OLE Bull - A Memoir Book

OLE BULL A MEMOIR BY SARA C BULL WITH OLE BULLS VIOLIN NOTES, AND DR. A. B CROSBYS ANATOMY OF THE VIOLINIST BOSTON HOUGHTON MIFFLIN AND COMPANY Camfcrfoge Copyright, 1882, BY SARA C BULI-All rights reserved The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U, S. A. Electrotyped and Printed by H. O, Houghton Company. TO OUR OLE A. 10 00 6443070 NOTE. IN preparing this memoir my aim has been to use incidents, criticisms, and tributes which brought out characteristic traits, as recognized by others as well as myself, and to supply only what was needed to make the sequence clear. Many poems and tributes, and much musical criticism, have been necessarily omitted for want of space. So far as possible, writers have been credited when quoted, but I desire to make still further acknowledgment to Wergeland, Winter Hjelm, Gold schmidt, Mr. Henry Norman, and Professor R. B. An derson, who prepared a sketch of Norwegian history, which has been given in a more condensed form. Ole Bull was in Sweden years ago when the union mark was adopted, for use in the Norwegian and Swedish flags. He would himself never float any but the pure Norwegian colors, and, from the first, was most earnest and pronounced in his opinion that none but the naval and customs flags should have the union mark, as the two countries were politically united only in their relations to foreign powers. For years he was almost alone in this feeling, but the subject has re cently given rise to much debate, and even heated con troversy. I speak of this here, because a paragraph re-. lating to the matter was omitted by mistake from the body of the book. i v NOTE. I cannot too warmly express, my thanks for the help and encouragement given by friends. It is in especial recognition of the careful interest he has shown that I mention my obligation to Mr. Walter E. Colton. The admiration for his work and original research, united to a great personal regard and affection felt for him by my husband, made me desire to place in his hands the Violin Notes, and it should be added that Mr. Colton has filled out the Note on the varnish, as he alone could have done. In Dr. Crosbys unfinished paper the bow arm and hand were not treated, and the Tartini letter is added because Ole Bull considered it the best instruc tion ever offered for the , use of the bow. Mr. Fieldss tribute was sent from his sick-room, so constant and unfailing was he ever in his thought of others. Mem bers of my husbands family have given me anecdotes and helped to verify many incidents, and Mr. Alexander Bull kindly placed at my disposal the correspondence of his parents.. To Mrs. Botta I owe the beautiful draw ing made for her by Mr. Darley, at the time of Ole Bulls first visit to the United States. The engraved portrait is by Mr. J. A. J. Wilcox, from a photograph by Mora, taken in 1878. The illustrations for the . Vio lin Notes, from photographs by Mora, have necessarily . lost in the reproduction something of their original beauty of outline and form, but they serve well the pur pose for which they are inserted. To all whose friendly services are mentioned in these pages, and to many not named, I make my grateful ac knowledgment and also to Mr. W. J. Rolfe, for kind assistance in seeing this memoir through the press. SARA C. BULL, OLE BULL. A MEMOIR. For Nature then To me was all in all. I cannot paint What then I was. The sounding cataract Haunted me like a passion the tall rock, The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, Their colors and their forms, were then to me An appetite a feeling and a love, That had no need of a remoter charm, By thought supplied, nor any interest Unborrowd from the eye. WORDSWORTH. , THE quaint, picturesque old city of Bergen, surrounded by its seven mountains, has been the birthplace of many famous Norsemen, among them . Holberg and Welhaven, names that have a more than national repute...Read More