 |
| Adolf Hansen and family 1894 |
This is the
title of the book written about my great-grandfather Adolf Hansen a Norwegian
Military musician and composer. The Norwegian phrase in the title translates to
“he sprinkles melodies out of the sleeve.” An apt phrase to describe a prolific composer.
Adolf was
born on 4 October 1852 , the son of Martin Hansen and Sofie Johannesdatter. His
original christening record shows his name as Johannes Adolf Waldemar Hansen.[ii]
Little is
known of Adolf’s life before the 1865 census of Oslo, Norway, where Adolf
appears with his mother Sofie living at 2 Grondelandsleret with 47 other
people.[iii]
By 1875
Adolf’s profession in the census is listed as musician, since he had joined the
2nd Brigades Musikkorps at age 15 and played clarinet under the direction of Paolo Sperati. In
1868, 16 year old Adolf went to his director and showed his two musical pieces
he had composed, one a march and one a galopp He was allowed to sit in the
orchestra and play his compositions!
Adolf kept
playing in the various bands and orchestras in Oslo, including the Christiania
Norske Theater and the Tivoli. In 1880, Adolf was married with four children
when he was sent to Paris for further study on the clarinet.
Adolf
continued to direct the bands of the Norwegian Army while adding to his list of
compositions until his death 24 Jan 1911 in Bergen, Norway. His composition of
most note is the “Honor Marsj” .
Adolf had a
total of ten children, five with each of his two wives, I don’t know if any
of them inherited his musical talent, but I do remember his granddaughter
Dorothy had a grand piano in her living room and I have been told that another
granddaughter, Dorette Campbell was an opera singer. Both of my children were
in the high school band and my daughter was a music major. She married a music
major who continued the tradition by serving in the US Army Band for 26 years. All three of their children have also been
talented musicians in High School. It has often made me wonder if a talent
skipped several generations. I guess we’ll never know until a music gene is
discovered.
[i] Egil
A. Gundersen, author, Adolf Hansen << - HAN DRYSSET MELODIER UT AV
ERMET...>>, first edition (Skien, Norway: self-published by author,
2002), .
[ii] Church
of Norway (Aker, Oslo, Norway), Ministrial Book #19 birthssz 1842-1852, page
395, Birth and christening of Johannes Adolf Waldemer Hansen; digital image,
digitalarkiv of Norway (https://media.digitalarkivet.no : online 31 Nov 2017).
[iii] 1865
census for Oslo, digitalarkivet.no
No comments:
Post a Comment