Opera on the Move in the Nordic Countries during the Long 19th ...

118 Anne Reese Willén
to have been closer to reality, but both he and Rubenson were idealists and
presented their visions of how musical life should be constructed. William
Weber brings music idealism up for discussion in his book The Great Transformation
of Musical Taste (Weber 2008, pp. 85ff). Music idealism was a
movement among “self-consciously serious musicians, amateurs, and commentator”
all over Europe who attempted to reform and reshape music
culture fundamentally (ibid., p. 86). It emerged during the first half of the
nineteenth century when musical life became more and more differentiated
and diverse. The aim was to base music culture on learned high culture as
a reaction to the commercialisation of opera and concert performance. As
Weber points out, the movement expressed itself mainly through the press,
and although it spread across Europe it was centred in Austria and Germany
and the influential music periodicals there. Moreover, despite the regional
differences it was based on common values (ibid., pp. 87-88). Its idealism
reflected the classical repertoire, and there were objections to the increasingly
“popular” opera genres and virtuoso music. The repertoire was not
the only item on the agenda, and the movement also emphasised appropriate
concert behaviour, respect for the work of art as a whole, the authenticity
of musical taste based on classic works, a hierarchy of genres and tastes,
and the importance of learning about the works in order to understand them
(ibid., p. 97). It is apparent from Norman’s and Rubenson’s writings that
they were influenced by this movement, and they could also be said to have
represented the music idealism movement in Sweden.
Behind the criticism
Norman and Rubenson were both highly critical of the state of musical life
in Stockholm, and both touch upon most of the same topics as other music
idealists. Both had similar backgrounds in terms of education and music
culture, and it seems that the influences they brought with them from the
time they spent in Leipzig in the late 1840s and early 1850s stayed with
them throughout their careers. Their music idealism largely reflected what
they had experienced in Leipzig and the music repertoire there, with a
strong focus on Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Bach. When they
came back to Sweden they wanted to introduce reforms that would live up
to their music ideals.