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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Ole Bull Biography BULL, Ole Bornemann (1810–80). A remarkable Norwegian violin virtuoso. He was born in Bergen, Feb. 5, 1810. He showed remarkable musical precocity. In the mountains he fiddled away for hours and hours, as his father would not tolerate the instrument in his house. Finally he broke with his parents and went to Cassel (1829) to study under Spohr (q.v.), but, not finding him congenial, he returned to Bergen. Here he practiced assiduously at his instrument until 1831, when he went to Paris. His savings were soon consumed, he fell ill, and thieves stole all his belongings, including his violin. In despair he threw himself into the Seine, but was saved, and a wealthy woman, Villeminot, who took a great interest in him, provided him with necessary comfort and a Guarneri instrument. His début (1833) was a triumph, Paganini being in the audience. A hearing of this master caused Bull to cultivate the Paganini method. With undiminished success he played throughout Germany, France, Russia, England, and Ireland, but in 1839–40 fortune turned against him. Molique overshadowed him in Paris; London and Germany were equally unkind. Disheartened, he went into retirement (1840–43) and then proceeded to America, where he won enthusiastic recognition. With the money earned here he returned to Norway and built a national theatre in Bergen, but soon quarreled with the authorities and again went to the United States (1852). He amassed a fortune, bought 125,000 acres of land in Pennsylvania, and founded a Norwegian colony, but was swindled out of his possessions and money, and in 1860 recrossed the Atlantic. His European tour in 1865–66 brought little money and evoked scant enthusiasm, for Europe had adopted new standards of violin playing. Subsequently he established a violin school of his own and repaired his fortune by several visits to the United States (1868–69, 1870–79), where he married. He bought a house in Cambridge, Mass., and during the last years of his life spent much of his time there. He died at his summer residence near Bergen, Norway, Aug. 17, 1880. Bull was a rare phenomenon in the history of music. His tone was mellow and powerful; in the matter of mere technique he rivalled even Paganini. And yet a critic could discern the self-taught musician behind this prodigious technique. His own compositions (chiefly fantasias on national themes, which he invested with a peculiar fire of his own) best exhibited his mastery over his instrument and were the favorites with his audiences. As contributions to the literature of the violin they are of little value. Consult Sara C. Bull, Ole Bull: A Memoir (Boston, 1883), and a biography in Norwegian by O. Vik (Bergen, 1890). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. IV (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 145. |