Bull,
Ole (Bornemann), eccentric Norwegian violinist; b. Bergen, Feb. 5,1810; d.
Lyso, near Bergen, Aug. 17, 1880. He was extremely precocious, and played the
violin experimentally even before acquiring the rudiments of music. At the age
of 9 he played solos with the Bergen Harmonic Soc. His teachers were then Niels
Eriksen and J.H. Poulsen; later he had regular instruction with M. Ludholm.
Ignoring academic rules, he whittled the bridge almost to the level of the
finger- board, so as to be able to play full chords on all 4 strings. He was
sent by his father to Christiania to study theology, but failed the entrance
examinations; instead, he organized a theater orch., which he led with his
violin. In 1829 he played in Copenhagen and Kassel. In 1831 he went to Paris,
where he heard Paganini and became obsessed with the idea of imitating
his mannerisms and equaling his success, a fantasy devoid of all imagined
reality because of Bull’s amateurish technique. However, he developed a
personal type of playing that pleased the public, particularly in localities
rarely visited by real artists. During the season 1836—37 he played 274
concerts in England and Ireland; in 1839 he visited
the great German violinist and composer Spohr in Kassel, in the hope of
receiving useful advice from him. In 1840 he played Beethoven’s Krentzer
Sonata in London, with Liszt at the piano. On July 23, 1849, he announced
the formation of a Norwegian Theater in Bergen, which was opened on Jan. 2,1850.
While he failed to impress serious musicians and critics in Europe, he achieved
his dream of artistic success in America; he made 5 concert tours across the
U.S., playing popular selections and his own compositions on American themes
with such fetching titles as Niagara, Solitude of the Prairies, and
To the Memory of Washington, interspersing them with his arrangements
of Norwegian folk songs. He entertained a strong conviction that Norway should
generate its own national art, but the practical applications of his musical
patriotism were failures because of his lack of formal study and a concentration
on tawdry effects; still, it may be argued that he at least prepared the ground
for the emergence of true Norwegian music; indeed, it is on his recommendation
that Grieg was sent to study at the Leipzig Cons. Characteristically, Ole Bull
became attracted by the then-current ideas of communal socialism. In 1852 he
purchased 11,144 acres in Pennsylvania for a Norwegian settlement, but his lack
of business sense led his undertaking to disaster. The settlement, planned on
strict socialist lines, was given the name Oleana, thus establishing a personal
connection with the name of its unlucky founder. Oleana soon collapsed, but Ole
Bull earned admiration in Norway as a great national figure. Many of his violin
pieces, mostly sentimental or strident in nature, with such titles as La
preghiera d’una madre, Variazioni di bravura, Polacca guerriera, etc.,
were publ., but they sank into predictable desuetude.
Bull,
Ole (Bornemann), eccentric Norwegian violinist; b. Bergen, Feb. 5,1810; d.
Lyso, near Bergen, Aug. 17, 1880. He was extremely precocious, and played the
violin experimentally even before acquiring the rudiments of music. At the age
of 9 he played solos with the Bergen Harmonic Soc. His teachers were then Niels
Eriksen and J.H. Poulsen; later he had regular instruction with M. Ludholm.
Ignoring academic rules, he whittled the bridge almost to the level of the
finger- board, so as to be able to play full chords on all 4 strings. He was
sent by his father to Christiania to study theology, but failed the entrance
examinations; instead, he organized a theater orch., which he led with his
violin. In 1829 he played in Copenhagen and Kassel. In 1831 he went to Paris,
where he heard Paganini and became obsessed with the idea of imitating
his mannerisms and equaling his success, a fantasy devoid of all imagined
reality because of Bull’s amateurish technique. However, he developed a
personal type of playing that pleased the public, particularly in localities
rarely visited by real artists. During the season 1836—37 he played 274
concerts in England and Ireland; in 1839 he visited
the great German violinist and composer Spohr in Kassel, in the hope of
receiving useful advice from him. In 1840 he played Beethoven’s Krentzer
Sonata in London, with Liszt at the piano. On July 23, 1849, he announced
the formation of a Norwegian Theater in Bergen, which was opened on Jan. 2,1850.
While he failed to impress serious musicians and critics in Europe, he achieved
his dream of artistic success in America; he made 5 concert tours across the
U.S., playing popular selections and his own compositions on American themes
with such fetching titles as Niagara, Solitude of the Prairies, and
To the Memory of Washington, interspersing them with his arrangements
of Norwegian folk songs. He entertained a strong conviction that Norway should
generate its own national art, but the practical applications of his musical
patriotism were failures because of his lack of formal study and a concentration
on tawdry effects; still, it may be argued that he at least prepared the ground
for the emergence of true Norwegian music; indeed, it is on his recommendation
that Grieg was sent to study at the Leipzig Cons. Characteristically, Ole Bull
became attracted by the then-current ideas of communal socialism. In 1852 he
purchased 11,144 acres in Pennsylvania for a Norwegian settlement, but his lack
of business sense led his undertaking to disaster. The settlement, planned on
strict socialist lines, was given the name Oleana, thus establishing a personal
connection with the name of its unlucky founder. Oleana soon collapsed, but Ole
Bull earned admiration in Norway as a great national figure. Many of his violin
pieces, mostly sentimental or strident in nature, with such titles as La
preghiera d’una madre, Variazioni di bravura, Polacca guerriera, etc.,
were publ., but they sank into predictable desuetude.