Johan Selmer (1844-1910): a Catalogue of the Orchestral and Choral music

[M. Henriksen]

Johan Selmer was a Norwegian composer with Berlioz, Liszt and Wagner as his main sources of inspiration.
His output consists of several works for chorus and large orchestra, and his music show little influence of folk music. In his time, Selmer was considered musically radical within Norway.
Karneval i Flandern and Prometheus have been recorded by Simax.


1870/71  Scène funèbre: L'anee terrible for orchestra, Op. 4.   7 min

1872       Nordens aand (The spirit of the north) for male chorus and orchestra, Op. 5
              La Captive for alto and orchestra, Op. 6

1874       Alastor (after Shelley) for orchestra, Op. 8

1876       Tyrkernes tog mot Athen (The Turks march towards Athens) for choir and orchestra, Op. 7 
              Nordisk festtog (Northern celebration) for orchestra, Op. 11.   9 min

1882       Drei Gedichte von P.B. Shelley for baritone and orchestra, Op. 13

1883       Hilsen til Nidaros (Greetings to Nidaros/Trondheim) for male chorus and wind band, Op. 23
              (Orchestrated for large orchestra by Iver Holter)

1885       Paa vagt (On guard) for choir and orchestra, Op. 21

188?       Zwei Bearbeitungen von Schumannschen Lieder for string orchestra, Op. 26

1888       Selvmorderen og pilegrimmene (The suicidal and the pilgrims) for alto, baritone, choir (SATB) and orchestra, Op. 27

1890       Karneval i Flandern (Carnival at Flanders) for orchestra, Op. 32.   19 min

1892       Finske Festtoner (Finnish festive tones) for orchestra, Op. 31
              Mellem fjellene (In the mountains) – symphonic phantasy for orchestra, Op. 35.   15 min

1893       Two songs after B. Bjørnson for soprano and orchestra, Op. 34

189?       Grekenland (Greece) for baritone and orchestra, Op. 43 no. 1
              La meg ei dø (Don't let me die) for soprano and orchestra, Op. 43 no. 2

1897/98  Prometheus for orchestra, Op. 50.   33 min



The Simax record:
http://www.amazon.com/Symphonic-Poems-Music-Selmer-Svendsen/dp/B001CKO6ZC/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1336990648&sr=1-1


Morten

[UnsungMasterpieces]

I've bought the CD with Karneval i Flandern and Prometheus a week ago, and it arrived yesterday.
I've had a listen to it today and I must say that I find these recordings incredibly well done!

Karneval i Flandern was inspired apparently by Berlioz's Carnival di Rom (according to the booklet). Though I haven't heard that much of Berlioz in a while, you can't deny his influence.
Wagner's & Liszt's influences are also evident, but I still think the music is mostly inspired by Berlioz.

Prometheus is even better! Here you can hear Wagner's & Liszt's influences more clearly than in the previous work, and the finale of the piece is definitely inspired by them. You could describe it as a 'grande finale', to which I just can't stop listening! Definitely a rare, unsung composer of whom more works should be recorded!

Great discovery!

[Alan Howe]

Thanks for this. I have duly ordered the Simax recording myself.

[Jonathan]

I shall have a listen to this later on via Spotify - thanks for bringing this to my attention!

[Alan Howe]

I enjoyed Prometheus, but I'm not surprised it's lapsed into obscurity as it's long on Lisztian bluster and rather short on memorable material. One thing is certain, though: it's stunningly played and recorded on the Simax CD! Well worth a listen - but don't expect a masterpiece.

[eschiss1]

Someone was interested enough by him to write a book, I see, fwiw. "Johan Selmer : en annerledes komponist i norsk musikkliv" (Sverre Lind; pub. 2000 by Oslo: Solum.)
Also, his orchestral works should include his Chanson de Fortunio for tenor and orchestra, Op.1.

According to his entries @ https://mitt.bergenbibliotek.no , the Shelley songs Op.13 are for tenor & baritone and orchestra, btw. ("Drei Gedichte von P.B. Shelley : für Orchester, Tenor und Bariton-Solo : Op. 13".) though perhaps I misread!

(And the choral works should include 6 skandinaviske folkeviser : for trestemmigt damekor a capella (eller 3 solostemmer) : op. 12, though that's an arrangement, I guess.

Op.43 have a collective title: To større Jacobsenske Digte : für Bariton oder Mezzo mit Orchester oder Piano : op. 43.

[jim43]

Hi M. Henrikssen

Have you ever seen a score or vocal reduction of Selmer's Chanson de Fortunio? I have a xerox copy (somehow) of a title page but that's it.  And you're correct about the Shelley. Ha det bra!

[tpaloj]

You should take a look at the Norwegian Nasjonalbiblioteket's catalogue of digitized scores. They at least have many of his manuscripts out there. For the chanson Op.1, a quick search found 2 versions of the full score and a vocal reduction (handwritten autographs). Hope that helps.

https://www.nb.no/search?mediatype=musikkmanuskripter&name=%22Selmer%2C%20Johan%22&title=chanson

[dhibbard]

Yes, thank you.. his music is very delightful   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kY1UZ2uHOI

[jim43]

Mange takk tpaloj; for some reason I was having trouble finding the proper access to the catalogue of the Nasjonalbiblioteket the other day and gave up for the time being.  I'm pretty sure the xerox copy of the title page (only) of a printed edition of the Fortunio piece (w piano reduction) comes from the Nasjonalbiblioteket, because that's where some of my other copies of Selmer pieces come from. I own a few originals and also have some copies from the St. Olaf library in Minnesota. (Selmer visited Minnesota once by the way, and one of these days, when these things are easier again, I'll have to trek over to the History Center in St. Paul and see if they can help me find some traces of that visit). The Fortunio reduction was published by Petter Håkonsen (represented by Durand in France).  I may ask a friend in Oslo to go and see if the whole published thing is in the library there or not.  Otherwise, with my bad eyes, I may be forced to deal with the digital copy of the manuscript.  If I went to Oslo myself to get it (now wouldn't that be nice, even if I've missed the good season) I'd have to quarantine for 14 days right now; they're doing, of course, much better with the virus they we are here in the U.S. But I'm indebted to you for your help.

[jim43]

By the way, M. Henrikssen, there is what would seem to be a complete list of Selmer's works in Selmer biography mentioned in one of the posts above;the list not only includes opus numbers but also titles of individual pieces within each opus. There are songs in French, Norwegian, German, and Danish (I'm mostly interested in vocal rep). There are even some Petrarch settings listed, although it appears from the list they are set in German translation. While most Norwegian classical composers' international orientation was toward German music, it was not unheard of for them to set French texts--Kjerulf set a few, a couple of them quite wonderful, Berlioz turned into a miniaturist, if you can imagine such a thing. Selmer's friend Svendsen had some songs published in Norwegian and French, including some Norwegian texts translated into French, and a few of them are lovely, too, and sing quite well in French.

[tpaloj]

You can listen to Johan Selmer's "Finnländische Festklänge", op.31, at the link below. Transcribing this short festive piece to commemorate this year's Independence Day of Finland was a fun task for myself, not only is the tune of the piece familiar to every Finn - March of the Pori regiment - but also a real pleasure to study such a skillful musician at orchestration. (A couple of his other works have appeared on record, well worth a listen.) Hope you will enjoy the piece... but it does get noisy by the end!

https://youtu.be/dPuJvMY0yHk?si=B6SZ0Y-wWllc1VwS