Olsen, Ole

Ole Olsen
(b, Hammerfest, 4 July 1850 – d. Oslo, 4 November 1927)

Asgaardsreien, Op.10

Preface
Composer, conductor, organist, and military musician Ole Olsen cultivated Norwegian culture that was fueled by fervent nationalistic sentiments in the late nineteenth-century. Hailing from Hammerfest in the county of Finnmark in the northeastern part of Norway, music and national customs created an indelible impression in his youth. As a child Olsen studied organ, piano, and violin. By the age of five, he composed his first piece, and, as a budding performer, beginning at the age of seven he occasionally substituted for his father, Iver Olsen, an amateur musician who was the organist at a local church.

Given this background, it is not surprising that he studied organ in Trondheim from 1865-1869. In addition to organ, he also took lessons in composition, harmony, and piano with Fredrick Christian and Just Riddervold Lindeman who were brothers in one of the most prolific musical families in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Norway. Olsen proved to be such an accomplished organist that he sometimes substituted for Just as the organist in the Trondheim Cathedral, one of the oldest and most distinguished cathedrals in Norway. His activity there led Olsen to meet H. E. Schirmer, a German architect and fervent devotee of music. More importantly for Olsen is that Schirmer was a friend of Heinrich Schleinitz, director of the Leipzig Conservatory at that time. With Schirmer’s help Olsen began his studies at the conservatory in Leipzig in 1870. There he studied composition with Oskar Paul from 1870-1874 and penned his Symphony in G Major, finishing the orchestration in 1875. Embracing Scandinavian culture, – a practice in which he would engage throughout his career – Olsen began his five-act opera Stig Hvide (1872-1876), whose plot deals with Danish nobility.

In 1874, Olsen returned to Norway, where he taught in Christiania (now Oslo). There he proved to be an estimable conductor of the Christiania Artisans’ Choral Society (1876-1880), the Music Society Orchestra (1877-1880), a military band (Akershus 2nd Brigade, 1884), and a freemason’s orchestra (1894-1908). From 1899-1920, Olsen served as the music supervisor for the public schools. …

Read full preface > HERE