Carl Michael Bellman

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Carl Michael Bellman, painting by Per Krafft the Elder. Ä. , 1779 (National Portrait Gallery, Gripsholm Castle)

Listen to Carl Michael Bellman ? / i (* 4th February July / 15th February 1740 greg. in Stockholm ; † 11 February 1795 ibid) was a Swedish poet and composer . He is Sweden's most famous songwriter and is still considered a national poet in Swedish literature to this day . Audio file / audio sample  

Life

Carl Michael Bellman was born in 1740 as the grandson of Johan Arendt Bellman the Elder. Ä. (1664–1709), professor of Latin rhetoric at Uppsala University , and as the first child of the secretary of the castle chancellery, Johan Arendt Bellman the Elder. J. (1707–1765), and Catharina Hermonia, daughter of the pastor Michael Hermonius, born in his great-grandmother's house, the Großer Daurer Haus, Hornsgatan 29 A, in Stockholm's Mariaberget district on Södermalm . He spent most of his life in Stockholm. The Bellman family was of German origin; the great-grandfather Martin Bellman immigrated from the area around Bremen. Carl Michael was followed by 14 younger siblings, seven of whom died in childhood. In 1743 the family moved to the Kleine Daurersche House in Björngårdsbrunngränd (today: Bellmansgatan 24), where Carl Michael grew up in a wealthy family and received a thorough education through private lessons.

Bellman made his debut as an author in 1757 with a translation of David von Schweinitz's Evangelical Death Thoughts into Swedish. This was followed by other religious and satirical writings such as the Tankar om flickors ostadighet (Thoughts on the impermanence of girls, 1758) or the social satire in Versen Månan (The Moon, 1760). He dropped out of studies at Uppsala University after one semester. In 1759 he received an unpaid position at the Reichsbank . Bellman lived beyond his means and borrowed heavily. In 1763 they had grown to the enormous amount of 18,000 Reichstalers , so that he had to secretly flee from his creditors across the border to Norway . Although he was able to return a month later with a protective royal letter of safe conduct , he lost his job at the Reichsbank and had to file for bankruptcy in early 1764. After spending a few months on his family's estate, Visbohammar in Södermanland , on the recommendation of a friend he found a job in the manufactory office until it was closed at the end of 1766 and finally came to the offices of the Royal General Customs Directorate. When this was also dissolved in 1772, Bellman continued to receive his salary there. From 1770 to 1774 he lived in house Urvädersgränd 3 in Södermalm.

Bellman led a reckless life, performed his official duties negligently, spent a lot of time in bars and parties, had love affairs and was into alcohol. His amazing talent for quickly and easily composing off-the-cuff verses (he had already spoken in verse when he was fourteen years old during a serious illness in a delusional fever) made him a popular companion and entertainer, whose reputation spread quickly. From the mid-1960s onwards he applied his poetic talent to the songs that made him immortal. He sang it himself with widely acclaimed performance in a convivial circle and accompanied himself on the mandolin , the cister or the citrinchen, a smaller version of the cister with a bell-shaped body (shown in the painting by Per Krafft, which King Gustav III. For the had a royal collection of paintings made). The songs were often creations of the moment (Bellman was known for hours of improvisation), soon gained great popularity, and were passed down by mouth and in handwritten copies. Bellman's poems, which have survived around 1800, are certainly only part of his oeuvre. After many unsuccessful efforts, Bellman finally succeeded in getting two collections of his songs to print: 1790 Fredmans epistlar (Fredman's epistles), to which the respected poet Johan Henrik Kellgren wrote a foreword and for which Bellman received the Lundblad Prize Medal of the Swedish Academy in 1793 , and in 1791 Fredmans sånger (Fredmans Lieder).

Carl Michael Bellman, pen drawing by Johan Tobias Sergel , ca.1790

Bellman couldn't handle money. If he had any, he spent it with full hands, also for his friends, if he had none, he got into debt and had someone write to him. He never got out of his financial difficulties all his life, was constantly harassed by creditors and was often only able to pay off old debts with new loans. King Gustav III , a great patron of the fine arts, became aware of him in 1772 through the homage to Gustafs Skål (Gustavs Wohl), invited him regularly to the court, gave him generous financial support from his private box and, in response to a rhymed petition, ensured that Bellman was hired by the Royal Lottery in 1776 with the title of court secretary and an annual salary of 1,000 thalers. Part of this salary was probably used to pay agents who did the official business for him, the rest of which he led the life of a free man. On December 19, 1777 he married Lovisa Frederica Grönlund (* October 16, 1755), the daughter of a spice merchant, with whom he had the sons Gustav (* 1781), Carl (* 1787) and Adolf (* 1790); another son, Elis (* 1785), died of smallpox shortly after his second birthday . Bellman did not become domesticated as a husband either, but appears to have been a loving husband and father. However, his ongoing financial misery made it more and more difficult for him to support his family, who therefore had to move to increasingly poorer apartments several times and remained completely penniless after his death. The sons Gustav and Carl became soldiers and went missing at a young age. Adolf became a silk dealer in Stockholm and died childless in 1834. Bellman's widow survived him by more than 50 years and only died in 1847 at the age of 91.

Memorial stone for Bellman in Clara Cemetery in Stockholm

After the king, to whom he owed his honorary title of "Swedish Anakreon ", was assassinated in 1792, Bellman lost his last financial support. Pursued by his creditors with processes, he finally came in 1794 for two months in debtors' prison . This worsened his pulmonary tuberculosis , of which he died in 1795. He was buried in Stockholm's Clara churchyard , the grave can no longer be found today.

plant

Bellman's main works are the two song collections Fredmans epistlar (Fredmans Episteln) with 82 songs and Fredmans sånger (Fredmans Lieder) with 65 songs. His other works (religious and patriotic poetry, satires, plays, occasional poetry and translations, including of Gellert's fables) are of secondary importance.

"Fredman's Epistles" tie in with the epistles of the Apostle Paul , initially parody the biblical tone, but go far beyond a mere Bible parody . The verse form of these songs is extremely artistic and rich in variety, their content often coarse, pleasurable and drawn from life. They are about happy sociability, wine, women and song and often contain complaints about the transience of beauty and joy and elegiac reflections on death. They depict small dramas from the lower-class world, with a fixed circle of people appearing, including the drunken watchmaker Fredman, thirsty for beauty, the consumptive drinker and musician Movitz (an alter ego of Bellman), the corporal Mollberg and the prostitute as the goddess of beauty and love Ulla Winblad. For the most part, they are poetic transformations of real people from 18th century Stockholm. Mythological figures are often referred to: the ancient wine god Bacchus stands for drink, the goddess Venus or her Nordic counterpart Fröja for eroticism and the ferryman Charon for death. Despite their time-bound allusions and their learned metaphor, the songs still work today through their personal tone, their immediate freshness, a deep sense of natural beauty, the combination of realism with humorous and satirical exaggerations, their peculiar mixture of exuberant joie de vivre and gloomy premonition of death and the close Connection of word and music. Bellman liked to use melodies from popular contemporary operas and singspiele for his songs and adapted them to his needs. The melody of Så lunka vi så småningom comes from Johann Gottlieb Naumann's opera Gustav Vasa , the melody by Movitz helt allea was taken from Bellman's popular musical play Le devin du village by Jean-Jacques Rousseau . For some melodies no sources could be found, so that they may be compositions by Bellman himself.

A characteristic example of the content and form of Bellman's songs is the first stanza including the refrain of the Måltids-Sång (Fredmans Sång No. 21):

Så lunka vi så småningom
Från Bacchi buller och tumult
När döden ropar, Awn kom
Ditt timglas he is now full.
You Gubbe fell in krycka ner
Oh you, you Yngling, lyd min lay
Den skönsta Nymph som åt dig ler
Inunder poor day.
Tycker du att grafven är för djup
Nå välan, så ta dig då en sup
Ta dig sen ditto en, dito två, dito tre
Så dör du nöjdare.

Prose translation: So we trot so little by little / Away from the noise and tumult of Bacchus / When death calls: Neighbor, come / Your hourglass is now full / You, old man, drop your crutch / And you, you young man, obey mine Law / The most beautiful nymph who smiles at you / Hug your arms / If the grave seems too deep / Well, then take a sip / Then take one more and two more and three more / Then you die you happier.

As a contrast, the first verse of a clearly different tuned song, Afton-Qväde (Fredmans Sång No. 32):

Träd fram du Nattens Gud att solens lågor dämpa
Bjud Stjernan på din sky mot aftonrådnan kämpa
Gör ljumma böljan kall.
Slut ögats förlåt till, kom lindra qval och krämpa
och blodets heta svall.

Prose translation: Step forward, you god of the night, to subdue the flames of the sun / Let the star on your cloud fight against the sunset / Make the mild wave cold / Close the curtain of the eyes, come and relieve agony and cramps / and the hot Rush of blood.

effect

Bellman statue by Alfred Nyström, 1872 (Djurgården, Stockholm)

Bellman's songs are still widely known and loved, especially in Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia. A Bellman Society was founded in Stockholm as early as 1824. On July 26, 1829, a bronze bust of Bellman by Johan Niclas Byström was ceremoniously unveiled in Djurgården, Stockholm . Since then, July 26th has been celebrated as Bellman Day all over Sweden, but especially in Stockholm. Today's Bellman Society, which has made a name for itself primarily by publishing the large edition of works, was founded in 1919.

Many Swedish poets, such as Gunnar Wennerberg , Birger Sjöberg , Dan Andersson and Evert Taube , took up Bellman's songwriting and dealt with the great role model. Birger Sjöberg's song Fjärilen på Haga plays cleverly with Bellman's Fjäriln vingad syns på Haga , while Evert Taube pays homage to the Swedish national poet in his Ballads om Bellman ( Bellman's Ballad). A specifically Swedish tradition of troubadours goes back to Bellman, the most important modern representatives of which are Fred Åkerström (1937–1985) and Cornelis Vreeswijk (1937–1987). Both made a name for themselves as celebrated Bellman performers. Among the younger performers is the singer-songwriter and rock musician Stefan Sundström , who was awarded the Stockholm City Bellman Prize in 1991. There are Bellman museums on the Stockholm island of Långholmen (Stora Henriksvik) and in the castle hotel Aspa on Lake Vättern.

Outside of Northern Europe, Bellman's work met with a particularly positive response in Germany. Ernst Moritz Arndt praised him in the highest tones as early as 1810. The first translation into German (by Adolf von Winterfeld ) appeared in 1856, which has been followed by a good dozen more to this day. The best-known and most successful translations come from Carl Zuckmayer , who also brought out the play Ulla Winblad in 1938 (new version 1953) , Fritz Graßhoff , HC Artmann (1976) and Klaus-Rüdiger Utschick . Bellman's songs were and are sung by numerous German artists. The best known are the recordings of Karl Wolfram (around 1957), Carl Raddatz (1965), Manfred Krug (1968/1997), Harald Juhnke (1976/1996), Hans-Erich Halberstadt (1987), Dieter Süverkrüp (1996), Hannes Wader (with Klaus Hoffmann and Reinhard Mey ) (1996) and Günter Gall (2003), who also appears occasionally with the Swedish Bellman interpreter Martin Bagge . In the GDR , Bellmann was best known for the adaptations of Fredman's epistles by Peter Hacks , Heinz Kahlau , Hartmut Lange and Hubert Witt , published by Reclam Verlag Leipzig in 1965, and their congenial interpretation by Manfred Krug.

Works

  • Relevant Swedish complete edition: Carl Michael Bellman. Standardupplaga utgiven av Bellmanssällskapet. 21 volumes, Stockholm 1921-2004.
  • Carl Michael Bellman: Fredman's epistles to this and that, but mainly to Ulla Winblad . Translation: Peter Hacks u. a .; Illustrations: Werner Klemke. Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1965
  • Fritz Graßhoff: Through all heavens, all gutters. A bundle of Fredmannian epistles and songs from Swedish singable into German and provided with pictures by Fritz Graßhoff , with a foreword by Klabund and an afterword by Grasshoff (About Carl Michael Bellman. Life, Work, Time) . Kiepenheuer & Witsch , Cologne / Berlin 1966
  • Carl Michael Bellman: The love to please. A selection of his songs. Bilingual. The Swedish text was Germanised singable by HC Artmann and Michael Korth. Musical arrangement by Johannes Heimrath. Heimeran, Munich 1976 (Swedish / German, with notes)
  • Michael Korg (Ed.): Carl Michael Bellmann: Sauf-, Liebs- and Sterbelieder. Frankfurt am Main 1980.
  • Hein Hoop : Carl Michael Bellman - Death is a bad bear. Selected songs in high and low German adaptations , Verlag Davids Drucke, Celle 1978, ISBN 3-921860-04-0
  • Carl Michael Bellman: Fredman's Epistles . Reclam, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-15-008962-X (songs with notes)
  • Fritz Graßhoff: Bellman in German. Fredman's epistles; (From 18th century Swedish, singable into German, along with the biography of the poet Carl Michael Bellman, the circumstances of the time, an interpretation of the work and vignettes) . Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, 1995, ISBN 3-930850-10-9
  • Carl Michael Bellman: Fredman's Epistles. "Of love and agony and the full cup" . (Bellman edition Volume 1) Translated by Klaus-Rüdiger Utschick. Anacreon. Munich 1998, ISBN 3-932759-01-X (with facsimile of the original notes )
  • Carl Michael Bellman: Fredman's Chants. "Venus my heart monarch, Bacchus Throat Prince!" . (Bellman edition Volume 2) Translated by Klaus-Rüdiger Utschick. Anacreon. Munich 1998, ISBN 3-932759-02-8 (with facsimile of the original notes )
  • Carl Michael Bellman: Religious Poetry. “Come, child of the earth!” . (Bellman edition Volume 3) Translated by Klaus-Rüdiger Utschick. Anacreon, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-932759-03-6 (with notes for a hymn)

Sound carrier (selection)

  • While at this source - songs by Carl Michael Bellmann . Carl Raddatz . LP. Telefunken 1965. (German by Carl Zuckmayer , Hanns von Gumppenberg and Felix Niedner)
  • Manfred Krug speaks and sings Carl Michael Bellman - Friedman's epistles to this and that but mainly to Ulla Winblad . LP. Litera 1968 (re-release: CD. Amiga 1997)
  • Carl Michael Bellman . Shark & ​​Topsy . Happy Bird 1975.
  • Harald Juhnke sings songs by Carl Michael Bellman . Happy Bird 1976. Re-release: CD. Membrane 2003.
  • To please the love. Bärengässlin . LP. plans, Dortmund 1978. Republication: CD. plans, Dortmund 2001.
  • Brothers, there's a smell across the country. Fiede Kay sings Carl Michael Bellmann . LP, Polydor International GmbH, 1981
  • Grapes and Violas - The Songs of Carl Michael Bellman. Hans Peter Treichler . LP, Gold Records 1981.
  • Individual songs on the albums "Lästerliches und Liederliches" (1990) and "Let the blasphemous tongues stew!" (1993) by Holger Hoffmann. Publishing house of the minstrels
  • Love, schnapps, death - Wader sings Bellman . Hannes Wader , Klaus Hoffmann , Reinhard Mey . Plans. 1996.
  • Süverkrüp sings Graßhoff's Bellman . Dieter Süverkrüp . CD. Conträr Musik 1996.
  • Through all heavens, all gutters - Carl Michael Bellman (1740–1795) . Günter Gall . Artychoke 2003
  • Carl Michael Bellman - Songs of Love, Wine and Death . Petter Udland Johansen, Ensemble Pratum Musicum. 2 CDs. 2005

literature

  • Paul Britten Austin: Carl Michael Bellman - His Life and Songs . Munich: Anacreon 1998. ISBN 3-932759-00-1 (biography)
  • Contributions to Bellman . Issue 1. Munich: Anacreon 2001. ISBN 3-932759-41-9 .
  • Ernst Brunner: I lived on love and wine . A novel about the songwriter Carl Michael Bellman. Translated from the Swedish by Klaus-Rüdiger Utschick, Ursula Menn-Utschick. Berlin: Ullstein 2004. ISBN 3-550-08608-3 .
  • Lars-Göran Eriksson (ed.), Kring Bellman , Stockholm: Wahlstöm & Widstrand 1982, ISBN 91-46-14135-9
  • Fritz Graßhoff : Carl Michael Bellman . In: Freia and Baccus. Homage to the Swedish poet Carl Michael Bellman . Seltmann & Hein, Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-9804960-0-7
  • Lars Huldén: Carl Michael Bellman , Stockholm: Natur och Kultur 1994. ISBN 91-27-03767-3 (biography)
  • Jacques Outin: Graßhoff, Bellman and Sweden . In: Clams. Annual journal for literature and graphics. No. 44. Viersen 2004. ISSN  0085-3593
  • Peter Rühmkorf : Bellman and me. In: Susanne Fischer , Stephan Opitz (Ed.): A lot of contradictions fit into my head - about colleagues. Wallstein, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8353-1171-8 , pp. 11-18.

Web links

Commons : Carl Michael Bellman  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Carl Michael Bellman  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefan Sundström. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 19, 2013 ; Retrieved December 18, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Hans Marquardt (Ed.): Carl Michael Bellmann - Fredmans Episteln . Reclam, Leipzig, p. 193 ff .
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on May 1, 2006 .
personal data
SURNAME Bellman, Carl Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish rococo poet and composer
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1740
PLACE OF BIRTH Stockholm
DATE OF DEATH February 11, 1795
Place of death Stockholm