o-called
violin-king, already referred to, was unsurpassed in his day. Among
piano artists may be named the talented composer, Mrs. Agatha
Backer-Groendahl, Thomas Thellefsen, Edmund Neupert, Martin Knutzen,
and the great composer Edvard Grieg. The flutist Olaf Svenssen and the
vocal artists Thorvald Lammers, Ingeborg Oselio-Bjoernson, and Ellen
Gulbranson, have also brought distinction to their country.

The male choirs of Norway have always played a leading role in the
music life of the nation. The students', merchants', and artists'
singing clubs at Christiania during the past seventy-five years, have
had artistic as well as patriotic aims. Festivals, after the
pattern of those held at Cincinnati, and Worcester and Springfield,
Massachusetts, have also contributed toward the development of
national music. The most eminent choral leaders in Norway have been
Johan D. Behrens, F.A. Reissinger, and O.A. Groendahl. The Norwegian
Musical Union has also been active in the development of tonal ideals.
Its aim has been to provide chamber concerts of a high order. Grieg
and Svendsen were its first conductors. They were succeded by Ole
Olsen, who combined the talents of orchestral leader with those of
composer, chorister, and band leader. For many years he directed the
Second Brigade Band at Christiania with the rank of captain. Johan
Selmer, also a composer, succeeded Olsen in the direction of the
Musical Union; and Iver Holier, a composer of symphonies, orchestral
suites, chamber music, and vocal scores, followed Selmer. Other
orchestral leaders are Johan Hennum, Per Winge, and Johan Halvorsen,

CHAPTER XIX

THE WOMEN OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN

No volume dealing with Scandinavian life would be complete without
some tribute to the women of Norway and Sweden. They are magnificent
specimens wherever you may find them--in the kitchen, the factory, the
harvest field, the hospital, the schoolhouse, the drawing-room, or the
palace. They are good mothers, good daughters, and good wives, and
while their devotion to their sons, husbands, and fathers is not
surpassed by their sisters in any land, they are at the same time
independent, self-reliant, and progressive to a degree that offers a
striking contrast to the statue of the representatives of their sex in
other countries of Europe. They give their best talents, affections,
and strength; they ask the same in return. There is no country, not
even the United States, where women