Rudolph Sophus Bergh (1859 - 1924): zoologist and composer

[adt]

     To commemorate the 123rd anniversary of Johannes Brahms's death, I'd like to bring to your attention one of his unsung devotees. Rudolph Sophus Bergh (1859 - 1924) was a Danish zoologist, musicologist, and composer. For the first forty years of his life, he followed the footsteps of his father (the Danish zoologist Ludvig Sophus Rudolph Bergh) and taught histology and embryology at the University of Copenhagen. However, in his youth he had also studied music at the Royal Danish Conservatory and by the late 1890s, he had decided to abandon his career in science and devote his life to his greater passion: composing.

      A conservative Romantic, much of his music is heavily influenced by Johannes Brahms with its affinity for counterpoint and a strong attachment to traditional harmony. In his last years, he ended up returning to academia except this time as a musicologist at the Royal Danish Conservatory where he was amongst the more conservative professors heavily criticizing the move towards atonalism being pioneered by Arnold Schoenberg in Austria. After his death in 1924, he and his music were quickly forgotten. So obscure is he even today that not a single composition by him has been recorded. Most of his published scores and couple of manuscripts are held by the Royal Danish Library. IMSLP has his D minor string quartet, two violin sonatas, and his 'Tragic Symphony' which was published posthumously.

The vast majority of Bergh's output consisted of lieder and song cycles scored for solo voice and piano. Out of 51 opus numbers, the following are the works that aren't lieder:

Op. 2: Neuf Valses pour Piano à quatre mains
Op. 9: Walzer : für Pianoforte zu 4 Händen
Op. 10: Quartett in D-moll : für zwei Violinen, Viola und Violoncello
Op. 20: Sonate in E-moll : für Violine und Klavier
Op. 22: Stimmungen in Moll : fünf Klavierstücke
Op. 27: Von Morgen bis Abend : sieben kleine Klavierstücke
Op. 32: Requiem für Werther : für Chor, Altsolo und Orchester
Op. 33: Fünf Gesänge für gemischten Chor
Op. 37: Vier Gesänge für Frauenchor
Op. 38: Geister der Windstille : für Alt- und Tenorsolo, Chor und Orchester
Op. 40: Sonate in A-moll : für Violine und Klavier
Op. 43: Der Berg des heiligen Feuers : symbolisches Singspiel für Solostimmen, Chor, und Orchester
Op. 50: Tragische Symphony in G moll

As a bonus, here's a NotePerformer rendition of the concluding fugue from the D minor string quartet: https://mega.nz/file/VocixYTA#IJr6b9pO_PGr5dYa1Kp99EkT7AZvbRION5l5xBFx4Ow

[Alan Howe]

Thank you! How interesting!

At IMSLP:  https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Bergh%2C_Rudolph

This suggests a date if 1905 for the Symphony: 
http://www5.kb.dk/da/nb/samling/ma/digmus/komphand/Bergh/tragisch.html

[Santo Neuenwelt]

Soundbites from his three movement Op.10 quartet played by amagteurs sightreading

http://www.editionsilvertrust.com/Music/bergh-movt1.mp3

http://www.editionsilvertrust.com/Music/bergh-movt2.mp3

http://www.editionsilvertrust.com/Music/bergh-movt3.mp3

[Mark Thomas]

Great, but the IMSLP page is empty at present.