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MUSIC
The Norwegian people are not perhaps a singing people to the
same extent as many other European nations.
The mighty ocean that beats upon the shore, the dark fjords
with their overhanging cliffs, the noisy waterfalls, the miles of
blue-green pine and fir, the endless wastes of mountain and ice
with the crackling flames of the northern lights, the long night
of winter — all the Titanic force with which Nature has endowed
the country, casts a shadow of sadness and melancholy over the
people. Their lips do not open so readily for song as in a land
where the southern sun creates an eternal spring.
But the people nevertheless possess greater musical feeling
and lyric power than perhaps the majority of the other nations
in Europe. Their national music is admirable for its original
force and ever-varying moods, which reflect, as in a kaleidoscope,
their warm, deep feeling.
And the strongly national character of this music is all the
fresher and purer from the fact that the ordinary general European
culture, which is the foe of all national peculiarities, has only
succeeded very slowly in finding its way into the many remote valleys
and mountain districts, and breaking their special traditions.
But for this reason the nation began all too late to collect
the wealth of poetry and music that had lain hidden for centuries
among the people. The work was only begun after great treasures
had been washed away by the ephemeral culture of the towns.
The credit of having contributed most towards the
preservation of the Norwegian national music, is due first of all to the
organist, L. M. Lindeman (1812—1887), who, with all his modesty,
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