Biography
Henrik Rung grew up in Næstved, where his father worked in the customs office. As a boy he had guitar lessons from a "Miss Irgens" and later, as a young man, he was taught by the virtuoso guitarist S. Degen. Due to a severe injury to one of his knees, Rung spent two years of his youth bound to his bed. A positive result of this unfortunate experience, however, was that it gave him the oppertunity to develop a legendary virtuosity on the guitar. His legs caused him trouble throughout his life, sometimes keeping him bedridden, at other times forcing him to visit health centers abroad.
His musical education was otherwise provided by the school of the Royal Chapel (which by this time meant Royal Orchestra) in Copenhagen, where in order to make a living he entered as a student of the double bass, though it is said that it was really his skill as a guitarist that gained him admission. He made rapid progress and because of his obvious musical talent - and especially the very successful music he wrote for Henrik Hertz´s play Svend Dyrings Hus (1837) - he was awarded a grant for two years of study abroad. He went first to Vienna, then to Rome, where he studied singing with some of Italy´s finest teachers. With the help of Giuseppe Baini (general administrator of the college of papal singers and biographer of Palestrina) he obtained access to Rome´s best libraries and became profoundly interested in the music of the Italian Renaissance, in particular of Palestrina, of which he was allowed to make copies. While he was in Rome (in March 1839) he learned that the Italian sang mester at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen, Giuseppe Siboni, had died and he immediately applied to be his successor. His application was successful and as his leave was then extended by another year he was also able to spend some months in Paris before returning to Copenhagen. In addition to his work at the Royal Theater, which benefited greatly from his experience of Italian singing and Italian opera, he founded the Cecilia Society in order to promote an understanding of the older Italian music as well. He was also active as a composer of music for the theatre and of songs, choruses and music for the guitar and took a lively part in the often heated debate concerning church music and hymn-singing. In later years, however, the importance of his many contributions to Danish musical life has been unfairly underrated.
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A brief review of important stages in Henrik Rung´s life and work
1807: Born (31 March) in Copenhagen.
1816: Moved to Næstved (7 September) where he was given lessons on the guitar and the violin
1824: Once again in Copenhagen, confinement to his bed for two years as the result of a knee injury is used to develop his skill as a guitarist.
1829: Admitted (1 January) to the Royal Chapel as a student of the double-bass.
1837: Composed music to the musical play Svend Dyrings Hus (premiere 15 March)
1837-40: Study trip to Rome and Paris.
1840: Singing teacher at the Royal Theater.
1842: First singing-master at the Royal Theater (31 March).
1851: Founded the Cæcilia Society choir (29 October).
1857: Produced a supplement to Weyse´s hymnbook (reissued 1868).
1871: Died (12 December).
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Important publications for the guitar
Op. 1: Six piéces pour la guitarre (C.C. Lose, 1832)
Op. 2: Deux polonaises (Lose & Olsen, 1836)
Op. 3: Petit lecons progressives (Lose & Olsen, 1837)
Op. 4: Quatre solo (Lose & Olsen, 1838)
With F. Rung Albumblade, 1-2 (50 small pieces for guitar) (W. Hansen, 1898)
2 Guitar Terzetter (W. Hansen, 1910)
The year after his death his Romancer og Sange were published in two volumes by C.C. Lose (Copenhagen, 1872). Their popularity is shown by the fact that thirty years later a selection, Folke-Udgave af Rungs Romancer og Sange i Udvalg was issued by Wilhelm Hansen (Copenhagen, [1903]). In addition, many songs, much chamber music and works for solo instruments remain in manuscript in the "Henrik and Frederik Rung Music Archive" in the Royal Library in Copenhagen, which is said to occupy c. 20 shelf-meters and is still not completely cataloged.
In my opinion, Rung was one of our great national composers and guitar virtuosos and that which may strike us as peculiar about his work today is due to our own ignorance and lack of imagination. By all accounts he was an extraordinary musical talent. The view of musical history that would claim that everything is better and more highly developed in our own time, I consider to be mistaken. It is true that there has been a significant rise in the general level of musical performance but at the highest level it remains unchanged, to judge from the historical evidence, such as piano rolls and contemporary reviews, that is still available to us. Taste and style are the only things that are actually subject to change.
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A Drawning by the Danish Painter Marstand
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Henrik Rung Vs Fernando Sor
To set Henrik Rung´s works for guitar in perspective it would seem relevant to compare them to the music of Fernando Sor.
Like Sor, Rung emerged from a very classical background; he had a strictly classical approach to composing for the guitar; he was known in his time as a great virtuoso on the guitar; he was a successful composer for the theatre, as well for the guitar; Rung had a well-developed melodic sense and was an admirer of the Italian style; he takes his compositional point of departure in the simple chorale with correct and consistent voice-leading - sometimes at the cost of the idiomatic possibilities of the guitar.
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The Guitar Technique of Rung
This can make his works seem a little heavy-going until one acquires a feeling for Rung´s technique and manner. Everything points to a highly-developed and personal style of playing.
His virtuoso technique and serious attitude towards the guitar as a concert instrument probably resembles the approach to the instrument represented by his teacher Söffren Degen (1816-1885). Degen´s technique was based on a very clear loud and pianoforte like style of playing very unusual for Danish guitar players at the time. Degen instructed Rung in the art of guitar-playing despite the fact that he was younger than Rung. Degen entered Siboni´s music conservatory in Copenhagen as a pupil at the age of 13 and regarding his musical training was thus considerably ahead of his colleague. Degen though was not a guitar teacher of Rung in the ordinary way. Henrik Rung grew up on the countryside without access to proper teaching. Degen could probably show him elements of the more sophisticated and modern approach to guitar technique that Rung could not access in his childhood.
The suggestion of folk music in many of Rung´s compositions comes from his use of a very simple kind of harmony and part-writing with emphasis on the melody as the most important element. His extensive use of four-part writing and his way of carrying through the voice-leading, together with his fondness for small character-pieces consisting of a melody with very simple accompaniment, all indicate, it seems to me, that his ideal sound must have differed markedly from that of his southern-European colleagues. His very classic and conservative way of writing was probably inspired by the chorale-style of C.E.F. Weyse. It was no doubt here that Rung´s concept of musical sound was moulded.
Rung´s technique is most clearly seen in his Études (Petit lecons). All the études are provided with a four-part chorale, based on C.E.F. Weyse´s chorale style, in the key of the étude and demonstrating its underlying chordal material as a preliminary exercise before embarking on the étude itself. These études do not differ essentially from those of F. Sor´s Opus 60. We see here a very simple and well-sounding style of playing which is free of effects - there is no sign here of trills or showy arpeggios. Clear melodies with a simple and effective accompaniment are features to be found in all of Rung´s music for the guitar; these are the virtues of a true master.
I believe that Rung must have played with a very clear voicing and a sound that resembles the lute. Rung's music has traces of the lute music by John Dowland. Rung did also performed songs and solo works by John Dowland on his concerts. This very renaissance way of playing the guitar is still very popular in Scandinavian Tradition.
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The Direct link to Sor
The obvious influence of the compositions of F.Sor on Rung may have been transmitted directly by the famous Danish balletmaster August Bournonville. As a young man Bournonville danced the solo part in Sor´s ballet Le Dormeur Eveillé/Hasan et le Calife at the King´s Theatre in London on 12 January, 1828.
It is thus possible that he was instrumental in introducing Henrik Rung to the guitar music of F. Sor, since both Rung and Bournonville were employed at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen and they even collaborated when Bournonville did the choreography for a ballet in one of Rung´s operas.
It is at least certain that music by Sor (a piano accompaniment to S. Mayr´s Sei cinga d´una spada from Le bizzarrie dell´amore) and most of Sor´s music for solo guitar was included in Rung´s private music library and the influence of Sor´s seguidillas is clearly evident in Rung´s use of elements from Spanish folklore in his guitar accompaniments. It is also worth observing that Rung in his Op. 1, no. 6 uses an unusual tuning of the guitar (the low E-string tuned up to F), which I have only otherwise seen used, in music of the romantic period, by Sor in his Op. 10. The difference between Sor´s and Rung´s way of writing for the classical guitar, it seems to me, derives from their different musical backgrounds - Spanish church music and C.F.Weyse´s chorale style, respectively - which has resulted in different concepts of voice-leading and consequently of sound and technique.
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Rung`s works for guitar
Inspiration from Danish theatre music is to be detected in his Opus 1, where in the Vals (no. 3) I find that the melodic material bears a remarkable resemblance to the Minuet in Frederik Kuhlau´s Elverhoj.
Opus 2 consists of two very fine Polonaises, and again in Opus 4 there are two Polonaises and an Allegro and a Presto, all of which demand a considerable mastery of the instrument. It seems most obvious to compare the Polonaises to those by Chopin, especially since, coincidentally, Rung`s Polonaises, Op. 2, were published in the same year (1836) as Chopins first published Polonaises, the Grand Polonaise for piano and orchestra, Op. 22, and, more to the point, the Two Polonaises, Op. 26. Like Chopin´s, Rung`s Polonaises are very folk-like in character and melodic material and show clearly the typical polonaise rhythmical figure (e.g., Op. 4, no.1, bar 1). For both composers the intention has been basically the same: a national-romantic urge to express a strong national consciousness at a time when both countries had experienced war and occupation by foreign troops. With their asymmetrical sections of 7, 11 or 19 bars, the Polonaises of both composers demonstrate a freer than usual attitude to form, which Rung has matched with a free and virtuoso style of playing with frequent use of accelerando and ritardando in order to hold the work together as an organic whole.
The collection of études, Op. 3, in which each of the pieces is provided with a little preliminary exercise in the form of a 4-part chorale harmonization, has already been mentioned as bearing a strong resemblance to Sor`s Op. 60. The modest appearance of many of the pieces in the collection of character-pieces, Albumblade, that he published together with his son Frederik, should not cause them to be underestimated; they show Rung`s ability to compose in a variety of styles, as, for example, in one piece, Tyrolienne, which is surely the first instance of jodelling being imitated on the guitar! The pieces are of a quality that would not be unworthy of Robert Schumann. The guitar accompaniments in his songs are, as mentioned above, very simple, but they are appropriate in the context of the words and the melody and always support the songs in a way that deepens the psychological expression.
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Rung`s works for chamber music
Henrik Rung's production of chamber music for guitar and strings is a very fine collection of chamber music. In the manuscript there are guitar instruments mentioned as chitarra, liuto or arpa. Very seldom is chitarra 1 and chitarra 2 chitarra 3 used, as the choice is for this collection. Chitarra. Liuto and arpa are different guitar instruments. Henrik Rung used different guitar instruments mainly because he wanted to create as orchestral a sound as possible. It is very important that the two performers use as different sounds on the guitars as possible. The collection was composed very late in Rung's life and has a fine substantial musical depth. His chamber music is a collection of small character pieces with a strong sense of Danish National Romantic Style. The choice of the very short form might be inspired by the lute music of J. Dowland, with which music Rung was fairly familiar.
Often the music of Rung serves a didactic purpose. (A Quarrel between Kids, a study in offbeats) Most of the chamber music by Henrik Rung was partly composed for his children's musical training. It has rich innovative instrumental combinations. (Guitar duets, guitar trios, guitar and mandolin, guitar and strings, two guitars and strings, three guitars and violin, guitar mandolin and strings, guitar harpsichord mandolin and Viola D'amore).
Rung has throughout his collection of chamber music created some of the most unique and outstanding music for the guitar and strings written in the nineteenth century.
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Henrik Rung and his Guitars
Rung`s guitar was an ordinary six-stringed guitar built by the Danish guitar maker Gade. He also played and owned a mandolin and a lute. His son had a Patent Harpe guitar built by Emilius N. Scherr, a Danish instrument maker who had settled in Philadelphia (U.S.A.)
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Importance to the Guitar World
As composer and conductor Henrik Rung occupied an important place in Danish musical life in the 19th century but it is perhaps primarily for his songs, which have become part of the national heritage, that he is honored by having a street in Copenhagen named after him, an honor from the Swedish Academy and from the Vatican in Rome. However his skill as a performer on the guitar and composer for his instrument deserves to be equally remembered and appreciated. Here too he reveals himself as a Danish national composer, whose background is in the Viennese tradition, and as such he makes a valuable contribution to the repertoire for guitarists which can provide an alternative to the dominance of Spanish guitar impressionism and the most unique element of Henrik Rung's compositions is his chamber music which Really represent the only existing chamber music school for guitar and strings from the nineteenth century.
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Glossary
Sangmester: The head of the opera department at the Royal Theatre. His work includes teaching, instructing and conducting.
Gade: A Danish family of instrument makers and musicians. Best-known for their pianos and guitars are Jens Nielsen Gade and his brother Soren Nielsen Gade, who was the father of Niels Wilhelm Gade (1817-90), the most important Danish composer in the second half of the 19th century.
C.E.F.Weyse (1774-1842): An important figure in Danish musical life in the first half of the 19th century. He was born in Altona, in the formerly Danish Slesvig-Holstein (now in north Germany), and came to Copenhagen in 1789. He is most famous as a composer, but he was also much admired as a pianist and organist. Franz Liszt wrote with deep admiration in Revue Musicale (1840) about his organ improvisations.
Frederik Kuhlau (1786-1832): German composer based in Denmark. He was a good friend of L.V. Beethoven. His opera Elverhoj is one of the main national treasures.
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Literature
T. Overskou, Den danske Skueplads, I-VII (Copenhagen 1854-76)
C. Thrane, Cæciliaforeningen og dens stifter (Copenhagen 1901)
N.M. Jensen, Den danske romance 1800-1850 og dens musikalske forudsætninger (Copenhagen1964)
J. Bergsagel, "The Impact of Italy on Danish Music", Thorvaldsens Museum Bulletin 1997, 154-60
E. Moldrup, Guitaren. Et eksotisk instrument i den danske musik (Copenhagen 1997)
I. Olsen, Preface to Værker for guitar, bd. 1 (Copenhagen )
B. Jeffery, Fernando Sor, Guitarist and Composer (London1977)
Thanks to professor dr. phil. John Bergsagel for the incredible help with the final work on this article.
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