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

34 Juvas Marianne Liljas
tive the Björling ‘school’ belongs to the conservative tradition regarding
the master-pupil relationship: David Björling acted as a role model. It was
also the master’s responsibility to prevent negative development – which
is reflected in Björling’s prohibition of regular school singing and also followed
the didactic traditions of the old singing masters and teachers of of
instrumental music. One example is Francois Couperin (1668-1773), who
locked the cover of the cembalo after his lessons, thus preventing his pupils
from practising in the wrong way (Gellrich 1992).
As a pedagogue David Björling was energetic and intense. He put much
effort into developing the tone-building system he brought with him from
continental Europe. His dexterity lay in his voice placing: with a few well
chosen exercises every tone would find its rightful place (cf. Björling n.d.,
pp. 2-4). According to one of his pupils precision had no limits: an exercise
could be repeated 10 to 20 times (Svt 1977; cf. Liljas 2007, pp. 304, 325ff
with further references). He is said to have had a unique capability to explain
his teaching so that the difficult seemed simple. The fact that he gave
a singing and speaking course in 1922 confirms that he also taught speech
technique (ibid., pp. 323-326). He was innovative with his children, using
pedagogical tricks such as visual metaphors in order to make them understand
vocal technique. Some of these were commonplace, and some of them
could be traced back to older singing schools (Müller-Brunow 1898, p. 27;
Lange 1900, p. 66ff). The seven-year-old Olle Björling surprised the press:
“It was remarkable what strength and volume his young voice had” 29 (Borlänge
Tidning 10/10 1916).
David Björling used the gramophone as a pedagogical aid. He would play
records of his favourite singers, who functioned as role models. The boys
told of how they had to repeat phrase by phrase until their father was satisfied
(Björling 1945, p. 53; cf. Öhman 1960, p. 52). It seems that Enrico
Caruso’s early recordings were influential in this respect. One of Björling’s
private pupils reveals that he had to listen to Caruso at the start of every
lesson before the practical voice training began. 30 It is clear from this statement
that David Björling manifested his admiration for Caruso in a concrete
way in his teaching. Enrico Caruso’s early recordings were produced
during the period when David Björling was a student at the Metropolitan
<strong>Opera</strong> School (Liljas 2007 footnote 315, p. 311). It is therefore interesting
29 ‘Det var rent märkvärdigt vilken styrka och klangfullhet hans unga stämma hade.”
30 Valfrid Nyström (1887-1988) from Luleå was his student in Örebro (cf. Liljas 2007,
pp. 293-294).