Case: Debate about a Concert

In this chapter, I present one case as an illustrative example of how the abovedis-cussed philosophical, theological and political thoughts and ideas were present and tied together in nineteenth-century Finnish discussion about church music. This case was a debate in Swedish-speaking newspapers after a concert in Helsinki in 1854. Even though this debate concerns a concert with only solo performances, it also reveals attitudes towards congregational singing and the role of church music in general.

The Organist of Saint Nicholas’ Church in Helsinki, Rudolf Lagi, gave a ‘sacred concert’⁷² on Sunday 10 December 1854. The idea was to give an organ concert, but at that time in an organ concert, there always had to be another performer as well, either a singer, instrumentalist or choir and at least one hymn (see Chapter 3.2). Since the latter part of the eighteenth century, the idea of miscellany, or mixed concerts, had been the norm in the whole of Europe, even in a sacred context (We-ber 2008, 1, 40–42). Accordingly, Lagi’s programme (see Table 2) also included two arias and a chorus. There was also an orchestra accompanying two organ pieces. Be-cause amateurs were not usually mentioned by name, only the accompaniment was mentioned in the programme and concert reviews. Most likely it was a twelve-mem-ber Ullanlinna Spa⁷³ Orchestra, composed of German musicians and assembled by Carl Gottlieb Ganszauge (1820–1868); Lagi gave several concerts with this amateur orchestra in 1853 and 1854 (Salmenhaara 1995, 340, 488).

72 Hengellinen soitelma in Finnish (Suometar 1 December 1854), Andlig Konsert in Swedish (Morgon-bladet 4 December 1854; Helsingfors Tidningar 6 and 9 December 1854; Finlands Allmänna Tidning 7, 8 and 9 December 1854).

73 Officially Ulriikaporin kylpylä- ja kaivohuoneyhtiö in Finnish and Ulrikasborgs bad- och brunnsinrätt-nings bolag in Swedish (see Tommila 1955).

Table 2. The programme of Rudolf Lagi’s Sacred Concert 10 December 1854 in Saint Nicholas’

Church in Helsinki, as reported by Lagi himself (Helsingfors Tidningar 6 and 9 December 1854; Fin-lands Allmänna Tidning 7, 8 and 9 December 1854; transl. by the author). The name of the ‘Music lover’ (Musikälskare in Swedish) mentioned in number 2 is not given, nor the name of Lagi’s pupil mentioned in number 3; neither by Lagi beforehand, nor by reviewers afterward. The melody of the chorale in number 3 was Vater unser in Himmelreich.

1. Concerto for organ with accompaniment by an orchestra, by G.F. Handel.

Allegro maestoso performed by the undersigned.

2. Bass aria from the oratorio St Paul by Mendelssohn, performed by a music lover.

3. Fantasy for organ on the chorale number 8 in the Old Swedish Hymnal, performed by the undersigned and one of his pupils.

4. Soprano solo from the oratorio St Paul, performed by miss In de Bétou.

5. Adagio and Finale from the abovementioned organ concerto by Handel, performed by the undersigned.

6. Chorus from the oratorio Christus by Mendelssohn, performed by a singing society.

7. Adagio for organ with accompaniment by an orchestra, by C.G. Höpner, performed by the undersigned.

After the concert, the music critic of the newspaper Finlands Allmänna Tidning, Fred-rik Berndtson (1820–1881), who used a pseudonym B., wrote that Mr Lagi had been mistaken about what a sacred concert meant (Finlands Allmänna Tidning 12 December 1854). A pseudonymous K.C. responded in the newspaper Morgonbladet (14 December 1854) and defended Lagi; behind the pseudonym was Karl Collan (1828–1871), who was a Finnish author and composer. Both of them then wrote one more response (Morgonbladet 18 and 21 December 1854).⁷⁴

74 Information about who were behind these pseudonyms is taken from Sarjala 1994, 257–258.

Berndtson’s starting point was spiritual and theological. He claimed that Lagi’s con-cert was ‘not sacred enough.’ However, it is noteworthy that his arguments did not emerge, for instance, from the lyrics of the songs performed, but were rather aes-thetic; Berndtson was indeed appointed Docent of Aesthetics in 1847 (Sarjala 1994, 257). Following the ideal of the church music according to the aesthetics of Roman-tic philosophy, he claimed that the music of Lagi’s choice should have been ‘purer’

and ‘simpler’ instead of ‘some refined, modern fantasies with consequent chromatic harmony and tone digressions.’⁷⁵ He added that the music was only ‘small chamber music’ that was inappropriate for a sacred concert (Finlands allmänna tidning 12 De-cember 1854).

There was also a related political aspect. According to Lagi’s announcement in the newspapers (see e.g. Helsingfors Tidningar 6 December 1854), the concert was open for working and serving classes as well. The distinction between them and the upper classes was expressed clearly, however; they were allowed to come to the side galler-ies of the church and their tickets were cheaper. Tickets had to be purchased from the caretaker of the church, whereas upper classes bought their tickets either from Beuermann’s music store or from the university.

The reason for inviting lower classes to the concert was to edify them and thus en-hance their morality by giving them an uplifting feeling of the sacred music. Accord-ing to Berndtson (Finlands allmänna tidnAccord-ing 12 December 1854), the concert failed here; in his view, Lagi did not pay enough attention to demands and perceptions of the public: ‘As they [the pieces of music] were now given, they had to make only a partial, poor impression.’⁷⁶ In Berndtson’s view, a too complicated repertoire may have been perceived and enjoyed only by about ten listeners among the thousand spectators.

75 ‘[N]ågra raffinerade, moderna fantasier med åtföljande kromatiska harmoni- och tonutvikning-ar.’ (Finlands allmänna tidning 12 December 1854.)

76 ‘Så som de nu gåfvos, måste de göra endast ett halft, armt intryck.’

What then should have been on the programme? Berndtson’s response was organ music:

Pure and uplifting organ music, the simple, magnificent, deeply gripping chorales; one should perform pieces that at one time correspond to the sacred, devout nature of the organ and the public’s mind for the magnifi-cently simple but warmly gripping.⁷⁷ (Finlands allmänna tidning 12 December 1854. Transl. by the author.)

In his response, Karl Collan wrote about the sacred nature of the organ as well. He also mentioned congregational singing:

Putting sound into an organ, making noise and storming so that the arches shake, is not a difficult art. To seek to reproduce simple, pure and artless compositions in a spirit similar to theirs as well as to skilfully accompany the singing, to utilise the organ’s resources that are rarely used during Di-vine Services and chorale singing, this is another, from the previous widely separated art.⁷⁸ (Morgonbladet 14 December 1854. Transl. by the author.) The concept of Genius was central to the Enlightenment philosophy, and in music, it often referred to a great composer or performer. Both of these aspects can also be found in the debate about Lagi’s concert. In his response, Collan used the great names of Georg Frideric Handel (1685–1759) and Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) to justify Lagi’s repertoire:

For more than a century, the former has been revered as the greatest ‘sa-cred’ composer. The latter, though closer to the taste of a newer age, has, however, at least in his ecclesiastical pieces, honoured its easy-going inter-ests. Is there a simpler, more magnificent, more noble and high music than

77 ‘[…] ren och upplyftande orgelmusik, den enkla, storartade, djupt gripande choralen, man bör exequera stycken, som på engång motsvara orgelns heliga, andaktsfulla karakter och allmänhetens sinne för det storartadt enkla, men varmt gripande.’

78 ‘Att sätta ljud i en orgel, att bullra och storma så att hvalfven skaka, är en konst, som ej är svår.

Att söka återgifva enkla, rena och flärdlösa kompositioner på ett deras anda motsvarande sätt, och att skickligt akkompagnera till sång, att anlita orgelns under sjelfva gudstjensten och vid koralsång sällan användbara ressurser, detta är en annan, från den förra vida skild konst.’

Handel’s organ concerto performed by Mr Lagi? And yet, there certainly are people who consider e.g. the solemn first Allegro as no better than a regular polka!⁷⁹ (Morgonbladet 14 December 1854; transl. by the author.) In addition, not only Handel and Mendelssohn but Collan also brought up Fredrik Pacius⁸⁰ (1809–1891), who was considered a major authority within Finnish musical life in that time:

Mr. Pacius, at one of the rehearsals for the concert, openly expressed his admiration for the magnificently simple and high spirit that Handel put into the organ concerto in question. – That Mr Lagi, with the support of this authority, did not for a moment hesitate to perform the piece at his concert, even if it could not be perceived by anyone, is just natural.⁸¹ (Mor-gonbladet 14 December 1854. Transl. by the author.)

The debaters also disputed the concept of an artist. According to Collan (Morgon-bladet 14 December 1854), to be an artist for the public composed of most diverse elements of society meant little in those days: ‘Nothing else is needed than what is also required to be a diligent reviewer; a good portion of charlatanry, and an equal amount of good courage. But being an artist for connoisseurs and lovers of the art,

“that is more”.’⁸² Berndtson disagreed. He asked why artists performed if not to be understood and enjoyed, to be fulfilled by a living feeling, an idea, to convey their joy to their fellow human beings, whether by using tones, speech, colours or pictures?

He continued that if an artist speaks to the audience in a language and in a way that

79 ‘Under mer än ett århundrade har den förre blifvit vördad såsom den störste ”andlige” kom-positör. Den sednare, om ock mera nära en nyare tids smak, har dock minst i sina kyrkliga stycken hyllat dennas lättfärdiga intressen. Finnes en mera enkel, mera storartad, mera ädel och hög musik, än Händels af Hr Lagi utförda orgelkonsert? Och dock, de finnas säkert, som anse t. ex. det högtidliga första Allegrot för ej bättre än en vanlig polka!’

80 It is worth mentioning that Collan got married to Fredrik Pacius’s daughter Maria Margareta (1845–1919) in 1866 (Collan-Beaurain 1921, 260–264).

81 ‘Hr Pacius, vid en af repetitionerna till konserten öppet uttalade sin beundran för den storartadt enkla och höga anda, som Händel inlagt i den ifrågavarande orgelkonserten. – Att Hr Lagi med stöd af denna auktoritet icke ett ögonblick tvekat att uppföra stycket vid sin konsert, om det ock icke af en hvar skulle kunna uppfattas, faller af sig sjelft.’

82 ‘Dertill behöfs intet annat, än ungefär hvad som erfordras till att vara en dråplig recensent: en god portion charlataneri, och ett lika stort qvantum godt kurage. Men att vara en konstnär för kän-nare och älskare af konsten, “det är mera.” ’

is neither understood nor enjoyed, everyone would think he or she has failed. This leads back to simplicity; according to Berndtson, an artist should provide the kind of music that is perceived and enjoyed by every ear, even the least educated, to make every human heart beat, and for whose perception no musical-aesthetic studies are needed. The great masters have also composed such music, Berndtson continues, and one should invite the public into ‘the House of the Lord’ to listen to that kind of music (Morgonbladet 18 December 1854).

This short debate shows that both philosophical, theological and political arguments were used in the discussion of the role of church music in nineteenth-century Fin-land. Thoughts and ideas behind the discussion were not named directly, but the choice of words shows their effect.

2.5 Conclusion

The standardisation of congregational singing and liturgical melodies in nine-teenth-century Finland and Ingria did not take place in an ideological vacuum. Many philosophical, theological and political ideas underpinned it, and all of them were transnational.

The aesthetic ideas of Romantic philosophy spread to Finland both directly from Germany and through Sweden. The key concepts were ‘edification’ and ‘elevation of mind.’ As for congregational singing, these thoughts contributed to the desire to get rid of the local chorale variants and replace them with unified and standardised chorales. J.C.F. Hæffner’s homophonic and even-note versions of the chorales came into general use in Finland, especially through Anders Nordlund’s Chorale Book, which also spread to Ingria. In addition to Hæffner, there were direct connections to Germany as well. Many Finnish musicians studied there, and several German musi-cians moved to Finland; from a perspective of congregational singing, the most im-portant one was Richard Faltin. German teaching material, such as organ methods, also dominated in the churchwarden-organist schools in Finland and the Kolppana Seminary in Ingria. Many of these books were available in Finnish music stores as well, some of them also as Swedish translations.

From a theological point of view, the 1693 Swedish Agenda and the 1701 Finnish Hymnal, both of which were still in use in Finland and Ingria at the beginning of the nineteenth century, represented Lutheran Orthodoxy. The ideas of Enlightenment theology, i.e. Neology and Rationalism, spread in Sweden, Finland and Russia in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; yet in Finland, their tangible impact remained small, as, despite attempts, a new handbook and hymnal could not be pub-lished. Influences nevertheless came from both West and East; the 1811 Swedish Handbook was taken into use in some parishes and the 1808 Hamina Agenda, based on the 1805 Imperial Liturgical Directives was used for a short time in Old Finland.

Through the transnational connections to Germany, Beckian Biblicism was a major theological trend in Finland in the second half of the century, but it did not have much impact on congregational singing. Partly due to its dominance, however, new spiritual songs of Pietism-based movements were not included in the 1886 Hym-nals. However, Pietism influenced congregational singing strongly because singing together played a central role in these movements’ gatherings and in many homes, which strengthened singing in the churches as well.

The 1832 Russian Imperial Agenda brought the Prussian ideas of the liturgy that were introduced in three 1820s Agendas. From a point of view of church music, the greatest change was that most of the sung parts of the liturgy were supposed to be sung in four parts by a choir; the congregation sang only the hymns. In prac-tice, however, the change was not so great because there usually were no choirs, as a result of which the congregation sang the liturgical parts as well. The Imperial Agenda was in use in Ingria and spread also to south-eastern Finland; there it had a remarkable impact, especially on experiments with four-part congregational singing.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Neo-Lutheranism rose to oppose Enlightenment theology and Pietism. For liturgy, the most influential group of theologians was the Erlanger School whose effects flowed to Finland and Ingria through transnational connections. The Swedish theologian U.L. Ullman brought these thoughts to Sweden, and his writings were also well-known and much-cited in Finland. The 1886 new Finnish Handbook was thus clearly neo-Lutheran. In Ingria, the impact was even more direct because one of the theologians of the Erlanger School, Theodosius Harnack, was working at the University of Dorpat. His

litur-gical thoughts were widely adopted at first in Livonia and then in other consistorial districts. After publishing many consistorial agendas and instructions, finally, the new Imperial Agenda was taken into use in 1897.

Societal and political changes had an impact on congregational singing as well. At first, standardising it was mostly the clergy’s task because they had an authority that was based on the Luther’s Small Catechism. Towards the end of the century, these attempts changed to be more a voluntary-based lay project, in which primary school teachers and churchwardens were more active.

From a perspective of nationalist thinking, it depends on the angle of whether the attempts to standardise congregational singing in nineteenth-century Finland and Ingria can be considered as a local or transnational phenomenon. There were local nationalist premises and goals, but the processes did not differ significantly from those in other European countries. Both Finnish and Ingrian-Finnish national movements had their own unique features, but they were part of a much wider flow in the whole of Europe. Ultimately, although nationalism always appeared in the nineteenth century in a local context, the phenomenon itself was transnational.