Christian August Sinding (11 January 18563 December 1941) was a Norwegian composer. He is best known for his lyrical work for piano '' Frühlingsrauschen'' (Rustle of Spring, 1896). He was often compared to

Edvard Grieg Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the foremost Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of ...

and regarded as his successor.

Personal life

Sinding was born at

Kongsberg Kongsberg () is a historical mining town and municipality in Buskerud, Viken county, Norway. The city is located on the river Numedalslågen at the entrance to the valley of Numedal. Kongsberg has been a centre of silver mining, arms produ ...

Buskerud Buskerud () is a former county and a current electoral district in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Oppland, Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland, Telemark and Vestfold. The region extends from the Oslofjord and Drammensfjorden in the southeast to Ha ...

, Norway. His parents were mine superintendent

Matthias Wilhelm Sinding Matthias Wilhelm Sinding (18 July 1811 – 11 February 1860) was a Norwegian mining engineer and factory founder. He was born in Fredrikstad as a son of Ulrik Rosing Sinding and Mette Marie Bang. He was a distant relative of Hans Rosing (1625–1 ...

and Cecilie Marie Mejdell. He was a brother of the painter

Otto Sinding Otto Ludvig Sinding (20 December 1842 – 22 November 1909) was a Norway, Norwegian Painting, painter, illustrator, poet and dramatist. Sinding drew on motives from Norwegian nature, folk life and history. Personal life Otto Sinding was born in K ...

and the sculptor

Stephan Sinding Stephan Abel Sinding (4 August 1846 – 23 January 1922) was a Norwegian- Danish sculptor. He moved to Copenhagen in 1883 and had his breakthrough the same year. In 1890 he obtained Danish citizenship. In 1910 he settled in Paris where he live ...

. His sister Thora Cathrine Sinding was married to jurist Glør Thorvald Mejdell. Christian Sinding was a nephew of Nicolai Mejdell and

Thorvald Mejdell Thorvald Mejdell (21 September 1824 – 28 October 1908) was a Norwegian forester. He was born in Ringsaker as a son of colonel Gløer Gløersen Mejdell (1782–1827) and Thorine Krog. He was a nephew of officer Jacob Gerhard Meydell and brother o ...

. He was also a first cousin of journalist and writer Alfred Sinding-Larsen. In November 1898 he married actress Augusta Gade, née Smith-Petersen (1858–1936). She was the daughter of Morten Smith-Petersen and Cathrine von der Lippe. She had previously been married to physician and art patron Fredrik Georg Gade.

Career

He studied music first in Christiania (now Oslo) before going to Germany, where he studied at the conservatory in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

under

Salomon Jadassohn Salomon Jadassohn (13 August 1831 – 1 February 1902) was a German pianist, composer and a renowned teacher of piano and composition at the Leipzig Conservatory. Life Jadassohn was born to a Jewish family living in Breslau, the capital of the ...

and fell under the musical influences of

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

and

Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

. He lived in Germany for much of his life, but received regular grants from the Norwegian government. In 1921–22 he went to the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

to teach composition for a season at the

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman. It offers Bachelor of Music ...

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

. Sinding's publishers required from him piano and chamber music, which had broader sales than the symphonic works he preferred. His own instrument was the violin. The large number of short, lyrical

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

pieces and

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetiti ...

s that Sinding wrote has led to many seeing him as the heir to his fellow countryman,

, not so much in musical style but as a Norwegian composer with an international reputation. Sinding is best remembered today for one of his piano works, '' Frühlingsrauschen'' (''Rustle of Spring'', 1896). Among his other works are four

symphonies A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning co ...

, three violin concertos, a

piano concerto A piano concerto is a type of concerto, a solo composition in the classical music genre which is composed for a piano player, which is typically accompanied by an orchestra or other large ensemble. Piano concertos are typically virtuoso showpie ...

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small nu ...

, songs and choral works to Norwegian texts, and an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

, ''Der Heilige Berg'' (''The Holy Mountain'', 1914).

Awards

Sinding was made a member of the

Order of St. Olav The Royal Norwegian Order of Saint Olav ( no, Den Kongelige Norske Sankt Olavs Orden; or ''Sanct Olafs Orden'', the old Norwegian name) is a Norwegian order of chivalry instituted by King Oscar I on 21 August 1847. It is named after King Olav II ...

in 1905 and Commander in 1916, and in 1938, received the Grand Cross. He appointed a Commander of the

Order of Vasa The Royal Order of Vasa () is a Swedish order of chivalry, awarded to citizens of Sweden for service to state and society especially in the fields of agriculture, mining and commerce. It was instituted on 29 May 1772 by King Gustav III. It was u ...

and in 1905, he was made a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Music The Royal Swedish Academy of Music ( sv, Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien), founded in 1771 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden. At the time of its foundation, only one of its co-founder was a professional musician, Ferdin ...

. In 1924 he was granted the honor of lifetime residence at

Henrik Wergeland Henrik Arnold Thaulow Wergeland (17 June 1808 – 12 July 1845) was a Norwegian writer, most celebrated for his poetry but also a prolific playwright, polemicist, historian, and linguist. He is often described as a leading pioneer in the develo ...

's former home,

Grotten Grotten ( Norwegian: ''Grotto'') is a nineteenth-century building (1823) located on the premises of the Royal Palace in the city centre of Oslo, Norway. Grotten is an honorary residence owned by the Norwegian state. History The house is situ ...

in Oslo.

Legacy

Sinding had suffered from severe senile dementia since the late 1930s. Eight weeks before his death in 1941, Sinding joined the Norwegian Nazi party,

Nasjonal Samling Nasjonal Samling (, NS; ) was a Norwegian far-right political party active from 1933 to 1945. It was the only legal party of Norway from 1942 to 1945. It was founded by former minister of defence Vidkun Quisling and a group of supporters such ...

- however, his membership card was unsigned. The Nazis had strong motivation to recruit Sinding, as he was tremendously popular before the war in both Norway and Germany. Following the liberation of Norway at the end of World War II, it was official practice for the national broadcasting system to boycott people seen as Nazi sympathisers. As a consequence, Sinding's post-war reputation in Norway became relatively obscure. The circumstances surrounding the composer's membership continue to raise controversy. Sinding had made several remarks against the Nazi occupation. He had fought for the rights of Jewish musicians during the early 1930s and was a close friend of

Nordahl Grieg Johan Nordahl Brun Grieg (1 November 1902 – 2 December 1943) was a Norwegian poet, novelist, dramatist, journalist and activism, political activist. He was a popular author and a controversial public figure. He served in World War II as a war c ...

.Alfred Fidjestøl
''Eit stille jubileum''
(Klassekampen. January 2, 2006)

Compositions

Documents

Letters by Christian Sinding held by the State Archives in Leipzig, company archives of the Music Publishing House C.F.Peters (Leipzig).

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinding, Christian 1856 births 1941 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century male musicians 19th-century Norwegian composers 20th-century classical composers 20th-century Norwegian male musicians 20th-century Norwegian composers Commanders of the Order of Vasa Male opera composers Members of Nasjonal Samling Norwegian classical composers Norwegian male classical composers Norwegian opera composers Norwegian Romantic composers Musicians from Kongsberg Pupils of Salomon Jadassohn Recipients of the St. Olav's Medal University of Music and Theatre Leipzig alumni