Luren Soap Box String Quartet, Skurrekvartten i Luren. No date. The band’s name plays with two meanings: Skurre means “grating to one’s senses,” perhaps a humorous reference to what these fellows sounded like. Skure means “to scour, to wash,” which would refer to their soap box instruments. Left to right: Oscar Holm, Carl Larsen, Ole G. Huff, E. M. Sunnes. Vesterheim Archives—Luren Singing Society Collection.
Luren Singing Society
and Norwegian Male Choruses in America by John Robert Christianson Luren Singing Society of Decorah, Iowa, is profiled here as representative of many notable choral groups and singing societies that Norwegian Americans formed to help satisfy their love of music. This article is based on a manuscript written at the request of Luren to commemorate the centennial of the society. It draws on extensive primary sources in the archives of the Luren Singing Society, Preus Library at Luther College, and Vesterheim. These sources include the original minutes of meetings of the society 1884-1968, scrapbooks and other documents in the society’s archives, photographs, objects such as banners and presentation pieces, and articles in the local Norwegian-language newspapers, Decorah Posten (published 1874-1973) and Fra Fjærnt og Nær (published 1870).
I
n the year 1868, four young immigrants from Norway came together in Decorah, Iowa, to form a male quartet and sing the songs of their native land in four-part harmony. One of them, Hartvig Engbretson, was a native of the Norwegian capital city of Oslo, then called Christiania. Growing up in Christiania, he had enjoyed listening to a male choral society named Luren and proposed that the Decorah quartet should take that name as well. They did, and Luren has been singing Norwegian songs in Decorah, Iowa, ever since. The Civil War had been over for three years, releasing the floodgates of emigration from northern Europe. Norwegian Vol. Vol.7, 7, No. No.22 2009 2009
emigration to the U.S. shot up from around 4,000 in 1865 to over 15,000 in 1866 and 18,000 by 1868, at a time when the total population of Norway was only around a million and a half. By 1870, there were more than 160,000 Norwegians and their children in America, living primarily in the Upper Midwestern states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota. At the same time, the frontier was expanding rapidly westward. Native peoples were driven off the plains of Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas, and settlers of European origins rushed in. The Norwegian-American tradition of four-part male choral singing was born in this era of dynamic population movement, when people and institutions imported from northern Europe were being scattered all across the Upper Midwest and Great Plains. The very first Norwegian singing societies were organized in Christiania in 1845. By the 1850s, similar choral organizations were being established in towns throughout the kingdom. By the 1860s, immigrants were beginning to bring them to Norwegian settlements abroad, including the small town of Decorah. In North America, Norwegian singing societies came first to towns and later spread to rural settlements. Decorah had less than 3,000 inhabitants, but small as it was, it was still one of the principal American centers of Norwegian urban life. Norwegian cities also tended to be small by American standards—Aalesund was less than 3,000 in 1860, Skien and 17 17
Gauken Singing Society, Naseth, Iowa. No date. Back row, left to right: Halvor Woldum, Charles Johnson, Gust Moen, Rudolph Nash, Alfred Nesset, John Woldum, George Johnson. Front row, left to right: Chris Kallevang, Olia Kallevang, Adolph Vick, Martin Woldum, Nels Vick, Gustave Johnson. Vesterheim Archives.
Frederikstad around 4,000, and even the capital of Christiania had fewer than 50,000 inhabitants. Many Norwegian townsmen felt right at home in Decorah during the 1860s. They could live almost as if they had never left their native land. In Decorah, they replanted the musical traditions that they had brought from Norway. The first singing society in Norway was started in 1845 by university students, with a young theology student named Vilhelm Koren (1826-1910) as one of the original members. Koren finished his studies, immigrated to America in 1853, and became the pastor of Washington Prairie Lutheran Church, outside Decorah. Around 1869, he helped to establish Idun Singing Society at Luther College. Others from Christiania founded Luren in Decorah in the year 1868, Normanna in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 1869, and scores of others across the country. O. W. Holm, the greatest baritone in Luren’s first century, Carlo A. Sperati, its greatest director, and John Jackwitz, who played a leading role in the society for thirty years, were all natives of Christiania, as was Hartvig Engbretson, the young man who gave Luren its name. Immigration was in full swing by the 1870s. Three stagecoach lines, two trains, and countless Stoughton wagons ran through Decorah. Young Norwegians and other immigrants came into town, where many worked for a few months before heading out west, while others stayed. Then came the grasshopper plagues of 1873-76 on the plains frontier. Then, the national economy took a nosedive when Jay Cooke’s bank and many others failed, bringing railroad construction to a halt. Trains, stagecoaches, wagons, and carts continued to rumble into Winneshiek County, but nobody dared to go farther west. Farmers went broke on the plains. Some families even came back. Meanwhile, immigrants continued to pour in from Norway and from the depressed cities and older settlements in Wisconsin and Illinois. The population of Winneshiek County swelled during those years. Many farms supported several families of newcomers. Finally, in 1876 and 1877, the economy began to rebound, the grasshopper hoards vanished, and the westward flow of settlers was renewed. In the throes of those tempestuous years, Luren Singing Society took on new life. At a meeting held on March 17, 18
1874, Luren Quartet expanded into a full-fledged Norwegian male chorus and elected a young printer named Emil Berg as the director. After a couple of private performances in Solberg’s Hall and a public performance in Calmar, Iowa, the reorganized Luren Singing Society sang its first public concert in Decorah on Monday, December 28, 1874. The place was Steyer’s Opera House. The audience was bigger than expected, and the reviewer concluded that the performance was “ganske bra” (quite good). He wished Luren the best of luck and looked to even better things in the future. Early in 1875, there was talk of a banner to display during the Syttende Mai celebration of Norway’s Constitution Day. Mrs. Engbretson had a millinery shop on West Water Street, and the Luren women began to meet in her “Dressmaking Rooms.” By spring, the banner was finished, and it was presented to the society in a ceremony held on April 29. Today, it reposes in Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, frayed and decayed with age but still remarkably bright and fresh in all its colors. From the very beginning, there were festivals and social gatherings, as well as concerts. Luren assisted Hallvard Lee in a Syttende Mai concert in 1884, singing three songs and an encore. At the meeting of June 11, 1884, Mr. H. Hoffoss proposed a “Pic Nic” of members and their families and the proposal was accepted unanimously. In 1885, Luren held a splendid banquet on May Day and then cooperated with Det Norske Selskab and a delegation from Luther College to put on a Syttende Mai festivity. In the same year, Luren participated in the Decorah Public School’s graduation ceremonies and in the town’s Fourth of July celebration. In May 1886, they organized a “pic nic” with Det Norske Selskab in Mrs. Tobiason’s grove, where Luren sang several numbers for “common inspiration and general satisfaction.” On July 2, 1886, Luren sang at the unveiling of the Soldiers’ Monument of Courthouse Square in Decorah, and in October, they sang at the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration at Luther College. Early in June of 1885, Luren instructed its president to negotiate with a student at Luther College regarding singing instruction. Carlo A. Sperati (1860-1945), a native of Christiania, Norway, was hired to direct the society until he graduated in 1888. Membership continued to grow. In March of 1889, Luren Singing Society submitted its $5.00 membership fee to the United Scandinavian Singers of America (U.S.S. of A.) and became part of a whole new network of singing connections. In great American cities— Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha—Luren and other NorwegianAmerican male choruses sang before thousands during the Gay Nineties and joined into massed choruses where the singers far outnumbered a whole audience in Steyer’s Opera House or Solberg’s Hall. At the 1889 gathering in Chicago, they stood before an audience of 5000, and on a sign “from Director Colberg, all 600 singers arose, every one in white hat and gloves, and sang ‘Fanmarsch’ by G. Wennerberg. When the song was ended, there was endless cheering and applause.” Luren went off to the Sangerfest in Minneapolis in 1891, and in 1893 they sang at the World’s Fair in Chicago. By the 1890s, the vast distances ofthe North American continent were putting a strain upon the cohesion of the Scandinavian singers’ association. At the same time, national Vesterheim
Detail of banner painted by M. Jackwitz for Luren Singing Society, Decorah, Iowa, 1875. The motto means “In song we stand united.”
Height, 75 inches; width, 42 inches. Vesterheim 1991.123.001– Gift of Luren Singing Society.
Luren Singing Society banner embroidered by Pauline Fjelde and Thomane Fjelde Hansen, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1902. Height, 70 inches; width, 47 inches. Vesterheim 1993.001.001 – Gift of Luren Singing Society.
factors tugged Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes in different directions and the national economy was in trouble. Hard times hit every corner of the land, including Decorah, and Luren also suffered. At the regular meeting of September 20, 1893, seven regular members submitted their resignations. In subsequent meetings, even more dropped out. By the end of the year, only five men remained. In 1894, Luren dropped out of the U.S.S. of A. and instead joined the Northwestern Scandinavian Singers Association. Luren had begun as a quartet, grown into an organization of 15 singers, with scores of passive and honorary members, a women’s auxiliary, and a fine clubroom—and now, in the depths of a national economic crisis, it was back to five. Five singers are not many, but these five singers happened to be very good. Indeed, it was as a quintet that Luren harvested some of its most impressive honors. They sang, and they organized vaudeville programs full of fun. The programs of the decade following were among the most successful in the whole history of Luren’s first century. The Omaha Sangerfest of 1896 was one of the high points in the long history of Luren Singing Society. Luren stole the show. One newspaper wrote, “the most tremendous storm of jubilation beyond comparison was harvested by ‘Luren’ from Decorah, and if Washington Hall had not been so solidly built, the roof would certainly have been raised so high that it still would not be back to earth.” They were a splendid group in their little round singers’ caps and white neckties. First tenors were old John Jackwitz, his thick muttonchops turned a patriarchal gray, and young Sigurd Halvorson, the mail carrier, everybody’s favorite. Little Carl Larsen, a bookbinder with a walrus mustache and twinkling eyes, sang second tenor. Baritone was O. W. Holm, a linotype operator at the Lutheran Publishing House. Finally Vol. 7, No. 2 2009
came E. M. Sunnes, master machinist at the Synod Press, whose deep bass voice reached as far as his immense brown beard. These five men, every one a soloist, were Luren in 1896. Only four years later, Sigurd Halvorson passed away at a young age in April 1900. Luren reorganized, expanded once again into a larger male chorus, and kept on singing. They rode off in high style to the Sioux Falls Sangerfest of 1902, traveling by private Pullman car and even bringing their wives along. Once again, they stopped the show and were the only group to sing an encore. They also traveled by private railroad car to attend the La Crosse Sangerfest of 1906. The vaudeville side of Luren seemed to run wild in those years. A favorite act was the slack-wire performance of “Ole Olsen and Ching Foo,” both of them Norwegians and members of Luren (Ching Foo was Louis Larsen). Sometimes, the whole Luren chorus dressed up in costume for a Chinese march and song. On other occasions, the Roman Gladiators, Marius and Sulla, would appear on the program. Luren would be spelled by the Mandolin Club, the Tobiason Harp Orchestra, or Professor Haldor Hanson and his violin. Following this, a group of four rough-looking hoboes might burst into the room and commence to perform on instruments made of soap cases and cigar boxes. They were the “Hardup Kvartet,” consisting of E. M. Sunnes, N. N. Quandahl, John Alstad, and Ole P. Rørvig. Then, of course, there was the cherubic Nisse Quartet, the Trolls of Dovre Mountain, an occasional farce written by the famous Hans Christian Andersen, and even the still-popular Wedding Festival in Hardanger. An aura of good fun and joie de vivre hung over those fleeting years from 1900 to around 1905. Luren also got together with other newly formed Norwegian singing societies in the vicinity. From 1909 onwards, there was a Winneshiek County Sangerforbund 19
Parade hat for Luren Singers, worn by A.R. Rikansrud of Decorah, Iowa, 1940-1960. Vesterheim 2003.024.002 – Gift of Grace Rikansrud.
consisting of Gauken from Naseth, Grieg from Nordness, Lærken from Calmar, and Luren from Decorah, which put on concerts and held outings together. The magnificent Luren banner from 1875 was worn with age as the twentieth century began, and Luren voted on January 2, 1902, to order a new banner priced at $156 from the Fjelde Sisters of Minneapolis. Thomane Fjelde Hansen and Pauline Gerhardine Fjelde were renowned textile artists. Among their many commissions, they embroidered the official state flag of Minnesota. The new Luren banner was publicly unveiled to an enthusiastic full house in Grand Opera House on Friday evening, April 18, 1902. There were English and Scandinavian songs by Luren, eight-handed piano pieces by Mendelssohn and Carl Maria von Weber performed by four young Decorah ladies, and two selections by the Luther College Band. Then, Mayor F. W. Daubney took the stage and made a presentation address before unveiling the banner. Luren replied by singing a song written in English for the occasion by J. J. Hopperstad. The Fjelde sisters’ banner waved above Luren Singing Society until 1968, when it was retired from use. It now reposes in Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum beside its predecessor. In the crisis year of 1905, all eyes were on Norway as the country seemed to totter on the brink of war. Norwegians in Decorah and around the world grew more nationalistic in the face of the threat to their native land. Even the carefree singing society, Luren, with its fun-packed programs, its picnics and lively tours, and its motto of “Egen fornøielse” [For one’s own enjoyment, or self satisfaction], turned serious in 1905. Solemn discussions, patriotic songs, long-winded speeches and lectures made their way into meetings held under large Norwegian flags and heavy bunting in the Norwegian national colors. 20
Luren badges, silk, early twentieth century.
Vesterheim 1983.097.001 – Gift of Dr. Christian Hovde.
Ever since 1814, the King of Sweden had also been the King of Norway. Norway was governed under her own constitution, signed at Eidsvoll on May 17, 1814. However, a foreign king in Stockholm remained the head of state and Norwegians wanted full independence. Tensions continued to build, until the crisis finally broke on June 7, 1905, when Prime Minister Christian Michelsen of Norway submitted the resignation of his government to the king and the Storting unilaterally declared that the union with Sweden was dissolved. Would Sweden let Norway go without a fight? All that summer of 1905, a crisis loomed. In late August, delegates from both countries finally worked out an agreement for peaceful separation that left the Norwegians to decide their own form of government. A national plebiscite voted overwhelmingly in favor of monarchy instead of a republic, and in November, Prince Carl of Denmark was elected to reign in Norway as King Haakon VII. When Norway achieved her independence by peaceful means in 1905, the joy in Decorah and throughout Norwegian America was nearly as boundless as in Christiania. The coronation of King Haakon and Queen Maud took place near the grave of Saint Olav at Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim in June of 1906. Two passive members of Luren, K. I. Haugen and B. Anundsen, attended the coronation as Decorah’s representatives, and they presented His Majesty with a splendid document of congratulations from Luren, rendered in polychrome and golden letters upon parchment. In return, the delegates were awarded the Royal Coronation Medal in Silver. O. W. Sunnes was the director of Luren from 1892 until he retired in 1909. J. J. Hopperstad then took up the baton temporarily, but by 1911, he could do it no more. The officers began to negotiate and reported on March 10, 1911, that they had Vesterheim
“gotten a reply from Prof. Sperati, and he asked for five dollars for every time Luren meets to rehearse, and a similar sum for each time he meets for rehearsal with the Winneshiek County Sangerforbund, that is, an average of three meetings a month for Luren and one for the Sangerforbund. Luren accepted the offer.” On March 14, 1911, Carlo A. Sperati returned to direct a rehearsal of Luren Singing Society for the first time in 25 years, but not for the last. This time, he stayed at the podium for a third of a century. Carlo A. Sperati was the son of an Italian musician and his Danish wife who had settled in Christiania in 1850, where Paul Agostino Sperati became prominent in the musical life of the city. His open-air band concerts became part of boulevard life on Christiania’s Karl Johan, and Norwegians came to refer to band music as “Sperati musikk.” The composer Johan Halvorsen (1864-1935) studied with Paolo Sperati, and Henrik Ibsen commissioned him to write music for one of his plays. Paolo Sperati and his Danish wife had several children, including a son who went to sea in 1882 and was not heard of for many years. In 1914, in the centennial year of the Norwegian constitution, this son suddenly reappeared like magic at the head of a concert band from America. His bandsmen marched in the Syttende Mai parade, up Karl Johan and past the royal family on the balcony of the palace, under a banner that read Luther College. They took the city by storm and brought “Sperati musikk” to life again, after all those years. These musicians came from Decorah, Iowa, where Norwegian musical traditions flourished among immigrants who had not forgotten their ancestral homeland and its musical traditions. The leader of this band was Carlo A. Sperati. At 25, he had turned up in 1885 as a student at Luther College and served as Luren’s musical director in 1885-88. After graduation, he went on to the seminary in Minneapolis, finished in 1891, returned to Decorah to marry Miss Emma Hoffoss, and accepted a call to a Lutheran congregation in the state of Washington. In 1905, after 14 years in the state of Washington, he returned to become musical director of Luther College and head of the Luther College Concert Band. He took up Luren’s baton in 1911 and served, with a couple of brief gaps, until September of 1944. The age of emigration from Norway came to an end with the First World War of 1914-18. Luren no longer received fresh impulses from immigrants, because Norwegians no longer came to Decorah in large numbers. As a result, Luren began to change from a Norwegian into a Norwegian-American organization. The new generation of Luren singers had not grown up in Norway. They still spoke Norwegian, but their understanding of Norway was one that had been passed down, not one acquired by firsthand experience. As a result, it tended to be somewhat static, unchanging, and out-of-date. Not even Sperati, who had grown up in Norway, could change that. He certainly could lead, though. Carlo A. Sperati brought the impact of his imagination, vigor, and high musical standards to Luren. He was its director during long, difficult years of social and linguistic transition. Then came national Prohibition, and the fact that their director was an ordained Lutheran clergyman may also have dampened some of the Vol. 7, No. 2 2009
earlier high spirits of the organization. In Sperati’s day, Luren gradually took on the form that it still had in its centennial year of 1968. In some ways, it is a form it has maintained to the present day, though it has gradually moved away from the Norwegian language in conversation. Immigration ground to a halt, but people still read Decorah Posten. A steady stream of visitors from Norway also helped to keep in touch. In 1925, Luren hosted a touring Norwegian chorus, Norges Sangkor, and in October of that year, they put on a concert featuring the Norwegian soloist, Erik Bye. In 1938, they sang for Carl J. Hambro in C. K. Preus gymnasium at Luther College. “Mr. Hambro was from Norway,” wrote Agrim A. Lee in the Luren protocol, “and is the president of the Storting, consequently next to the King of Norway, and Luren sang very well.” The next year, they had even more distinguished guests. The handsome young heir to the throne of Norway, Crown Prince Olav, and his consort, Princess Märtha, spent several festive days in Decorah in May of 1939. Luren sang at the grand banquet at Luther College on Sunday, May 7, and received a “storming ovation.” The royal visit became the high point of the era between the two world wars. In 1935, Luren joined the United Singers of America, then shifted in 1937 to the Scandinavian Singers of America and attended that association’s Sangerfests in Duluth in 1936, Sioux Falls in 1938, Rockford, Illinois, in 1940, and Minneapolis in 1942. Carlo A. Sperati was 82 years old in 1942, but he directed Luren at the Sangerfest in Minneapolis. His chorus included men who had first become members in the 1880s and others who were still members in the centennial year of 1968. A second royal visit did not come until the postwar era. In 1965, Luren sang for Crown Prince Harald of Norway in
Luren Singing Society, May 18, 1935. Left to right, front row: Martin Bergan, Martin Woldum, Carlo Sperati, Oscar Winger, unidentified, Agrim Lee. Second row: John Woldum, Albert Anfinson, Halvor H. Woldum, Lars Nesheim, Charles Johnson, Martin Jensen. Third row: Sig Hoyem, Arthur Lomen, Louis Helgeson, Emick Ellickson. Back row, left to right: William Linnevold, unidentified. Vesterheim Archives—Luren Singing Society Collection. This photograph was used in the Fort Dodge (Iowa) Messenger & Chronicle for the 1935 Sangerfest.
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Sangerfest Parade, Minneapolis,1942. Vesterheim Archives.
front of Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. Brief as it was, this visit by the heir to Norway’s throne—who became King Harald V in 1991—was an unforgettable event that emphasized the unique place of Decorah in relations between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Norway. Only three years later, a reigning monarch of Norway visited Decorah for the first time. It happened in 1968, a year to remember in the history of Luren Singing Society. That year, Luren sang for the King of Norway, celebrated its centennial, acquired the third new banner in their long history, and saw the fruition of plans for their first concert tour abroad. The new banner was donated in memory of Martin Bergan, a member of Luren from 1924 to 1968. It was sewn by Margreth (Mrs. Peter) Hamre and was modeled on the Fjelde sisters’ banner of 1902. In April and May, 1968, there was a Luren exhibition at Vesterheim. Luren’s grand centennial celebration was held in Thomas Roberts gymnasium on April 30, 1968. Three days later, Luren sang for His Majesty Olav V, King of Norway, and they sang as seldom before. On the invitation of President Lyndon B. Johnson, the King of Norway had come to the United States in April of 1968 for an official visit to Washington, D.C. His Majesty went on to a private visit of Norwegian-American communities, starting in Decorah, Iowa, on May 4, 1968, accompanied by the Norwegian ambassador to the United States and a host of other high dignitaries. The day was cold and blustering, and the wind was sharp at the Decorah airport. The welcoming committee included Governor Harold Hughes, Congressman John C. Culver, Mayor Edward Landswerk, Norwegian Vice Consul B. B. Anundsen, and the author, who was chairman of the planning
committee. Reporters, photographers, radio and television personnel from Norway and North America swarmed about. One by one, the seven light planes bearing the royal party touched down. Last of all came the plane bearing that royal ensign of Norway. The cold was forgotten. Reporters swarmed around the small group of dignitaries as they were presented. Mayor Landswerk read his greeting. His Majesty shook hands and exchanged words. Suddenly, the King broke off conversation and stood at attention. So did everybody else. His Majesty had heard the sound of Kongesangen, the Norwegian Royal Anthem, sung by Luren Singing Society on the edge of the milling circle. Even the cameras stopped clicking. Luren has sung for every royal Norwegian to visit since then: King Olav V in 1975 and 1987, King Harald V and Queen Sonja in 1995, and Crown Prince Haakon in 1999. When the anthem was finished, His Majesty went on to his triumphant tour of Decorah, with a parade of welcome along Water Street, an academic procession and program and royal address at Luther College, a parade of children in Norwegian costume, and a private royal visit to Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. At the end of the day, as King Olav was about to depart from the airport, Luren sang him on his way with “Krigsmann” and a rousing “Hurra!” for him. “Luren got the visit off to a great start,” wrote the committee a few days later. “All the rest had to do was keep up the momentum.” One hundred years of song had come to an end. A new century for Norwegian-American song was about to begin. And Luren was off on its first tour of Norway.
About the Author John Robert Christianson taught history at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, from 1967 until 1997 and is currently Research Professor there. He has written, edited, or translated 15 books, 130 articles, and 50 reviews on various aspects of Scandinavian and Scandinavian-American history. He has taught in Norway, lectured in Denmark, sailed throughout Scandinavia and, with his wife, Birgitte, led three study tours and two Luther alumni tours to the Nordic lands. He served on the steering committee for five visits of Norwegian royalty to Decorah between 1968 and 1999, twice as chair and twice as escort to royalty. In 1995, he was dubbed Knight of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit by His Majesty Harald V, King of Norway. 22
Vesterheim