Norwegian Emigrant Songs and Ballads

Theodore Blegen, Martin Ruud

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Year: 1936
• eBook ISBN:
  9781452937588
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music History & Criticism

Norwegian Emigrant Songs and Ballads was first published in 1936. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.This book, presenting the English and Norwegian texts of more than fifty emigrant songs and ballads, forms a unique contribution to folk literature and social history. Here is collected for the first time a group of songs born of the European folk movement to America during the nineteenth century.Many of the ballads are human stories of gripping interest. They cover a wide range of emotions, from pathos and nostalgia to anger and satire. Some are gay and humorous skits. The most popular of the ballads is the rollicking “Oleana.” Some of the others are: “Farewell to the Spinning Wheel,” “Sigrid’s Song,” “Let Us Away and over the Sea,” “El Dorado,” “A Pestilence is Loose in the Mountains,” “Brothers, the Day of Norway’s Freedom,” and “A Song Concerning the Emigration to America.”A general historical sketch precedes the ballads, and each song in turn is placed in its special setting by a brief preface. Music, harmonized for the piano, is provided for a dozen of the ballads.

Table of contents

• CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• THE EMIGRANTS AT HAVRE DE GRACE
• THE SEVENTEENTH OF MAY IN MID-ATLANTIC
• RAILROAD TRAINS, STEAMBOATS, AND LIBERTY
• TO OUR BROTHERS EMIGRATING TO AMERICA
• A HUMBLE MAN'S REFLECTIONS ON EMIGRATION
• A FAREWELL TO A NORWEGIAN SQUIRE
• AN EMIGRANT'S SONG
• I WOULD I WERE ON THE MISSISSIPPI: AN EMIGRANT DIALOGUE
• SONGS FROM HENRIK WERGELAND'S LAST PLAY
• NOSTALGIA
• NORWAY AND AMERICA
• A DIALOGUE CONCERNING EMIGRATION
• EVENING PRAYER ON THE ATLANTIC
• A FAREWELL FROM WISCONSIN
• THE AMERICA LETTER
• TO AN EMIGRANT SCHOONER
• TO AN EXPEDITION OF CALIFORNIA GOLD-SEEKERS
• EL DORADO
• A LABOR UNION SONG
• FAREWELL TO NORWAY
• THE HOUR HAS COME
• A GREETING TO A GROUP OF DEPARTING EMIGRANTS
• THE HARMONY, AN EMIGRANT BRIG
• THE DEPARTURE OF A YOUNG MINISTER FOR THE AMERICAN WEST
• AMERICA, OLE BULL, AND THE NEW NORWAY
• BETTER THAN GOLD
• OLEANA
• MASSACHUSETTS EMIGRANT SONG
• THE NARRATIVE OF A DISILLUSIONED EMIGRANT
• THE EMIGRANT'S LAMENT
• ON THE RETURN OF A "CALIFORNIAN"
• A NORSEMAN'S NOSTALGIA
• THE SKELETON AT THE PARTY
• A PAINTING BY TIDEMAND
• THEY GO ABOARD
• A PESTILENCE IS LOOSE IN THE MOUNTAINS
• NORWAY: A RETROSPECT
• STAY IN THE COUNTRY
• DON'T SIT HERE AT HOME
• WE LEAVE OUR NATIVE HOME AND HEATH
• WILDERNESS OF WATERS
• THE EMIGRANT'S SWEETHEART
• FAREWELL TO THE VALLEY OF GLOMMEN
• AN EMIGRANT SHIP LEAVING CHRISTIANIA
• FAREWELL TO FOLK AND PARISH
• I DON'T WONDER YOU'RE GOING: A BALLAD FROM NUMEDAL
• EMIGRANT SCENES AT BERGEN
• WHAT GOOD ARE GOLD AND MONEY?
• THE NORWEGIAN MAIDEN IN AMERICA
• AGENTS AND RUNNERS
• WORK IS NO SLAVERY: AN EMIGRANT FAREWELL
• YOU SKIMPED A BIT: A FAREWELL
• HOW THINGS HAVE GONE
• AIRS HARMONIZED FOR THE PIANO