the collections of early music in swedish libraries

The Collections of Early Music in Swedish LibrariesAuthor(s): Åke DavidssonSource: Fontes Artis Musicae, Vol. 33, No. 2 (April-Juni 1986), pp. 135-145Published by: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres(IAML)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23507191 .

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135

The Collections of Early Music in Swedish Libraries1 Âke Davidsson (Uppsala)*

The music collections of the Swedish libraries and their contents are by now rather well

khown abroad. Robert Eitner2 was the first to introduce a great many of the prints and

manuscripts that are to be found in different parts of Sweden, and after him several Swedish

as well as foreign scholars have thrown new light upon the musical treasures of Sweden.3 But

even if the contents of the collections have been known for a long time, the history of their

origin is probably known by a few only. Most of the collections have not originally been

created within the libraries where they are now kept; they often have a long history before

that, which sometimes involves countries outside Sweden. The aim of the present article is to

give a short presentation of the origin of some of the most important collections of older

music. This introduction will, I hope, give some idea of the cultural background of these

collections.

To begin with, I should like to draw the reader's attention to the medieval collections that

contain material for music research.4 Uppsala University Library is particularly well

furnished in this respect. The reason for this is that King Gustavus Adolphus, having laid the

foundations of the University Library with a donation in 1620, presented to the library

among other things the remains of the medieval libraries that had previously been

confiscated from the monasteries.5 Most of the Latin manuscripts thus came to the

University Library of Uppsala, for instance about 20 codices from Vadstena, containing the

Brigittine weekly service, Cantus Sororum. These manuscripts show that the Vadstena

Abbey was a centre of sacred music during the latter part of the Middle Ages. The rest of the

manuscripts that have been preserved are mainly hymnals, breviaries, antiphonals and

psalters. The Royal Library in Stockholm also possesses manuscripts of this kind. Important

sources of the history of the hymns and the sequences are also to be found in the Royal

Exchequer Archives (Kammararkivet) in the National Archives in Stockholm. Here many

of the older accounts are bound together in parchment-covered volumes. Most of the

parchment used for this purpose was taken from manuscripts of various kinds, among other

things liturgical, removed from the libraries of the ecclesiastical institutions during the

Swedish Reformation.

During the campaigns of Gustavus Adolphus in Livonia and Poland and during the Thirty

Years' War, the Swedish armies, following the custom of that time, brought back from the

* Àke Davidsson is a former director of the Manuscripts Department, Uppsala University Library, and the doyen of

Swedish music bibliographers. 1 This article is an enlarged version of a public lecture delivered in August 1962, in Uppsala, at the Sixth IAML

Congress. It was originally published in Nordisk tidskrift för bok- och biblioteksväsen 49 (1962), and is reprinted here

by permission with minor revisions. 2 R. Eitner, Biographisch-bibliographisches Quellen-Lexikon der Musiker und Musikgelehrten 1-10 (Leipzig 1900-04). 3 Printed music and books of musical theory published before the year 1701 are listed in the following works:

R. Mitjana & À. Davidsson, Catalogue critique et descriptif des imprimés de musique des 16' et 17e siècles conservés à la

Bibliothèque de l'Université Royale d'Upsala 1-3 (Upsala 1911-51); À. Davidsson, Catalogue critique et descriptif des

imprimés de musique des 16e et 1T siècles conservés dans les bibliothèques suédoises (excepté la Bibliothèque de

l'Université Royale d'Upsala) (Upsala 1952); Â. Davidsson, Catalogue critique et descriptif des ouvrages théoriques sur

la musique imprimés au 16' et au 17 siècles conservés dans les bibliothèques suédoises (Upsala 1953). See also

Â. Davidsson, Musikbibliographische Beiträge (Uppsala 1954), p. 7-59 (Einige musikalische Seltenheiten in den

schwedischen Bibliotheken). 18th-century books on music are listed in the following articles: Â. Davidsson, Utländsk

musiklitteratur frân 1700-talet i svenska bibliotek, in: Svensk tidskrift för musikforskning 35 (1953), p. 117-130;

Utländsk musiklitteratur frân 1700-talet i svenska bibliotek. Tillägg, rättelser och supplement, ibidem 38 (1956),

p. 153-155. 4 C.-A. Moberg, Die liturgischen Hymnen in Schweden 1 (Kopenhagen 1947), p. 65ff. 5 C. Annerstedt, Upsala universitetsbiblioteks historia intill âr 1701 (Stockholm 1894), p. 6ff. and 79f.



136 Âke Davidsson: The Collections of Early Music in Swedish Libraries

Continent a great amount of war booty.6 In this way, the University of Uppsala, as well as

other institutions, received large collections of manuscripts and books, taken during the

campaigns, victorious for the Swedes, in the Baltic states, Poland and Germany.7 From

Riga, Frauenburg, and Würzburg they did not obtain so much music, but from Riga, at

least, came some music manuscripts in tablature, which were taken in 1621 from the Jesuit

College of the city. In the summer of 1626 the Jesuit College in Braunsberg in Ermland, Eastern Prussia, was visited by the Swedish army, and 29 volumes of music, containing 43

different works, were taken. These volumes often contain detailed notes about previous owners who presented the Braunsberg College with music works. One of them is Bishop Eckard von Kempen, who in 1567 donated two large volumes containing 17 masses by French composers, printed in Paris during the 1550s by Adrien Le Roy and Robert Ballard.

The Braunsberg library also had to give up volumes of sacred music by Gallus Dressler, Leonhard Paminger, Teodoro Ricci, Ivo de Vento, and others, and also antiphonals and

graduais. In the middle of December, 1631, Gustavus Adolphus, having marched into Mainz and

settled down at the castle St. Martinsburg, ordered his court chaplain and his physician to

confiscate the public and private libraries of the city on behalf of the Swedish Crown.8 They should "alle die Bibliothecen undt privat Büchern, so im Schlosse undt in den verlauffenen

Collegijs, Schulen, Clöstern oder sonsten in den verlauffenen Häusern zu Mäintz gefunden werden Unsert wegen und zu der Chron Schweden besten durch Ihnen undt Ihre dazu

gezogenen adsistenten arrestieren".9 About 130 music volumes kept in Uppsala may be

regarded as acquisitions from Mainz. Most of these volumes are composite volumes, which

increases the number of the separate works. In all, the part-books consist of about 165 works

by a great number of composers. The Mainz collection in Uppsala may be traced back to two main sources: about 50

volumes have ex-libris or inscriptions showing that they belonged to the Sovereign Bishop Johann Schweickhardt von Cronberg, while the rest of them belonged in turn to the three

deputy canons at Mainz, Franz Schilling, Sebastian Stoltz, and Thomas Schmidt.10 In the

works that belonged to the canons there are often annotations on the title pages or some

other place. Besides indications of the parts, one often finds dates on the covers of the beautiful volumes, indicating the different years of acquisition. Schilling's volumes bear his

signature, the device Velis quod poles and the dates, between 1562 and 1581. About 1590, his books passed to Sebastian Stoltz. Some of the volumes have the inscription "Sum Sebastiani

Stoltz ex legato Domini Francisci Schillingij". The last owner of these volumes, and about 12 music works acquired by Stoltz himself, was Thomas Schmidt from Erfurt, who was deputy canon at Mainz at the beginning of the 17th century. After the death of Schmidt in 1611 his

library came into the possession of the Sovereign Bishop. When we examine the music of the

deputy canons, we find that Schilling had bought newly published music, probably at the book fairs in Frankfurt or in Leipzig. He bought a series of collections containing cantiones sacrae and also works by Clemens non Papa, Heinrich Isaac, Orlando di Lasso, Dressier, Leonhard Lechner, Jakob Meiland and others. Meiland and Schilling were personal friends. This may be seen from Meiland's Neuwe ausserlesene teutsche Gesäng (1575) which by permission of the composer the printer Georg Rabe dedicated to Schilling, "ein sonderlicher Liebhaber der edlen Musica".11 Stoltz added to the library works printed during 1588-1595,

6 O. Walde, Storhetstidens krigsbyten 1-2 (Uppsala 1916-20). 7 I. Collijn, Notices sur la provenance des imprimés de musique à Upsala, in: Mitjana & Davidsson, op., cit. 1, p. i ff. 8 Collijn, op. cit. ; G. Binz, Literarische Kriegsbeute aus Mainz in schwedischen Bibliotheken, in: Mainzer Zeitschrift

12-13 (1917/18), p. 157ff. 9

Walde, op. cit. 1, p. 140. 10

Collijn, op. cit., p. ijff. 11 R. Oppel, Jacob Meiland 1542-1577 (Diss. München 1911), p. 27.



À ke Davidsson: The Collections of Early Music in Swedish Libraries 137

so that the third of these deputy canons took over a very extensive music library.12 He

probably bought some of it from Schilling, as evidenced by a note in a work by Lechner. He

also procured new works by Lasso, Johann Eccard, Antonio Scandello, Ivo de Vento, Alexander Utendal, and others.

The Elector and Bishop Johann Schweickhardt had travelled much and had studied at

many universities in France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy. He was very interested in

music and he also had an orchestra at his court.13 Nearly all the 50 music volumes from his

library are recognized by their characteristic bindings, most of which are decorated with his

super-ex-libris.14 On the title pages of some of his volumes there are annotations of

ownership, e. g. "Ex libris Illustrissimi et Reverendissimi Domini, Domini Joannis Suicardi

Archiepiscopi Moguntini Principis Electoris". This material is almost exclusively vocal

music, both sacred and secular. The Italian music dominates but there are also several works

by German, French, Dutch, and Spanish composers. Among the Italian composers are Luca

Marenzio, Mattia Ferrabosco, Claudio Merulo, Asprilio Pacelli, and Tiburtio Massaino, and

among the German Hans Leo Hasler, Meiland, Gregor Aichinger, and Melchior Franck.

Even after the Thirty Years' War the Swedes took music works as booty of war on the

Continent, for instance in Poland.

All the music collections mentioned above that have come into Swedish possession as war

booty are to be found in the University Library of Uppsala. Other Swedish libraries do not

seem to have received any music in this way. The reason for this is that King Gustavus

Adolphus wanted to bring valuable research literature to Uppsala by giving the literary war

booty to the University, which was badly equipped. This music was for a long time a dead

part of the library stock, but it now forms an internationally known part of the collections of

the library. This music collection can also tell us something about the musical life in, say,

Mainz, and what kind of music was used in the Jesuit Colleges in Riga and Braunsberg. With regard to music, the 1660s are an important period in the history of the University of

Uppsala. In 1662, Olaus Rudbeck, who was professor of botany and anatomy and discoverer

of the lymphatic system, became inspector of music at the University. For this versatile

scholar was also a musician and a composer, and he actually took the initiative in creating an

academic orchestra, which he also supplied with instruments and music. He played a

dominating part in the musical life of Uppsala during the latter part of the 17th century.15 From what has been said we gather that there must have been a very extensive music library at the University at that time, mostly, however, sacred vocal music. We do not know

whether Rudbeck was interested in the music works that were to be found in the library of

the University. If that was the case, he must have found them most oldfashioned. What

Rudbeck needed for the musical training of the students was not a cappella compositions for

5, 6, 8 or more parts but sacred concerts and instrumental music for dancing. And it is

precisely these two categories of music that we find in the works preserved from the time of

Rudbeck. His rational way of solving the problem of the repertoire was to buy new music to

the University, music by composers from the German cultural sphere. Even if all this music

may not have been preserved to our days, we still know exactly what he bought and even

how much he paid for it. The account-books of the University show that during 1662-1663,

Rudbeck bought 37 works and during the following decades 15 works. Most of them are

sacred concerts in the style of Michael Praetorius. I cannot enumerate all the composers, but

by naming J. R. Ahle, Georg Arnold, Chr. Bernhard, W. C. Briegel, S. Capricornus,

Hammerschmidt, J. E. Kindermann, A. Pfleger, J. Rosenmüller, and T. Zeutschner I think

12 A. Gottron, Mainzer Musikgeschichte von 1500 bis 1800 (Mainz 1959), p. 37f. 13 Cf. the dedication from the editor to Schweickhardt in: Agostino Bendinelli's Sacrae cantiones 1 (Frankfurt 1604). 14

Mitjana & Davidsson, op. cit. 1; I. Collijn, Det kurfurstliga biblioteketi Mainz, in: Svensk exlibris-tidskrift 1 (1911), p. 25-31, 57-64. 15 C.-A. Moberg, Olof Rudbeck d. ä. och musiken, in: Rudbecksstudier (1930), p. 176ff.



138 Ake Davidsson: The Collections of Early Music in Swedish Libraries

I have mentioned the most representative ones. Strange to say, no work by Heinrich Schütz

is to be found in the collection. The sacred concerts of these composers were intended to be

performed by the students in the Cathedral on the great festival days. In the part-books, Swedish texts have been entered in ink, which indicates that the music was really in use. As

to instrumental music, Rudbeck bought dance suites by German composers like Ph. F.

Buchner, W. Fabricius, L. Knoep, J. J. Löwe, J. Pezelius, W. E. Rothe, J. H. Schmelzer

and J. C. Seyfrid, and this music was probably used not only at the student parties but also as

music performed during dinners and dances at various festivals at Uppsala Castle. Of the 52

works bought by Rudbeck for the University, only 30 have been preserved in the University

Library. The remaining twenty-two were apparently lost in Rudbeck's lifetime. (He died in

1702.) He kept many of these works in his home, and some of them were probably too freely lent to the students. The archival information and the preserved part-books tell us, however, about the academic musical life in a Swedish university town during the last decades of the

17th century.16 The well-known Düben Collection has been used more than any other part of the music

collection of the University Library of Uppsala. As is generally known, the collection

consists of the music manuscripts of the Düben family together with those of the Swedish

Royal Orchestra.17 Many of the members of the family were Kapellmeisters of the Royal Orchestra and also organists at the German Church in Stockholm, which at that time had a

prominent position in the musical life of the Swedish capital. The collection contains about

1500 vocal and some 300 instrumental works by a great number of composers. It has passed from father to son and it has been continuously enlarged. The first beginning that we can

prove is a practice book with pieces of music by 16th-century composers set in German

organ tablature for the young Gustav Düben by his teacher.18 The collection was presented to the University in 1732 by Baron Anders von Düben, Master of the Royal Household.

It has been pointed out by Moberg that the names of the composers in the Düben

Collection indicate the musical relations of the Swedish conductor of the Royal Orchestra, Gustav Düben sen., and indirectly also the route of his journeys. Düben visited, among other places, Danzig, Lübeck and Hamburg. During his journey he seems to have written

the five tablature books, Motetti et concerti, in which he copied a very large amount of

contemporary composers in organ tablature. The books are written during the years 1663-1667. There are also separate parts to the compositions in these volumes. Danzig is

represented by about 70 works by Caspar Förster sen. and jun., and by compositions by Crato Bütner, Balthasar Erben, and Valentin Meder. Düben had close connections with

Lübeck, which may be seen from 17 works by Franz Tunder. The Hamburg group of

composers is very well represented. Düben's tablature books were written at the time when

Matthias Weckmann's famous Collegium Musicum was at its height. Among these

composers are Christoph Bernhard and Christian Geist (about 60 works, half of which are

autographs). In Hamburg, Düben probably also got to know the works of Italian composers, as shown by the fact that there are compositions by Giacomo Carissimi, Giovanni Rovetta, and Giuseppe Peranda.

16 Concerning the acquisition of music in the 17th century see further Â. Davidsson, Kring Uppsala-akademiens

förvärv av musikalier pâ 1600-talet, in: Nordisk tidskrift för bok- och biblioteksväsen 56 (1969), p.66-107. 17 C.-A. Moberg, Frân kyrko- och hovmusik till offentlig konsert (Uppsala & Leipzig 1942), p. 50ff. ; T. Norlind, Frân Tyska kyrkans glansdagar 3 (Stockholm 1945), p. 114ff. ; B. Grusnick, Die Dübensammlung: ein Versuch ihrer chronologischen Ordnung, in: Svensk tidskrift för musikforskning 46 (1964), p. 27-82, 48 (1966), p. 63-186; F. Krummacher, Die Überlieferung der Choralbearbeitungen in der frühen evangelischen Kantate (Berlin 1965); E. Kjellberg, Instrumentalmusiken i Dübensamiingen, mimeogr. (Uppsala 1968); À. Davidsson, Die Dübensammlung in der Musikforschung, in: Festschrift für Bruno Grusnick (Neuhausen-Stuttgart 1981), p. 42-50. 18 T. Norlind, Frân Tyska kyrkans glansdagar 2 (Stockholm 1944), p. 150ff. ; cf. also B. Kyhlberg, När föddes Gustav Düben d. ä.?, in: Svensk tidskrift för musikforskning 56/1 (1974), p. 14, n. 41.



Àke Davidsson: The Collections of Early Music in Swedish Libraries 139

Other composers in the Düben Collection are W. C. Briegel (about 40 works, most of

them copies of his printed works), Samuel Capricornus (more than 60 works), J. M. Gletle, J. H. Schmelzer, and some hundred compositions by Augustin Pfleger. There are nearly

twenty compositions by Christian Ritter, who was a member of the Swedish Royal Orchestra. The Christmas Oratorio by Schütz, which was rediscovered by Arnold Schering in 1908, is well known.19

The most valuable part of the Düben Collection is about 100 works by Dietrich

Buxtehude which have long been of special interest to music historians.20 We do not find any work by Buxtehude in the tablature books just mentioned, so it was only after his return that

Düben got into touch with Buxtehude - probably as late as the 1670s. But then the

correspondence was lively, which may be seen from the great number of preserved works by Buxtehude and from the fact that many of them are autographs and in some cases dedicated

to Düben. From a scholarly point of view the Buxtehude manuscripts have a great value, as

evidenced by the fact that of these 98 works only 15 are to be found in other libraries as

well.21

It is also worth mentioning that the Düben Collection contains a great number of works -

operas and ballets - by French composers, headed by Jean Baptiste Lully.22 Fie is

represented by 7 operas. Then there are operas and ballets by his pupils Pascal Colasse and

Marin Marais and by Lully's followers Desmarets, Michel de Labarre, André Cardinal

Destouches, André Campra and others. Anders von Düben acquired these works during his

first period as conductor of the Royal Orchestra. One of the reasons for this was that a

French opera troupe under the leadership of the actor Rosidor was engaged in 1699, and his

repertoire is reflected in these works by the French opera school that bears Lully's name. In

all, there are 32 works by 16 composers. Some of these works were actually used, as the

music contains marginal notes made by members of the orchestra.

Anders von Düben supplied Uppsala University with material for a great deal of the

repertoire used at the service of the German Church during the 17th century, but much of it

remained in the Church for about 150 years, i. e. the printed music from the 16th and 17th

centuries.23 It was only in 1874 that this rich and valuable collection was presented to the

library of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. Previously, the time before 1700 had been

badly represented in this library. The collection of printed music of the German Church,

which also contains a few manuscripts, gives a picture of what was sung and played in the

German community and in the school that was connected with the Church. The German St.

Gertrude's Church was regarded as an excellent music school during the 17th century. The

contents of the collection vary: Lutheran hymns printed by the specially appointed music

printer of the Reformed, Georg Rhaw in Wittenberg, hymns and motets to German and

Latin texts, masses and magnificats. There is also a series of collections published by A.

Profius (Leipzig), F. Lindner (Nürnberg), E. Bodenschatz (Leipzig), and by music printers in Antwerpen, Louvain and Strasbourg. Among individual composers, Orlando di Lasso is

particularly well represented. There are also part-books containing secular music, love songs

and drinking songs from the 16th century or pastoral songs from the beginning of the 17th

century. Among the composers in this genre are Lasso, Scandello, Lechner, Utendal, Chr.

19 A. Schering, Ein wiederaufgefundenes Werk von Heinrich Schütz, in: Zeitschrift der Internationalen Musik

Gesellschaft 10 (1908/09), p. 68-80. 20 C. Stiehl, Die Familie Düben und die Buxtehude'sehen Manuscripte auf der Bibliothek zu Upsala, in: Monatshefte für

Musikgeschichte 21 (1889), p. 2-9; S. S0rensen, Diderich Buxtehudes vokale kirkemusik (Diss. Kopenhagen 1958),

p. 17-20; D. Kilian, Das Vokalwerk Dietrich Buxtehudes (Diss. Berlin 1956), p. 146-202; M. Geck, Die Vokalmusik

Dietrich Buxtehudes und der frühe Pietismus (Kassel 1965). 21 Kilian, op. cit., p. 146. 22 C.-A. Moberg, Lully-skolan i Uppsala universitetsbiblioteks handskriftsamlingar, in: Svensk tidskrift för musik

forskning 7 (1925), p. 64-82 and 113-135; ejusdem, Frän kyrko- och hovmusik tili offentlig konsert, p. 43ff. 23 T. Norlind, Frân Tyska kyrkans glansdagar 1 (Stockholm 1944), p. 38ff. and 80ff., 3, p. 123ff.



140 Âke Davidsson: The Collections of Early Music in Swedish Libraries

Demantius, Melchior Franck and J. H. Schein. The music library of the German Church

comprises altogether about 125 works in printed part-books from the years 1537-1680.

The fact that many cathedral school libraries possessed interesting and valuable works

from a scholarly point of view was shown by T. Norlind as early as 1908.24 Such libraries are

those of Kalmar, Karlstad, Örebro, Skara, Strängnäs, Västeräs, and Växjö. These

collections are uniform, both from the point of view of contents and date of acquisition, at

least as regards the older parts. One can see that the schools were closely connected with the

church during the 17th century and earlier, even if secular music is to be found as well.

Schoolboys were entrusted with the choral singing in those cities which had a cathedral

school. Music education had a high reputation in these cities, as evidenced by the music

collections that are still preserved in the Swedish cathedral cities.25 The composers

represented in these collections are above all Lasso, Meiland, Melchior Franck, Daniel

Friederici, Ph. Dulichius, and Hammerschmidt. There are also some other collections such

as Florilegium portense by Bodenschatz. During the 18th century, the teaching of music in

the schools turned to other fields than that of church music.26 This new repertoire is very well represented in the collections used at the schools of Skara and Västeräs. At the

beginning of the 19th century there was in Skara a valuable collection of about 800 items of

mainly instrumental music, and a similar library was built up in Västeräs.27 The school in the

latter city acquired the first music books as early as the 1560s, works a cappella for 4-8 parts

by Lasso, Meiland, and Handl (Gallus). At the beginning of the 17th century, works by Dressier and Hassler were bought, to be followed somewhat later by large and important collections of works by Michael and Hieronymus Praetorius. There are also many works by Samuel Scheidt, Hammerschmidt, Briegel, Capricornus, and Vierdanck with Swedish texts

entered in the part-books. The school also acquired manuscripts containing works for 5-8

parts.28 The collections in Västeräs, Skara and Växjö are kept in the County Libraries of

these cities.29

But music was not only collected in the schools. Some of the wealthy families living in

castles and manor-houses acquired various kinds of music during the 17th century and later.

Louis De Geer came to Sweden from Amsterdam in 1627, a man who was to be of great

importance to the economic life of Sweden. He settled down at Finspäng Manor in the

province of Östergötland, where he and his son gradually created a library, which also

contained some music. This collection was dominated by the interests of its owners. De Geer

sen. was a Calvinist. He tried to recruit followers and arranged services in his house at

Norrköping. This is evidenced by the fact that there are compositions to the Psalter written

by Claudin Lejeune and others, works like Kruis Gezangen and other sacred songs in the

Dutch language. The secular music shows a remarkable French tendency. There are, for

instance, several French chansons and airs à boire edited by J. B. D. de Bossuet, J. Boy er, F. de Chancy, N. Duchastelet, D. Macé, G. Michel, L. Mollier, and A. de Rosiers, guitar music by R. Médard in addition to works by Jean de Castro and J. P. Sweelinck.30 A series

of manuscripts in the Finspäng collection contain dances and French and English lute songs which were in vogue during the first part of the 17th century. As in the case of the two oldest

24 T. Norlind, Vor 1700 gedruckte Musikalien in den schwedischen Bibliotheken, in: Sammelbände der Internationalen Musik-Gesellschaft 9 (1907/08), p. 201-206. 25 C.-A. Moberg, Fràn kyrko- och hovmusik tili offentlig konsert, p. 18ff. 26 See S. Walin, Musiken vidskolorna i Sverige under upplysnings-tidevarvet, in: Svensk tidskriftför musikforskning 20 (1938), p. 67ff. 27 N. Beckman, Vârskolas historia 1 (Göteborg 1926), p. 305-327; T. Norlind, Musiken i Västeräs under 1600-talet, in: Kult och konst (1907), p. 97-110; G. Kallstenius, Musiken vid allmänna läroverket i Västeräs före 1850, in: Camenae Arosienses, (Västeräs 1923), p. 183-208. 28 W. Molér, Förteckning över musikalier i Västeräs högre allmänna läroverks bibliotek t. o. m. 1850 (Västeräs 1917). 29 Cf. the article Libraries, in: The New Grove. 30 T. Norlind, Frân Tyska kyrkans glansdagar 2, p. 102f. and 106.



Ake Davidsson: The Collections of Early Music in Swedish Libraries 141

generations, younger members of the De Geer family also acquired music. The collection

may give us an idea of the music performed at a castle in Sweden during the 17th century. The whole library of Finspâng Manor31 was bought in 1904 by the town of Norrköping and is

now available at the Public Library of Norrköping. In the middle of the 18th century there lived in Stockholm a prominent merchant by the

name of Jean Henri Le Febure who was a descendant of the Huguenots. In 1758 a young member of his family was going to be sent on the customary grand tour abroad. Young Jean

Le Febure got as his mentor an astronomer called Bengt Fermer, and these two Swedes

travelled together through Germany, Holland, England, France, and Italy. Their main

intention was, of course, to study science, industry and trade, but Fermer was also a great lover of music and the theatre. And his young ward shared his musical and dramatic

interests. It appears from a detailed diary32 that Le Febure and Fermer visited opera and

theatre performances or concerts nearly every day and often became acquainted with the

artists, not to mention the prima donnas of the opera troupes. They listened to Handel's

oratorio Judas Maccabaeus and The Beggar's Opera in London. At Christmas 1760 they attended a concert spirituel at the Tuileries with the famous violinist Pierre Gaviniès and

admired the organ-playing at Notre Dame in Paris. Sometimes they also hired musicians for

private music soirées.

To us, their visit to Italy is the most interesting, although the part of the diary that

described this has been lost. They had already got to know Italian opera and other Italian

music in London. During the rest of their journey they were able to hear opera

performances in Venice, Rome, Naples, Padova, Lucca and other cities. But Le Febure did

not only listen to the various operas. He also acquired overtures and operatic airs from some

of them, music that was available in the different cities through copyists. In this way, the

young traveller managed to create an extensive music library which was also to contain a

large amount of instrumental music of various kinds. All this - about 360 items in manuscript - was sent home by him to Sweden in the 1760s together with a thematic catalogue of the

collection. A great many marginal notes give us some information about the two men's visit

to Italy that would otherwise have been supplied by the lost diary. We learn, for instance, when and where a particular opera was performed and sometimes the name of some prima donna. But we may never know from what operas all these arias and overtures are taken.

In 1764 the father of young Jean Le Febure acquired Gimo Manor and here the music

collection was kept until the library and the other collections of the castle were sold in 1935.

This is the reason why this collection of Italian music is called the Gimo Collection. The

collection is now in the University Library of Uppsala, bequeathed in 1951 by Dr. Gustaf

Brun, one of the great benefactors of the library. What are the contents of this collection? It

is dominated by the Neapolitan opera schools. In all, there are works by about 90 Italian

composers. Among them are Emmanuele Barbella, Carlo Antonio Campioni (23 works of

chamber music), Gaetano Chiabrano (12 chamber sonatas for violoncello), Baldassare

Galuppi (many arias and chamber music works and also the oratorio La caduta di Adamo), Nicolô Jommelli, G. B. Lampugnani, Chr. G. Lidarti, Giuseppe Millico, Lorenzo Minuti,

David Perez, Nicolô Piccini, G. A. Sabatini (18 chamber sonatas), Mattia Vento (10 chamber music works), Francesco Zannetti (no less than 26 chamber music works). Also

Joh. Chr. Bach and J. A. Hasse are represented by a number of compositions.33

During the latter part of the 18th century, the musical life of Sweden flourished especially

among the nobility and the upper middle classes. People met at private concerts, where

31 See B. Lundstedt, Katalog öfver Finspongs bibliotek (Stockholm 1883). 32 B. Ferrner, Resa i Europa . . . 1758-1762. Pâ uppdrag av Lärdomshistoriska samfundet utg. med inledning och

register av S. G. Lindberg (Uppsala 1956), see p. LXXIII-LXXXII. 33 See Â. Davidsson, Catalogue of the Gimo Collection of Italian manuscript music in the University Library of Uppsala (Uppsala 1963).



142 Àke Davidsson: The Collections of Early Music in Swedish Libraries

proficient amateurs played together with musicians hired from the Royal Orchestra or

elsewhere. The 18th century saw the creation of many private libraries brought together at

the country estates of rich aristocrats. Many distinguished amateurs also possessed large music collections, among other things symphonies and chamber music. These collections

later on passed to libraries open to the public. This applies to Baron Patrik Alströmer, an

industrialist, a patron of art and a remarkable violinist. He kept up a large correspondence with composers and musicians and used to gather musicians and music lovers around him.

With these and with his three brothers he played at private and public concerts in Stockholm

and Gothenburg.34 He was also one of the founders of the Royal Swedish Academy of

Music. We find a great deal of information about the musical activity of Alströmer and his

family in the Alströmer collection of letters at the University Library of Uppsala. Thus we

know that Alströmer acquired his music in different ways: partly on his own journeys, to

Russia, for instance, and partly from his brothers, who sent home music and instruments

from their journeys in England and on the Continent. But he also bought music which he

found in the catalogues of foreign publishers and music dealers, for instance Hummel in

Amsterdam and Westphal in Hamburg as well as the Swedish music printer Henric Fougt, who was active in London. He also received some music from composers who were his

acquaintances. As early as 1772, Alströmer presented to the Academy of Music, founded a

year earlier, 26 volumes of literature on music and 9 "opera books". But very little was

known about the rest of his library before 1948, when, in an attic in Östad manor-house in

the province of Västergötland, a collection of 18th century music was found. This collection

of vocal and instrumental music actually turned out to be one brought together by Alströmer

and his family.35 The collection which contained about 230 printed works as well as

manuscripts occupying two metres of shelving, was deposited in 1949 in the library of the

Academy of Music. The Alströmer Collection is one of the best and largest private collections of 18th century music in Sweden. On the whole the collection reflects the musical

taste of the Alströmer family as well as that of their Swedish contemporaries. The contents

of the collection show that they preferred Italian music and the composers of the Mannheim

School, but they also had some interest in English music.

There are many other castles and manors where collections of music are to be found.36 I will deal with only one of them here, the one in Näs manorhouse in the province of Uppland. Here, Fredrik Samuel Silverstolpe lived from 1812. He was chargé d'affaires for Sweden in

Vienna 1796-1802. In Vienna, this Swedish nobleman and diplomat mixed in music circles

and he also got to know many composers.37 He was more or less closely acquainted with

Haydn, Beethoven, Salieri, Albrechtsberger, Hummel, Mayseder, Neukomm, and others.

He often met Constanze Mozart38 and played à quatre mains with her. Most of the music

that he collected is kept at Näs Castle. The Näs Collection, containing works by about 150

composers, does not, however, comprise all the music he had collected. Part of it was

presented to the University Library of Uppsala in 1852 after his death, and the donation

34 S. Walin, Beiträge zur Geschichte der schwedischen Sinfonik (Diss. Uppsala 1941), p. 168f. 35 Cari Johansson, Studier kring Patrik Alströmers musiksamling, in: Svensk tidskrift för musikforskning 43 (1961), p. 195-207. 36 See for instance A. Dunning, Die De Geer'sehen Musikalien in Leufsta, in: Svensk tidskrift för musikforskning 48 (1966), p. 187-210. From 1985, this important collection of 18th-century printed and manuscript music is in the Uppsala University Library. 37 C.-G. S. Mörner, Johan Wikmanson und die Brüder Silverstolpe (Diss. Uppsala 1952), p. 241 ff. and 410ff. ; C. F. Hennerberg, Ur Fredrik Samuel Silverstolpes brevsamling, in: Svensk tidskrift för musikforskning 4 (1922), p. 81-96; 5 (1923), p. 100-116. 38 C.-G. S. Mörner, Kring nâgra handskrivna Mozartkompositioner, ägda av F. S. Silverstolpe, in: Svensk tidskrift för musikforskning 30 (1948), p. 70ff.



Âke Davidsson: The Collections of Early Music in Swedish Libraries 143

included an autograph by Mozart.39 There were also some of Silverstolpe's own composi tions. An important part of this donation was, however, an almost complete collection of the

works of Joseph Martin Kraus, some in autograph manuscripts, some copied by Silver

stolpe.40 Silverstolpe was personally acquainted with Kraus and regarded it as the mission of

his life to be a champion of the man and his music.

Two other collections, brought together by Swedish noblemen at the end of the 18th

century and the beginning of the 19th, are now in the Library of the Academy of Music. The

first was received in 1858 from the Duke Fouché d'Otrante. This donation consisted of an

important collection of full scores of operas and cantatas mainly by Italian and French 18th

century composers. Full score operas and piano scores as well as arias and ensembles in

18th-century manuscripts are also among the principal items of the valuable collection

presented to the Academy in 1869 by Count Gustaf Göran Gabriel Oxenstierna, First

Chamberlain to the Queen Mother Josephine. This collection consists almost exclusively of

vocal music. The operatic airs alone occupy about four shelf-metres in the library. Most of it

is Italian music.

A meeting-place for music lovers in Stockholm in the 1760s and some decades to follow

was a literary and musical society called Utile Dm/«',41 which developed into the Royal

Academy of Music. It was an order and its members came from different classes -

noblemen, officers, government officials, poets and burghers. Baron Alströmer, mentioned

above, was director of music in the society. Utile Dulci had a large orchestra (about 130

persons) who met regularly for rehearsals. In the end they acquired an extensive library of

music, which was presented to the library of the Academy of Music about 1800. Some of the

material consists of copies which are of value to research on the Swedish composer Johan

Helmich Roman.42

As I have indicated, the "Liebhabertum" of the time had followers also in the middle

classes. Their musical endeavours and their attempts to collect music are manifested in

Swedish libraries. But before dealing with some collections in Stockholm brought together

by middle class amateurs, I should like to discuss the collections deposited in the University

Library of Lund. They actually belong to the Academic Orchestra of the university and are

of great value, as they once belonged to professional musicians and have in some cases

passed through many generations of musicians.

Above all, there is the Engelhardt Collection. It was brought together by Henrich

Christoffer Engelhardt, who was first an organist at Heisingborg and Karlskrona in southern

Sweden, then, from 1727, director musices at the University of Uppsala for nearly forty

years. The collection, which comprises about 750 works in print and manuscript by

contemporary composers, was probably his private music library which he used in Uppsala.

Engelhardt belonged to a circle of organists from southern Sweden who became familiar

with Buxtehude's music at an early stage, and some of his works are present in the

collection.43 Friedrich Kraus, who created another of the collections deposited in the

University Library of Lund,44 was conductor of the Academic Orchestra in Lund from 1748.

In his day much music was bought, for instance from Copenhagen, but he also set his

39 R. Engländer, Die Mozart-Skizzen der Universitätsbibliothek Uppsala, in: Svensk tidskrift för musikforskning 37

(1955), p. 96-118; ejusdem, The sketches for "The Magic Flute" at Upsala, in: The Musical Quarterly 27 (1941),

p. 343-355. 40 K. F. Schreiber, Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke von Jos. Kraus, in: Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 7 (1926),

p. 478-494. 41 S. Walin, Beiträge zur Geschichte der schwedischen Sinfonik, p. 138f. 42 I. Bengtsson, 1. H. Roman och hans instrumentalmusik (Diss. Uppsala 1955), p. 94ff. 43 D. Kilian, op. cit.. p. 205-208; J. Hedar, Kring nyfunna Buxtehude-kompositioner i Lunds universitetsbibliotek, in:

Svensk tidskrift för musikforskning 22 (1940), p. 62f. ; ejusdem, Dietrich Buxtehudes Orgelwerke (Diss. Lund 1951),

p. 15. 44 B. Alander, Musiken i Lund under 1700-talet, in: Svensk tidskrift för musikforskning 21 (1939), p. 130ff.



144 Ake Davidsson : The Collections of Early Music in Swedish Libraries

students to copy music. The Kraus Collection consists of about 460 items - chamber music,

orchestral music and vocal music. It shows the repertoire in Lund during the latter half of the

18th century. There are works by German and Italian composers, e.g. Handel, Hasse,

Telemann, Quantz, Vivaldi, Haydn, and the Mannheim School.

The most important of the collections of the Academic Orchestra in Lund is, however, the

Wenster Collection, which has a long history. Emanuel Wenster, who was organist at the

Cathedral and conductor of the Academic Orchestra in Lund during the first half of the 19th

century, presented a large collection of music and instruments to the orchestra in three

instalments - in 1832, 1836 and 1846. Some of these 600 works were bought by him, some

were inherited from his father, Christian Wenster, whom he succeeded as organist and

conductor.45 But some music came from his grandfather Christian Wenster sen., who had

been an organist in Karlshamn in the province of Blekinge.46 Thus the oldest as well as the

most important part originates from Christian Wenster sen., who had in his turn taken over a

small music collection from his predecessor in Karlshamn, Gottfried Lindemann. This man

had been a pupil of Gottlieb Klingenberg, organist at Stettin. There are also some

compositions by Klingenberg and his colleague in Stettin, Michael Rohde. Since Klingen

berg himself had been a pupil of Buxtehude, it is not surprising to find, in Lindemann's part of the Wenster Collection, some works by Buxtehude, copied by Lindemann, some of which

were unknown for a long time to scholars.47 As a pupil of Klingenberg, Lindemann was

probably able to copy the works of Buxtehude. Other works in the Wenster Collection are

by Telemann, Reinhard Keiser and no less than 35 cantatas by the Görlitz organist Christian

Ludwig Boxberg. The collection, especially the music that Wenster inherited from

Lindemann, gives a good idea of the church music performed both in Stettin and in a small

Swedish town at the beginning of the 18th century. A typical representative of the golden age of private collectors, the 18th century, was the

Swedish postmaster in Wismar, Germany, Johan Fredrik Hallardt.48 Born in Stockholm, he

took part in the musical activities of the Swedish aristocracy as a violinist before leaving Sweden. In Wismar, Hallardt also paid attention to the musical life of the German cities,

especially while preparing several large musical reference works. He was trying to create a

musical dictionary, but it remained unfinished although he worked on it for ten years. His other attempts at musical lexicography also failed. Hallard died in 1794 and next year his

library was purchased for the Swedish Academy of Music. In this way, the library of the

Academy acquired not only Hallardt's valuable lexical preparatory works and other

manuscripts by him but also a beautiful and extensive collection of music literature from the

age of Enlightenment, about 150 volumes. Hallardt's collection of music, about 275 works, formed the basis of the large and important collections of 18th century music now in the

possession of the library.

During the first part of the 19th century there was in Stockholm a merchant of French

origin called Johan Mazer. He was a good amateur violoncellist and seems to have had a

burning interest in music. He arranged many chamber music soirées in his home, especially

during the 1820s.49 Furthermore, he collected a large music library comprising more than

3000 works, most of which were undoubtedly played by him and his musical friends.50 Mazer

45 B. Alander, op. cit., p. 135ff. 46 D. Kilian, op. cit., p. 203-205. 47 J. Hedar, Kring nyfunna Buxtehudekompositioner, p. 59ff. ; ejusdem, Dietrich Buxtehudes Orgelwerke, p. 12. 48 T. Norlind, Johan Fredrik Hallardt och svensk musiklexikografi, in: Svensk tidskrift for musikforskning 20 (1938), p. 99-130. 49 E. Schlesinger, Frân Mazerska kvartettsällskapets förhistoria, in: Svensk tidskrift for musikforskning 5 (1923), p. 89-99. 50 Cari Johansson, Nàgot om Mazers musiksamling i Kungl. Musikaliska akademiens bibliotek, in: Svensk tidskrift for musikforskning 33 (1951), p. 142-146.



Ake Davidsson: The Collections of Early Music in Swedish Libraries 145

also arranged the scores of many works, for instance to all of Haydn's quartets, and

compiled a thematic catalogue in seven volumes of his music library. He had decided in his

will that after his death this large music library should be presented to the Royal Academy of

Music, where it has been kept since 1847. Some figures may give us an idea of the size of the

collection: there are for instance 471 duos, 409 trios, 768 quartets, and 597 quintets, sextets,

septets, and so on. As for orchestral music, there are scores of 210 works and parts to 407

numbers. Then there are parts to 340 concerti grossi and solo concerts. There is a

remarkable amount of 18th century prints. The oldest work in the collection is Balletti a tre

by Tommaso Albinoni (Amsterdam c. 1710) and the last acquisitions seem to have been

made in the 1840s. Mazer's collection was intended for practical use and it may be said to

illustrate what was played in middle class society in Stockholm at the time. Mazer's choice of

composers and works was, of course, influenced by contemporary musical taste; there are

mostly German, Italian and a few Swedish composers.-A second instalment of the Mazer

repertoire was deposited with the library in the 1980s, primarily 19th-century works.

I should have liked to discuss many other music collections in Swedish libraries, but this is

where my survey must come to an end. Let me add only a few remarks. Not to be

overlooked is the library of the Royal Theatre (Opera) in Stockholm, whose extensive

collection of stage music is now housed in the Academy Library. The Opera collection also

contains orchestral material as the Royal Orchestra was the leading concert organization in

Stockholm for several centuries. Among the collections of the Library of the Academy of

Music mention should also be made of Dr. Ernst Fogman's collection of music for horn

(acquired in 1906) and a collection of guitar music, created by C. O. Boije af Gennäs and

presented in 1924. Apart from the collections mentioned above, the Uppsala University

Library possesses an interesting 19th-century collection of operas and oratorios as well as a

fine set of early editions of Handel's works brought together by the astronomer A. F. D.

Wackerbarth.51 Here one may also find 18th-century material that once belonged to the

Academic Orchestra at Uppsala.

Finally, mention should be made of three important former private collections: that of

Daniel Fryklund in Heisingborg, now divided between the Music Museum and the Library of the Academy of Music (see the separate articles); Consul Otto Taussig's extensive

Schubert Collection, now in the Lund University Library;52 and Captain Rudolf Nydahl's

notable collection of autographs (some 1,200) of major European 18th-20th-century

composers, now a private library and museum of the foundation Stiftelsen Musikkulturens

främjande in Stockholm.53

L'article décrit la provenance et le contenu de quelques-unes des plus importantes collections de

musique ancienne (du Moyen-Age au début du 19e s.) dans les bibliothèques suédoises, en premier lieu

la bibliothèque de l'Université d'Uppsala, la bibliothèque de l'Académie suédoise de musique, la

bibliothèque de l'Université de Lund, en même temps que quelques collections privées.

Beschrieben werden Herkunft und Inhalt einiger der wichtigsten Sammlungen mit früher Musik (vom

Mittelalter bis zum frühen 19. Jahrhundert) in schwedischen Bibliotheken, so vor allem in der

Universitätsbibliothek Uppsala, in der Bibliothek der schwedischen Akademie für Musik, in der

Universitätsbibliothek in Lund sowie in einigen privaten Bibliotheken.

51 F. Lindberg, Om Wackerbarthska musiksamlingen i Uppsala universitets bibliotek, in: Svensk tidskrift för

musikforskning 28 (1946), p. 113-119. 52 S. Mühlhäuser, Die Handschriften und Varia der Schubertiana-Sammlung Taussig in der Universitätsbibliothek Lund

(Wilhelmshaven 1981); Quellenkataloge zur Musikgeschichte 17). 53 O. Holst, Stiftelsen Musikkulturens främjande: förteckning över musikhandskrifter: musikalier, brev, biografica, in:

Svenskt musikhistoriskt arkiv, Bulletin 8 (1972).



the collections of early music in swedish libraries

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