Catharinus Elling - Symphonies

[M. Henriksen]

For those interested, here's a link to the manuscripts of Catharinus Elling's two symphonies, both unpublished. They are located at the National Library of Norway:

Symphony no. 1 in A major (1890) http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-nb_digimanus_174304
I. Allegro con brio
II. Andante
III. Presto
IV. Allegro assai e risoluto

Symphony no. 2 in A minor (1897) http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-nb_digimanus_174246
I. Allegro
II. Andante
III. Vivace
IV. Finale


Morten

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Greetings Morten!

I am in debt to you for introducing me - about a year ago - to the CD of the two String Quartets and Piano Quartet. I very much enjoyed this music and have wanted to hear more.

Your post is interesting. On the one hand I'm glad there are two symphonies. But that feeling of gladness was immediately countered by reading they remain in manuscript and have not been published....and I presume have not been performed, at least in public.

Is there an explanation for this? Does Catharinus Elling have a low standing in Norway? Is no-one bothered to find out more about these works?

[britishcomposer]

I suppose you know that a recording of Symphony No. 1 has been uploaded by A.S (Atsushi)?
You can find it in the Downloads Archive, Norwegian Music Folder, Reply #19, Sunday 01 April 2012.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Thanks! I was aware of it - but good of you to point me to it again. The question I was really pursuing was to do with the status of Elling in his own home country. It is sad if those in Norway don't promote him.

[Richard Moss]

I have a CD of his violin concerto (plus his String quartet D maj), produced by the Norwegian Cultural Council.  I had a list from them a few years ago of their CDs, which I seem to remember listed quite a number of works - some orchestral, some chamber -  that I would now,
I assume since joining UC, would be classified as by romantic 'unsungs'.

Worth contacting them if you are interested (but these are 'old' recordings numbering a score or so - not a copious number by any means).

Best wishes

Richard

[JimL]

The Elling D minor Violin Concerto is on YT.  Probably the same CD you're talking about.  I looked up the movements somewhere, I think on Amazon.com.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMo6i9iyxHM

[JimL]

For those interested, here's a link to the manuscripts of Catharinus Elling's two symphonies, both unpublished. They are located at the National Library of Norway:

Symphony no. 1 in A major (1890) http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-nb_digimanus_174304
I. Allegro con brio
II. Andante
III. Presto
IV. Allegro assai e risoluto

Symphony no. 2 in A minor (1897) http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-nb_digimanus_174246
I. Allegro
II. Andante
III. Vivace
IV. Finale


Morten

The finale of the 2nd Symphony is also Allegro.

[M. Henriksen]

Difficult question to answer.. Elling was first and foremost known for being a collector of folk-music, and he was financially supported by the government for over 20 years for this work.
As a composer, his creative period was mainly between 1890-1905, a short period for a man that became 84 years old. So as a composer his golden era was short-lived.
Literary sources over here describes Elling's music as conservative, rooted in the the Wiener-classisism and Brahms, but also clearly "Norwegian" in it's character, especially in his later works. But his unadventurous harmonization and traditional use of musical forms have given him a stamp of "unoriginal" (These are not my words). I would say that few Norwegian composers were musically adventurous before 1920...

So why isn't he promoted? At some extent he has been promoted on CD the last years with the mentioned CD of Chamber works (Simax), songs and piano pieces (Simax and Euridice).

But the problem in this country, not only in Catharinus Elling's case, are the status of the Norwegian publishing companies. They simply don't have the economy to preserve and distribute scores as they would have liked to do. And conductors, record companies and orchestras hesitate to embark on the time-consuming task of editing manuscripts of large-scale works. Of course there is a financial aspect here as well.
The conductor Terje Boye Hansen edited and published Hjalmar Borgstrøm's Violin Concerto and the Symphonic poems "Jesus in Gethsemane" and "Die Nacht der Toten" himself, and recorded the works for Simax. And the BIS-recording of Arvid Kleven's orchestral works is also a result of a private initiative.

There is a ongoing project here called "Our Musical Heritage" which aims to preserve and publish classical music, and the symphonies of Elling are on their list. I don't think those manuscripts need much editing to be honest. But what do I know!

I hope this shed some light on what is a challenge for promoting a great deal of Norwegian music.


Morten

[JimL]

They actually look pretty clean and crisp.