Svendsen, Johan

Norske danser for stort orkester (tapt)

Norwegian Dances for Large Orchestra (lost)

JSV VARIA

In the early 1890-ies Svendsen had a plan of writing a series of norwegian dances for large orchestra. We do not know how much of this work he managed to finish. Maybe the older Norsk Springdans JSV 73 was ment to be included in this series.
Svendsen mentiones Norwegian Dances in a letter to his father, Gulbrand, on 22. December 1891: ‘Jeg har ogsaa paabegynt en Række norske Dandse for stort Orkester som jeg tror vil blive meget morsomme, gid jeg maa faa nok Tid og Lyst til at faa dem færdige’. They are also mentioned in a lettter from Svendsen to Alfred Wilhelm Hansen, dated the 15th of January 1898: ‘Du maa være saa elskværdig at give mig nogle dages Henstand med den norske Dans. Skitsen, som er blevet noget længre, og som paa grund af nogle under Udarbejdelsen opstaaede Tvivl har kostet mig betydelig mere Tid end jeg oprindelig havde tænkt, er nu omtrent færdig, og haaber jeg allerede imorgen at kunne tage fat paa Instrumentationen, og den skal gaa som en Dans.’
On the 22th of February 1914, in the 15th ‘Palæ-Koncert’ in Copenhagen, (conductor: Fr. Schnedler-Petersen) a ‘Norsk Dans’ by Svendsen was performed. The program states the following:
    Johan Svendsen:
        a) Norsk Dans (efterladt Værk, 1ste Gang) bearbejdet og instrumenteret af Hakon Børresen.
        b) Springdans
The second work played in the concert was probably Norsk springdans JSV 73.
In the archives of the publisher Wilhelm Hansen there is an old list of works they have accquired the publishing-rights for, but not yet published: ‘Manuskripter, hvortil Udgivelsesret er erhvervet’.  In this list we find the following note about a work by Svendsen, orchestrated by Børresen.: ‘Symfonisk Sats, bearbejdet af Hakon Børresen’. Probably this is identical with his arrangement of a ‘Norsk Dans’. Also Norsk springdans JSV 73 is in the Wilhelm Hansen list of publishing rights. The manuscript of Norsk springdans JSV 73 came to the Norwegian National Library from the Publisher Wilhelm Hansen. In the protocol of the Library the following is written about the score: ‘Wilhelm Hansens musikforlag v N.O.M. Sandvik. Den økonomiske utnyttelse (utgivelse) forbeholdt giveren’. [The donator owns the publishing rights]. On the second page of the manuscript the following is added in pencil (probably not Svendsen’s handwriting): Johan Svendsen / Norsk Springdans / No. II. This pencil-note might have been written by the publisher. They might have planned to publish the dances played at the concert in 1914 as number one and two in a series.