Berwald's tendency was represented in the following generation by Albert Rubenson (1826-1901), a less talented but very able composer. He came from the Leipzig school and was thoroughly Germanized, but like Berwald devoted some attention to Swedish subjects. Ludwig Normann (1831-1885) anticipated the modern Swedish composers in his preference for the smaller forms. In his piano music he is tender and idyllic, delighting in detail and suggestive device, something of a poet and tone-painter. Mendelssohn is the chief influence in his piano work. Though this is thin in style, it is rich in charming melody and is carried out with a fine polish. In his larger works, such as the symphony in E-flat major (1840), he is still the melodist; his writing is fresh and even original, but his scoring is without distinction. His romantic overtures are in the Mendelssohnian manner, with romantic color in the fashion of the time.

One of the most talented of the early Swedish composers was Ivan Hallström (1826-1901), who may be said to have been the first truly national composer of his land. He appreciated the artistic possibilities of the national folk-song and made its use in his music a chief tenet in his artistic creed. This was preëminently true in his operas—such as Den Bergtagna, Die Gnomenbraut, Der Viking, and Neaga. The last-named is a romantic work teeming with color and poetry, with traces of Wagnerian influence, but with much vigor, beauty and depth. Some of these works have been favorably received in Germany, but they are not sufficiently personal and dramatic to justify a long life. The Swedish folk-song was carried into symphonic and chamber music by J. Adolph Hägg (born 1850), a disciple of Gade and an able and fruitful composer of symphonies and sonatas, and romantic pieces for piano, which are filled with romantic and local color.

But the early musical generation, of which Hallström may be considered one of the last, was more distinctive and national in its songs than in its instrumental works. The first half of the nineteenth century may be called the golden age of the Swedish Lied. It was a time of choral societies, some of which became famous throughout the continent. Otto Lindblad (1809-1864) was a leader and prolific composer for such societies. It is to his credit to have composed the official national song of Sweden. But the great lyric genius of Sweden was Adolph Fr. Lindblad (1801-1879), who is commonly called 'the Swedish Schubert.' His genius was tender and elegiac, responding sensitively to the colors of nature, and, thanks to the art of Jenny Lind, it became familiar to concert-goers in many lands.

Swedish music of modern times has maintained a wide variety of forms and styles. The national feeling is still strong, though some of the ablest work is being done in an 'absolute' idiom. On the whole the recent Swedish school is best represented to the outside world by Petersen-Berger with his short and graceful piano pieces, and by Sjögren with his songs. In opera Sweden has approached an international standing, but has not quite attained it. Her opera is represented at its best by Andreas Hallén (born 1846), who used national tone-material with Wagnerian technique. Like most other northern musicians of his time he went to Leipzig for his training and sought in Germany for his beacon lights. After returning to his native land he became indispensable in its musical life, serving as director of the Stockholm Philharmonic Society and of the Stockholm opera. Besides songs and choral works he wrote a number of symphonic pieces of a high order, filled with Swedish melody and Swedish color. The Swedish Rhapsodies opus 23, based entirely upon well-known national songs, are of a solid technique and agreeable variety; the themes themselves are little developed, but by their scoring and their juxtaposition they become fused into an admirable whole. The Sommersaga, opus 36, lacks specific Swedish color, but is an attractive and able work in the older romantic style. The Toteninsel, opus 45, is an ambitious symphonic poem. The themes are arresting, the development powerful, and the harmony energetic, but the work lacks the dithyrambic quality demanded of tone-poems in recent times, and hence seems outmoded. In 'The Music of the Spheres,' dating from 1909, we discover an admirable adaptation and fusion of modern harmonic technique, but the ideas and the construction speak of a bygone age. In all these works Hallén was mainly under the influence of Liszt. In the operas, on which his reputation chiefly rests, he was at first wholly Wagnerian. His first work for the stage, 'Harald the Viking,' though presumably Swedish, is utterly Wagnerian in treatment. Were it not that Wagnerian imitation cannot be truly creative, this work would surely take a high rank, for it is powerful, dramatic, and admirably scored. The national tone becomes more marked in the later operas—Hexfällen (1896), Waldemarskatten (1899) and Waldborgsmässa (1901). The Wagnerian leit-motif and Wagnerian harmony are still present, but the Swedish material has suitably modified the general style. In Waldemarskatten, which is of a light romantic tone, one even feels that the composer has despaired of being successful in the highest musical forms and has made a compromise in the direction of easy popularity. But the work is filled with beautiful passages. In the spots where Hallén imitates folk-song or folk-dance, he is fresh and inspiring. His musical treatment is never highly personal; on the other hand he shows most valuable qualities—vigor, passion, folk-feeling, and above all dramatic sense. His scoring, too, is rich and colorful.

Perhaps the best known and most typical of the modern Swedes is Emil Sjögren (born 1853), the undisputed master of the modern Swedish art-song. No other composer of his land is so individual as he. No other is more specifically Swedish, in perfumed grace and sensuous tenderness. Yet he is by no means a salon composer. His work is energetic, showing at times even a touch of the noble and heroic. His nationalism does not consist so much in his use of actual Swedish material as in his finely racial manner of treatment. In his short piano pieces—cycles, novelettes, landscape pictures, etc.—he has impregnated the salon manner of a Mendelssohn with something of the color and personal feeling of a Grieg. His choral works are highly prized in Sweden. His work in the classical forms, chiefly for violin and piano, are conservative in form and (until recently) in harmony. But it is in his songs that Sjögren has expressed himself most perfectly. These are very numerous and show a wide range of emotional expression. Beyond a doubt they are thoroughly successful only in the tenderer and intimate moods. They reveal a psychological power recalling that of Schumann, and an impressionistic harmonic perfume similar to that in Grieg's best work. In the brief strophe form Sjögren shows himself master of the exquisite form which distinguishes the Swedish folk-song. In his early period his accompaniment followed closely the regular voice-part, and his harmony, while always personal, was simple. A middle period shows a perfect blending of voice and piano, with freedom and variety in each, much pianistic resourcefulness, and a remarkable melodic gift. Since this period his harmony has undergone a striking change. He has evidently sat at the feet of the modern French masters, and has adopted an idiom which is complex and difficult. He has managed to keep it original and personal, but it is to be doubted whether the recent songs will ever hold a permanent place beside the lovely ones of the middle period.

Of almost equal personal distinction and importance is Wilhelm Petersen-Berger (born 1867), a master of romantic piano music in the smaller forms, and a national voice to his native land. His work is varied. There is chamber music such as the E minor violin sonata. There is a 'Banner Symphony' (1904) and one entitled Sonnenfärd (1910). There are male choruses, such as En Fjällfärd, and orchestral works such as the 'May Carnival in Stockholm,' together with at least four operas—Sveagaldrar (1897), Das Glück (1902), Ran (1903) and Arnljot (1907). Finally there are the piano pieces, a rich and varied list ranging all the way from the simplest of 'parlor melodies' to large tone poems and concert works. Some of the piano pieces bear such titles as 'To the Roses,' 'Summer Song,' and 'Lawn Tennis.' Others are ambitiously named 'Northern Rhapsody' (with orchestra) and 'Swedish Summer.' With some of these works Petersen-Berger takes a place beside the ablest and most poetic modern writers for the pianoforte. Landscape, story and mood are here expressed, with a technique ranging from that of Schumann's 'Children's Pieces' all the way to the modern idiom of Ravel. If some of the pieces seem cheap and sentimental let it be remembered that they are replacing much less attractive things written by third rate men, and are helping to raise the taste of the 'ordinary music-lover' as Mendelssohn's 'Songs without Words' did half a century before. His melody is truly lyric and his harmony truly impressionistic. His genius for the piano is proved by his ability to get full and colorful effects out of a style of writing which on paper looks thin. Though sentimentality abounds, the spirit is fundamentally vigorous and healthy and at times approaches something like tragic dignity. The 'Northern Rhapsody' is a wholly admirable treatment of folk-tunes on a large scale and with the idiom of pianistic virtuosity. The songs are often charming, though on the whole less satisfactory than the piano pieces. When he writes simply he shows almost flawless taste and artistic selection. When he aims at the mood of high tragedy, as in the songs from Nietzsche, he is sometimes unexpectedly successful. The Nietzsche songs, radical in technique, are moving and impressive. In his large works Petersen-Berger is not so successful. His Sonnenfärd symphony is lyric, rather than orchestral. It is lacking in structural power, and in the broad spiritual sweep which such a large-scale work must have. But here again his charming melody almost saves the day. The opera Arnljot can hardly be called a success; it is long and ambitious, but thinly written, undramatic, and not very pleasing.

In direct contrast to Petersen-Berger is Hugo Alfvén (born 1872), Sweden's most important contrapuntist. In him the national influence is reduced to a minimum, though it is sometimes to be noticed in a certain manner of forming themes and moulding cadences. Swedish color is, however, noticeable in certain works specifically national. The Midsommarvaka is built upon Swedish tunes, organized and developed in the spirit of the classic composers. The whole spirit is intellectual and technical, but this has its agreeable side in the composer's ability to build up long sustained passages. The 'Upsala Rhapsody,' opus 24, is merely an excuse for the technical manipulation of a collection of rather cheap melodies. The symphonies are more able and even less interesting. The solidity and complexity of the polyphonic style excite admiration, but the themes are without distinction and the total effect is pedantic. In his songs, however, Alfvén gives us a surprise. His power of development here becomes something like poetic greatness, especially where the form is free enough to give the work a symphonic character. The voice part is unconventional, declamatory and impressive, and the accompaniment varied and impressive. Altogether, these songs are among the most admirable which modern Scandinavian has given us.

Among the other able composers of modern Sweden we should mention Tor Aulin (born 1866), who has consecrated his lyric and poetic talent chiefly to the violin; Erik Akerberg (born 1860), whose classical predilections have led him to choral and symphonic work; and Wilhelm Stenhammar (born 1871). The last is one of the ablest of modern Swedish composers, a man whose talents have by no means been adequately recognized, and a genius, perhaps, who is destined to out-strip his better-known contemporaries. The list of his works includes two operas, Tirfing (1898) and 'The Feast at Solhaug' (the libretto from Ibsen's play); string quartets, sonatas and concertos for piano and violin; large choral works, songs, and ballads with orchestral accompaniment. The piano concerto, opus 23, ranks with Grieg's finest orchestral works. The themes, not always remarkable, are lifted into the extraordinary by Stenhammar's brilliant handling of them. The A minor quartet, opus 25, shows great beauty of simple material, and an intellectual and technical dominance which lift it quite above the usual Swedish chamber music. The sonata for violin and piano, opus 19, is a fine work, simple, fresh, original and charming. In much of the instrumental music the idiom is advanced, with the emphasis thrown on the voice leading rather than on the harmony; but it cannot easily be referred to a single school, for it is always personal and individually expressive. When we come to a work like Midvinter, opus 24, a tone poem for large orchestra, we are at the summit of modern Scandinavian romantic writing. This work is a masterpiece. The themes, says the composer in a note, were taken down by ear from the fiddler Hinns Andersen, except for one, a traditional Christmas hymn which is sung by a chorus obbligato. The counterpoint in this work is masterly, the animal vigor overwhelming. At no point is the composer found wanting in structural power or invention. On the whole, no modern Scandinavian composer, unless it be Sinding, approaches Stenhammar in the fusing of fresh poetry with strong intellectual and technical control. But not only has he written some of Scandinavia's finest chamber and symphonic music; he has written also at least one opera which stands out from among its contemporaries as genius stands out from imitation. This is 'The Feast at Solhaug,' opus 6, dated 1896, and performed at the Berlin Royal Opera House in 1905. This work is utterly lyrical and utterly national; it is doubtful if there is a more thoroughly Swedish work in the whole list of modern Scandinavian music. In the vulgar sense it is not dramatic; it has little concern for square-cornered emotions and startling confrontations. Its melody, which is astonishingly abundant, is always spontaneous and always expressive. The discreetly managed accompaniment is unfailingly resourceful in supplying color and emotional expression. We can say without hesitation that there has been no more beautiful dramatic work in the whole history of Scandinavian opera.

IV

Norway, as it seems, has always been a nation of great individuals. In her early history she was as isolated socially as she was geographically. Though nominally a part of the Swedish Empire, she always maintained a large measure of independence, and strengthened the barrier of high mountains with a more impassable barrier of neighborhood jealousy. Life was difficult among the mountains and fjords, and each man was obliged to depend upon his own courage and energy. Luxury was unknown. Even civilization was primitive. Hence, when Norway began to attain artistic expression in the nineteenth century she was as provincial as a little village in the middle west of America. But her life, while simple, was intense, and the narrowness of the spiritual environment fostered a broad culture of the soul. Norway became a nation of laborers, of poets, of thinkers, and of religious seers. The very friction that opposed the current made it give out more light.