Martin Andreas Udbye

Martin Andreas Udbye

Martin Andreas Udbye (born June 18, 1820 in Trondhjem, today Trondheim , Norway ; † January 10, 1889 ibid) was a Norwegian composer and organist .

He came from a poor background and taught himself to play the violin and cello . Through self-study he got so far that he got a job as a tutor at the age of 16 . Two years later he began his lifelong activity as a primary school teacher in Trondhjem. From 1853 he was also an organist. At the age of 31 he had earned enough money to study in Leipzig . His teachers included Moritz Hauptmann (organ) and Carl Ferdinand Becker (composition). In Leipzig he composed his first string quartet (Opus 1), the quality of which was so exceptional that the work was published by Breitkopf & Härtel . Two more quartets were to follow. In 1858 he received a government travel grant that enabled him to visit Austria, Germany and England. Since he increasingly had to look after his numerous children, he stayed in Norway afterwards.

He has often been described as a disappointed and embittered man, for B. was passed over when hiring a new cathedral organist. This occasion served him as inspiration for a satirical orchestral work: Lumpacivagabundus (Opus 23) from 1861. Udbye enjoyed a high reputation among his contemporaries. Henrik Ibsen wanted to start an opera project ( Fjeldfuglen ) with him in 1861 , and the well-known choral conductor Johan Didrik Behrens performed many of Udbye's choral works and had them printed. Udbye wrote six Singspiele and also the first Norwegian opera , Fredkulla (about: The Bride of Peace) from 1857 to 1858. It was never performed, however, because the theater in Oslo burned down shortly before the long-awaited premiere (1877). It was not until 1958 that a concert version was broadcast on Norwegian radio . Another important work is the cantata-like Sonatorrek (Opus 44) from 1872. The text used here is a translation of the Icelandic saga by Egill Skallagrímsson . His list of opuses includes around 800 mostly unpublished works.

The Udbyes grave monument, built in 1907, is located in the cemetery of Trondheim Cathedral .

literature

• Sandra M. Heinzelmann The Development of the Norwegian Opera in the 19th Century (PDF; 2.0 MB), Student Thesis, University of Music and Theater, Hamburg 2004.
• TE Wisth: "Composers Martin Andreas Udbye og de musikalske miljø i Trondhjem omkring 1850", Trondhjemske samlinger , series 3, volume 3, issue 4 (1967).