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

44 Juvas Marianne Liljas
institutionalised education (Rostwall & Selander 2008). Thus, the Björling
model of home schooling is a source of knowledge that enhances understanding
of how opera singing was deconstructed in the home environment
in the long nineteenth century.
The Björling family had its own musical references. In sum, a folk tradition
was combined with bourgeois pretentions to urban life in the nineteenth
century. David Björling was schooled according to nineteenth-century
traditions and built his interpretation of the art of opera through his
studying, performing and teaching. The Metropolitan <strong>Opera</strong> School offered
a formal education including an impressive international network. Vienna
and his studies at the conservatoire there seemed subsequently to have
inspired and enabled him to educate his children in the manner of the Old
Italian opera tradition in terms of both music and vocal pedagogy. He also
found inspiration in rural areas where the tradition of family singing was
connected to the Free Church movement of the late 1800s.
David Björling’s educational style belongs to an older Master-pupil tradition.
On the conceptual level the Björling ‘school’ goes back to the eighteenth-century
notion of the child prodigy and the involvement of the whole
family (Ling 2009). The extensive touring in both Sweden and the USA is
connected to the promotion of wonder-children and David Björling’s ambition
to ensure the boys’ education. The two-year tour of the USA gave an
international flavour to the education, together with experience of international
audiences and modern techniques such as recording.
The focus in later research turns from the extraordinary musical talent
of prodigies to the musical environment and teaching methods (Sundin
1995; Gardner 1994). David Björling’s curriculum ranged from pre-schooling
based on the infant’s perception to programmed vocal practice. The results
show that he was ideologically familiar with the German philosophy of
musical upbringing and the neo-humanistic ideal on which reformed music
education was based (Uddén 2001).
David Björling’s method of teaching singing to children was connected
ideologically to reformed music pedagogy and technically to earlier educational
practices, specifically within an older Italian tradition reformed in part
according to the didactic principles of the Lamperti School. In conclusion,
his vocal pedagogical work reflects the move towards more delineated singing
education. In modern terms, the curriculum was well defined and the
learning outcomes were precise. David Björling could also be said to have
been responsible for the sustainable development of the children’s voices.