880. However, although Bull had initiative and power, he did not have the fortitude to accomplish his ideas and visions. This task was left to coming generations. Henrik Ibsens mother-in-law, the writer Magdalene Thoresen, who followed his work at the theatre in Bergen with great attention, was probably right when she concluded: “What could he, who was strucked by an idea, do else or more than to bear it? But in this matter the world is judging without higher knowledge. The world demands that he who beards the idea also shall bring it up – but that is one of the big exceptions. A genius is needed to bear it; a wise working man is needed to bring it out to the people.26

Notes:

[1] Philippe Gumplowicz, Les travaux d’Orphée. 150 ans de vie musicale amateur en France, France, 1987, 39.

[2] Ralph Locke, Les Saint-Simoniens et la musique, Liège, 1986/1992, 20.

[3]  Harald Herresthal, Ole Bull. Vidunderbarnet erobrer verden. 1810–1837, Oslo 2006,158f.

[4] Harald Herresthal, Ole Bull. Republikaner blant konger og keisere. 1837–1848, Oslo 2007, 189.

[5] Ibid. 283ff.

[6] Heinrich Heine und die Musik (red. Gerhard Müller), Leipzig 1987, 13.

[7] Harald Herresthal, Ole Bull. Republikaner blant konger og keisere. 1837–1848, Oslo 2007, 258.

[8] L’observateur des Pyrénées, 25.12.1847.

[9] Harald Herresthal, Ole Bull. Republikaner blant konger og keisere. 1837–1848, Oslo 2007, 366f.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Morgenbladet, 23.4.1848: “Da den norske Nation er saa slet repræsentert i Udlandet, saa greb de i Paris værende Nordmenn med Begjærlighed leiligheden for at vise, at Norge er et frit og af Sverige uafhængig Rige.”

[12] Morgenbladet, 23.4.1848.

[13] Morgenbladet, 12.12.1848.

[14] Morgenstiernes rapport, 1.3.1849; Tore Pryser, Pryser, Gesellar, rebellar og svermarar, Oslo, 1982,100.

[15] Fredrik Hougen, Kragerøminner, 5. hefte, u.å.

[16] Bergens Stiftstidende, 19.7.1849:  “Bulls Hjerte slaaer for Folket – han er Demokrat i Ordets ædleste Betydning; men afskyer Pøbelregimente og den røde Republik ligesaameget som de røde Reactionære og den absolute Fyrstemagt.”

[17] Louisville Democrat, quoted in: New York Daily Times, 4.8.1856.

[18] New York Times, 5.4.1868.

[19] Verdens Gang 12.3.1953.

[20] Bjørnstjerne Bjørnsons letter to Israel Levin, 16.11.60; Bjørnstjerne Bjørnsons Brevveksling med danske, 1854–74, vol. 1, København/Oslo 1970, 84.

[?] Musical Record, Boston 11.10.1879.

[22] “Min første succes”, in: Edvard Grieg. Artikler og taler (ed. Øystein Gaukstad). Oslo 1957,18: “ … da hans højre hånd berørte min, gikk der som et elektrisk stød igjennem mig”.

[23] Bjørnstjerne Bjørnsons letter to his brother Peter Bjørnson, [1859]; Manuscript Collection, National Library in Oslo: “Denne Mand er det Største jeg har omgaaets, […] han er næsten Spidsen af hvad jeg ha tænkt mig […] hans Ansigt er […] saa stort, saa lyst, at der kommer en Sol ind, hvor han aabner Døren.”

[24] “Rikard Nordraaks Dagbok 1859–60”, 20.9. 1860, in: Norsk Musikkgranskning. Årbok 1940. Oslo 1941, 25: “Naar man har staaet ligeoverfor ham, har man følt Guds Nærhed.”

[25]  Johan Svendsens letter to his mother, 4.1.1860; Manuscript Collection, National Library in Oslo: “Jeg har endog talt med Ole Bull. Hvilken ære for mig, den fattige ubetydelige musicus, at kunne sige, at jeg har trykket den store mands hånd.”

[26] «Hvornaar har han, som und­fangede en Ide, kunnet gjøre andet og mere end at føde den? Dog her dømmer Verden uden højere Indsigt. Den kræver, at han som fødte Ideen ogsaa skal fostre den - men det hører til de store Undtagelser. Der skal et Geni til at føde den, der skal en klog Arbejdsmand til at frem­drage den i Folket.» Thoresen, Magdalene. 1895. «Ole Bull (en Episode)» i: Norge. Norsk kalender, utgitt av Nordahl Rolfsen, p. 132-147. Kristiania: Jacob Dybwads forlag.