Carl Michael Bellman
Carl Michael Bellman (help·info) (4 February 1740 – 11 February 1795) was a Swedish poet and composer. Bellman is a central figure in the Swedish song tradition and remains a very important influence in Swedish music, as well as in Scandinavian literature in general, to this day.
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[edit] Life and work
Bellman was born in Stockholm. His main works are Fredmans sånger (Fredman's songs) and Fredmans epistlar (Fredman's epistles), each including some 70 songs, many of which are about sociable drinking, or were designed and are still used for such drinking. But this aspect of his songs is not the main reason he has become such an icon in the Scandinavian song tradition. Bellman was a master of rhyme and rhythm, with a wonderful sense for combining words and music. He wrote songs that were innovative and original in form (parodying and refreshing contemporary literary styles was one of his specialities), as well as challenging in subject matter.
On the surface, his songs centre to a large extent around themes like the joy of inebriation and the pursuit of sexual pleasure. Against this backdrop, however, he manages to elucidate the tender and fleeting themes of love, death, and the elusive qualities of the "present", the here-and-now, in a unique and moving manner. His songs reflect aspects of the life of the common man in 18th century Stockholm, but by his composition Gustafs skål, an informal royal anthem, he had also acquired the patronage of King Gustav III of Sweden.
King Gustav III called Bellman "Il signor improvisatore" ('Mister Improviser').[1]
Bellman has been compared with poets and musicians as diverse as Shakespeare[2] and Beethoven.[3] Kleveland notes that he has been called "Swedish poetry's Mozart, and Hogarth", observing that
- "The comparison with Hogarth was no accident. Like the English portrait painter, Bellman drew detailed pictures of his time in his songs, not so much of life at court as of ordinary people's everyday".[1]
Britten Austin says instead simply that[4]:
- "Bellman is unique among great poets, I think, in that virtually his entire opus is conceived to music. Other poets, of course, notably our Elizabethans, have written songs. But song was only one branch of their art. They did not leave behind, as Bellman did, a great musical-literary work nor paint in words and music a canvas of their age. Nor are their songs dramatic."[4]
As for the songs, Britten Austin writes:
- "In 1768, .. Bellman had begun to compose an entirely new sort of song. A genre which 'had no model and can have no successors' (Kellgren), these songs were to grow swiftly in number until they made up the great work on which Bellman's reputation as a poet chiefly rests."[5]
Some of the recurring characters in his songs are the clockmaker Jean Fredman, the prostitute Ulla Winblad, the ex-soldier, now alcoholic Mowitz and Fader Berg, a virtuoso on several instruments. Some of these were based on living models, others probably not. His songs often make references to Greek and Roman mythological characters such as the ferryman Charon and the God of wine and pleasure, Bacchus, brought for comic effect into Stockholm's surroundings.
Bellman mostly played the cittern; the instrument is on display in Stockholm City Museum.
[edit] Poetry and song
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Bellman was understood as a great humorist by his contemporaries. He achieved this through incongruity, with what at a casual glance seems to be lofty biblical style or delicate pastoral poetry, but is in fact populated with drunks and whores, talking of life in taverns and excursions around Stockholm, frequently ending with allusions to sexual intercourse. For example, "Blåsen nu alla!" ("All blow now!"), begins with the sight of Venus crossing the water, as in François Boucher'sTriumph of Venus, but when she disembarks, Bellman quickly transforms her into a lustful Ulla Winblad. Similarly, the ornate and civilized minuet melody of Ach du min Moder (Alas, thou my mother) contrasts starkly with the text, which is about Fredman lying with a hangover in the gutter outside a pub, complaining bitterly about life.[6][7] Characters such as Ulla Winblad (her surname means vineleaf) recur through the Epistles; Britten Austin comments that
- "Ulla is at once a nymph of the taverns and a goddess of a rococo universe of graceful and hot imaginings".[8]
[edit] Legacy
The songs of Bellman have been recorded by modern Swedish artists such as Cornelis Vreeswijk, Evert Taube and his son Sven-Bertil Taube, Fred Åkerström; and even as rock music by Joakim Thåström, Candlemass or Marduk. They are also frequently used as choral music and as drinking songs. Major interpreters of Bellman's songs include Fred Åkerström and Cornelis Vreeswijk.[9]
Bellman has been translated into English, most notably by Paul Britten Austin, and there have been many translations into German (for example by Hannes Wader). German Communist leader Karl Liebknecht liked to sing Bellman in Swedish. Hans Christian Andersen was one of the first to translate Bellman into Danish.
Bellman's songs have also been translated and recorded in Icelandic (by Bubbi), Italian, French, Finnish (for instance by Vesa-Matti Loiri), Russian, Chuvash and Yiddish. English interpretations have been recorded by William Clauson, Martin Best, Sven-Bertil Taube, Roger Hinchliffe and Martin Bagge.
There are a number of books in English with translations of Bellman's work. The authors include Charles Wharton Stork,[10] Hendrik Willem van Loon,[11] Paul Britten Austin,[12] and historian Michael Roberts.[13] In English the most thorough treatment of Bellman's life is also by Paul Britten Austin.[14]
[edit] See also
- Bellman joke
- Anno 1790 (Swedish 2011 television series set in Stockholm in 1790-92)
[edit] Selected works
- Bacchi Tempel (1783)
- Fredmans Epistlar (Epistles of Fredman) (1790)
- Fredmans Sånger (Songs of Fredman) (1791)
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] In English
- Paul Britten Austin. The Life and Songs of Carl Michael Bellman: Genius of the Swedish Rococo. Allhem, Malmö American-Scandinavian Foundation, New York, 1967. ISBN 978-3932759000
- Paul Britten Austin. Carl Michael Bellman: Sweden's Shakespeare of the Guitar Song, (Stockholm: Proprius, 1998).
- Paul Britten Austin. Fredman's Epistles and Songs, (Stockholm: Proprius, 1990 and 1999).
- Charles Wharton Stork. Anthology of Swedish Lyrics from 1750 to 1915, (New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1917).
- Hendrik Willem van Loon and Grace Castagnetta. The Last of the Troubadours, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1939).
- Michael Roberts. Epistles and Songs, (Grahamstown, three volumes, 1977–1981).
[edit] In Swedish
- Ingvar Andersson, Agne Beijer, Bertil Kjellberg, Bo Lindorm (1979), Ny svensk historia - Gustavianskt 1771-1810, ISBN 91-46-13373-9
- Ernst Brunner (2002), Fukta din aska
- Lars-Göran Eriksson (ed.), Kring Bellmann, Stockholm, Wahlström & Widstrand, 1982, ISBN 91-46-14135-9
- Göran Hassler, Peter Dahl (illus.) (1989), Bellman - en antologi, En bok för alla, ISBN 91-7448-742-6
- Alf Henrikson (1986), Ekot av ett skott - öden kring 1792, Höganäs: Bra Böcker, ISBN 91-7752-124-2
- Lars Huldén (1991), Carl Michael Bellman, ISBN 91-27-03767-3
- Göran Hägg (1996), Den svenska litteraturhistorien, Wahlström & Widstrand, ISBN 91-46-17629-2
- Bengt Gustaf Jonshult (1990), Med Bellman på Haga och Carlberg, Solna Hembygdsförening, ISBN 91-971109-1-4, ISSN 0280-3062
- Åse Kleveland, Svenolov Ehrén (illus.) (1984), Fredmans epistlar & sånger, Informationsförlaget
- Matz, Edvard (2004), Carl Michael Bellman - Nymfer och friskt kalas, Lund: Historiska Media, ISBN 91-89442-97-0
- Bengt Hjord (ed.), Stadsbor i gångna tider: Släktforskaren och staden: Årsbok 1989, Sveriges Släktforskarförbund, Norstedts Tryckeri, Stockholm 1989 ISBN 91-87676-03-6. Articles: "Carl Michael Bellmans okända släkt", Marianne Nyström s. 209-226 and "Skalde-Anor: Carl Michael Bellmans härstammning", Håkan Skogsjö s. 227-236
[edit] References
- ^ a b Kleveland & Ehrén, 1984. page 6.
- ^ Hägg, 1996. page 149.
- ^ Hassler, 1989. page 6.
- ^ a b Britten Austin, 1967, page 11
- ^ Britten Austin, 1967. page 60.
- ^ Britten Austin, 1967. page 61
- ^ Hägg, 1996. pages 156-157.
- ^ Britten Austin, 1967. page 82
- ^ Hägg, 1996). page 162.
- ^ Stork, 1917.
- ^ Van Loon and Castagnetta, 1939.
- ^ Britten Austin, 1999.
- ^ Roberts, 1977-1981.
- ^ Britten Austin, 1967.
[edit] External links
Swedish
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Carl Michael Bellman |
- Free scores by Carl Michael Bellman in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
- Quicktime files Bellman songs from Litteraturbanken Choose "Författare" (author).
- Carl Michael Bellman at Swedish Wikisource
- Carl Michael Bellman at Project Runeberg
- Carl Michael Bellman at the Internet Archive (includes the music for all the Epistles and Songs)
- Bellman.net
Streaming audio
- FE 30: Drick ur ditt glas at the Library of Congress
- FE 33: Stolta stad at the National Library of Sweden
- FE 34: Ack vad för en usel koja at the National Library of Sweden
English articles
- Carl Michael Bellman at Allmusic
- Carl Michael Bellman at Kuusankoski Public Library
- Carl Michael Bellman at PoemHunter
Cover art
Books in English
- Anthology of Swedish Lyrics from 1750 to 1915 at the Internet Archive
- Review of The Last of the Troubadours at the Internet Archive
Translations
- Charles Wharton Stork at Google Books
- Carl Michael Bellman at PoemHunter
- FE 79 Charon his horn is sounding
- FS 21 Then off we lumber, cold and numb
- FS 35 Old boy Noah
