Ge rum i Bröllopsgåln din hund! (Make room in the Wedding reception you dog!) is Epistle No. 40 in the Swedish poet and performer

Carl Michael Bellman Carl Michael Bellman (; 4 February 1740 – 11 February 1795) was a Swedish songwriter, composer, musician, poet and entertainer. He is a central figure in the Swedish song tradition and remains a powerful influence in Swedish music, as well ...

's 1790 song collection, ''

Fredman's Epistles ''Fredmans epistlar'' (English: ''Fredman's Epistles'') is a collection of 82 poems set to music by Carl Michael Bellman, a major figure in Swedish 18th century song. Though first published in 1790, it was created over a period of twenty years ...

''. One of his best-known works, it describes an utterly chaotic wedding at a venue where soldiers mixed up with musicians and the wedding-party; the chimney catches fire, and even the priest robs the collection. The verse-pattern and elaborate rhyming scheme combine to assist the feeling of chaos. The epistle is subtitled "''Angående Bröllopet hos Bensvarfvars''" (Concerning the Wedding at Bensvarvars); the song is sometimes known under this name.

James Massengale James Rhea Massengale is an American musicologist and former professor at UCLA, who has specialised in the Swedish poets Carl Michael Bellman and Olof von Dalin. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. He was educated at Yale Univer ...

calls it "one of the wildest weddings in Swedish literature". The composition has been contrasted with the

wedding at Cana The transformation of water into wine at the wedding at Cana (also called the marriage at Cana, wedding feast at Cana or marriage feast at Cana) is the first miracle attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of John. In the Gospel account, Jesus Chris ...

, part of Bellman's use of Biblical allusions for comic effect.

Context

Song

Music and verse form

The song has 9 verses, each consisting of 14 lines. The verses have a complex pattern of stresses and rhyming pattern, ABCCABBDDEFFEE, contributing to the humorously chaotic effect. The music is in time, and is marked ''

Vivace In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

''. The Epistle is dated 10 October 1771. The source of the melody has not been identified.

Lyrics

The song, subtitled "Angående Bröllopet hos Bensvarfvars" (Concerning the Wedding at Bensvarvars), describes an utterly chaotic wedding at the Bensvarfvars tavern on street in the

Södermalm Södermalm, often shortened to just Söder, is a district and island in central Stockholm. Overview The district covers the large island of the same name (formerly called ''Åsön''). Although Södermalm usually is considered an island, wa ...

island district of Stockholm. Soldiers are mixed up with musicians and the wedding-party; everybody talks at once, often angrily; an officer shouts

drill commands Drill commands are generally used with a group that is marching, most often in military foot drills or in a marching band. Drill commands are usually heard in major events involving service personnel, reservists and veterans of a country's arm ...

to the soldiers. Meanwhile, the chimney catches fire; the preacher gives a fire-and-brimstone sermon on St. Paul, David, Saul, and original sin; music plays; soldiers drink; the bride's white gloves split; the bridegroom swears and bursts into tears; a bridesmaid curtsies; and the preacher collapses in a corner. At the end, a brawl breaks out; a Corporal punches everyone he can reach; the bridegroom gets lascivious; some of those present, including the priest, rob the collection meant for the

Seraphim Hospital Serafimerlasarettet (Seraphim Hospital), popularly known as ''Serafen'', was the first modern hospital in Sweden. It was located in Kungsholmen in Stockholm and active from 1752 to 1980. The current building still houses the local emergency depar ...

; and the party breaks up in disorder.

Reception and legacy

The Epistle is described by the

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...

as "of one of the wildest weddings in Swedish literature". He comments that the rhyming pattern effectively hides some of the rhymes, making the descriptive poem imitate prose. Firstly, Bellman does not rhyme the first two lines until lines 5 and 6, when the verse is well under way. Next, he ignores the fact that the music repeats from bar 5, but creates new rhymes and divisions in lines 5–10. To break up the order still further, Bellman interjects short sharp commands, with "Stig in!" (Come in!) at the start of line 6 of the first verse, "Håll" (Halt!) at the start of line 11 in the second verse, "Alarm!" at the start, "Skyldra" (Shoulder

arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...

!) in line 13 of verse 3, and "Gevär!" (Arms!) at the beginning of verse 4. Massengale observes that these

syntactic In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituenc ...

breaks destroy the listener's sense of position in the rhyming scheme, the uncertainty of the rhyme creating a feeling of the tumult of the chaotic wedding celebrations. Paolo Veronese 008

The scholar of literature Lars Lönnroth comments that we hear a crowd of heated wedding-guests shouting at one another in a "crazy comic ''furioso''" in which it is impossible to discern who is saying what. What Fredman himself may be saying is also unclear, so that the whole thing, he writes, is a

farce Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical humor; the use of deliberate absurdity or ...

from beginning to end. The critic Bo Nordstrand notes that Lönnroth draws a parallel between the Biblical

in Galilee and the epistle's wedding at Bensvarvars, and agrees that there is a "dialectic between the religious and the Bacchanalian". Like his contemporaries, Bellman wrote drinking songs that parody preaching and quote from the Bible and the

book of Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived f ...

, with Fredman as the opposite of a preacher; and he treats a wide range of ceremonies from weddings, baptisms, funerals, balls, society chapter rituals, and trials to military parades with parody and

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

. Lönnroth states that a frequent pattern in the Epistles is for a serious ceremony gradually to disintegrate into pure farce. He notes for instance that this is seen not only in Epistle 40's descent into a brawl and wild rioting but also in Epistle 54, "Never an Iris": at the end of a sad and solemn funeral "at Corporal Boman's grave in St Katrina churchyard", Fredman "tactlessly" advises the widow to "choose a new Corporal

y sitting Y, or y, is the twenty-fifth and penultimate letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. According to some authorities, it is the sixth (or seven ...

on a folding bench

ith another man The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is immedia ...

. The Bellman Society wrote of the composition that "The catastrophic wedding at Bensvarvars, a pub in

, is a tumult that is developed at breakneck tempo. It starts with a chimney fire and ends with a resounding brawl where the officiating priest helps himself to the collection for a hospital." Göran Hassler states in his annotated selection of Bellman's work that the Epistle has been recorded in interestingly different interpretations by Sven-Bertil Taube on his 1963 album ''Carl Michael Bellman, Volume 2'' (

HMV Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom. The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...

), and by

Cornelis Vreeswijk Cornelis Vreeswijk (; ; 8 August 1937 – 12 November 1987) was a Dutch-born Swedish singer-songwriter, poet and actor. He emigrated to Sweden with his parents in 1949 at the age of twelve. He was educated as a social worker and hoped to beco ...

on his 1971 album '' Spring mot Ulla, spring! Cornelis sjunger Bellman'' (

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...

). The Epistle has been translated into German.

References

Sources

* * * (contains the most popular Epistles and Songs, in Swedish, with sheet music) * (with facsimiles of sheet music from first editions in 1790, 1791) * *

External links

Text of Epistle 40
at Bellman.net
Parallel Swedish / German texts
at Anacreon.de
Performed by Cornelis Vreeswijk
at YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Ge rum i Brollops-galn din hund! 1790 compositions Swedish songs Fredmans epistlar