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Carl Michael Bellman (1740-1795) | |
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Swedish poet-musician, whose songs have remained very popular in Scandinavia. Beginning as a writer of Bacchanalian songs, Bellman produced over seventeen hundred poems, most set to music. In his youth Bellman wrote moralizing satirical verses and translated from German and French, without any inclination to enter the bohemian, artistic life. Fattig, försupen, Carl Michael Bellman was born into a respectable middle-class family in Söder in Stockholm. His father, Johan Arndt Bellman (1797-1765), was a secretary at the King's office and mother, Katarina Hermomia (1717-1765), was a daughter of a Lutheran minister. Bellman reveived a good education and learned several foreign languages. Claes Ennes, Bellman's private tutor, introduced him to the world of poetry. In 1759 Bellman began to work in a bank as a supernumerary. Bellman lived in Stockholm his whole life except when he studied at Uppsala University for a short time, and when he ran away from creditors in 1763 to Norway. More or less due to the scandal his father he left the King's office, sold the house where his family had lived for 20 years and moved first to Årsta and then to Visbohammar. After returning to Sweden, Bellman took a position at the Manufacturing Office, which was closed in 1766. He then worked at the General Customs Office until 1772. During this period and the following restless years Bellman transformed drinking songs into an art form. Bellman was first time dead drunk in 1759 when he had too much French red wine, but poems had written earlier. Among these works is 'Tankar om Flickors ostadighet' (1758), about girls' fickleness. By the late 1760s Bellman had already became famous with his songs and biblical parodies, which circulated by word of mouth, and in handwritten copies and printed sheets. After his parents died in 1765, creditors took all what was left from the property. In 1766 Bellman established the so-called 'Bacchi Orden' (Order of Bacchus), which parodied contemporary fashionable knightly orders and celebrated the joys of wine in difficult times: "Does the grave to you seem far too deep? / Well, then take a drink, and then another one, / And then a second one, and then a third one, / and you will die with more peace." During the firts half of the 1800s, the annual consumption of hard liquor was 40-50 liters per person per year. The members of the Order were not just average drunks but notorious drunks, who had been dismissed from their post. Bellman's good friend, the sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel, made once a medallion portrait, in which the poet himself was portrayed as a Bacchus. Without abandoning Stockholm's underclass, Bellman managed to develop ties to the court of King Gustav III (1746-92), a devoted patron of the arts. However, Bellman's contacts did not bring him the respect of the establishment, and when he fell in love with Wilhelmina Norman, her family opposed their marriage. In 1777 Bellman married Lovisa Fredrika Grönlund (1755/1757?-1847); they had four sons. After writing 'Gustavs skål', he was appointed in 1779 as a government official at the Lottery Office. Despite Gustav III's appreciation and financial support – the King allotted him a pension from royal private funds and invited him to the palace on certain Wednesdays – Bellman's choice of subject matter made him an outsider in the literary scene. At the request of the King, Bellman also tried his hand at longer theatrical pieces, but they never gained a large audience. The poet remained a loyal supporter of his royal benefactor, even during the years before his murder in 1792, when opposition against the King grew stronger. Bellman combined in his works the classical allusions, elevated metaphors, pastoral motifs, and descriptions of life's comic and tragic realities. Some songs, such as 'En Potifars hustru' (A Potiphar's wife) and 'Joachim uti Babylon' (Joachim in Babylon) dealt gently with figures from the Old Testament. The most famous biblical parody was about Noah: "Gubben Noach, Gubben Noach / Var en hedersman / När han gick ur arken / Plantera han på marken / Mycket vin, ja mycket vin, ja / Detta gjorede han." (Old Man Noah, Old Man Noah / Was a gentleman...) With this song Bellman became a celebrity, although he arose much indignation among the clergy. He was instructed by the Stockholm consistory to "use his cleverness on such works which were useful and civil, without coming into conflict with religion." But the circles in which Bellman moved were not appalled. 1765 Bellman began producing a cycle of songs, but for a long period, he was unable to get his epistles into print. When the composer and publisher Olof Åhlström introduced a relatively inexpensive way of printing music and the King's permission was granted, Fredmans epistlar came out in 1790. The title of the songbook alludes to the Pauline Epistles. Johan Henrik Kellgren, a highly influential critic and poet, who had attacked Bellman in 1778 in 'Mina Löjen,' wrote a warmhearted introduction to the book. Its central characters include Father Berg, Fredman, a watchmaker "without clocks, shop, or business," Mollberg who wants revive of the past glory of Sweden, Movitz, a musician, and Ulla Winblad, the nymph and priestess of the temple of Bacchus. Fredman was originally Jean Fredman (1712/13-1767), who had taken care of chuch clocks, and had been a respected alderman, but who ended in the gutter. Ulla Winbland was Maria Kristina Kiellström (1744-1798) from a poor family. The first collection, which contained eighty-two poems, depicted mostly tavern life. It was followed by Fredmans sånger (1791), a varied collection containing mainly drinking songs. Bacchi tempel (1783), Bellman's first major work, had also some engravings. Bellman's work earned him a membership of the Swedish Musical Academy. Drick ur ditt glass – se, döden på dig väntar, In most of his songs, Bellman borrowed the tunes from minuets, folk songs, opera, and march music. Some of the melodies Bellman composed himself; he apparently sang in a high baritone or tenor voice, accompanying himself on the lutelike cittern, one of which was the instrument his grandfather had bought in Hamburg. Bellman was imprisoned in 1794 for ten weeks because of unpaid debts to Enoch Nobelius, but was soon released with the help of his friends. According to rumors, Nobelius wanted to revenge when Bellman's wife did not respond to his attention. At the suggestion of his doctor, Anders Blad, Bellman began to write his autobiography, but he did not finish it, the poet's health was already broken. The original manuscript came into possession of H.F. Antell in 1887, later it was donated to the Finnish National Museum, with its end missing. Bellman died of tuberculosis on February 11, 1795. Bellman plays were published posthumously. Adolf Bellman, the poet's youngest son, later wrote his father's biography and depicted the warm relationship between his parents in spite of the constant financial problems that troubled the family. For further reading: Textkritiska studier till Fredmans epistlar by Bernhard Risberg (1938); Kring Fredmans epistlar by Olof Byström (1945); Bellman som musikalsk Digter by Torben Krogh (1945); Myt och bild by Nils Afzelius (1945, rev. ed. 1964); Kring Bellman, ed. by Lars-Göran Eriksson (1964); Bellmansforskning by A. Björkman (1964); Ordbok till Fredmans epistlar by Carl Larsson and Magdalena Hellquist (1967); Bellman och Bacchus by Bo Nordstrand (1973); The Life and Songs of Carl Michael Bellman: Genius of the Swedish Rococo by Paul Britten Austin (1968); Ordindex till Fredmans Epistlar by Bo Nordstrand (1970); Bellman som bohem och parodiker by Alf Kjellén (1971); Tio forskare om Bellman, ed. by Horace Engdahl (1977); Handskrifterna till Fredmans epistlar by Magdalena Hellquist (1977); The musical-poetic method of Carl Michael Bellman by James Massengale (1979); I sällskap med Bellman by Torsten Ahlstrand (1981); I Zions tempel by Sven Thorén (1986); Carl Michael Bellman by Lars Huldén (1994); Ljuva karneval!: om Carl Michael Bellmans diktning by Lars Lönnroth (2005); Carl Michael Bellman: en biografi by Leif Landen (2008) - Suomeksi on julkaistu myös mm. Reino Hirvisepän kääntämä Laulava Bellman (1945). See also: Povel Ramel, Larin-Kyösti Selected works:
Some rights reserved Petri Liukkonen (author) & Ari Pesonen. Kuusankosken kaupunginkirjasto 2008 |
