![Titelvignet fra klavernoderne til balletten Et Folkesagn](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Titelvignet_fra_klavernoderne_til_balletten_Et_Folkesagn.png)
''A Folk Tale'' ( da, Et Folkesagn) is a
ballet
Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
in three acts, created in 1854 for the
Royal Danish Ballet
The Royal Danish Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Danish Theatre in Kongens Nytorv, Copenhagen, Denmark. It is one of the oldest ballet companies in the world and originates from 1748, when the Ro ...
by the Danish ballet master and choreographer
August Bournonville
August Bournonville (21 August 1805 – 30 November 1879) was a Danish ballet master and choreographer. He was the son of Antoine Bournonville, a dancer and choreographer trained under the French choreographer, Jean Georges Noverre, and the nep ...
to the music of
Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann
Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann (14 May 1805 – 10 March 1900) was, together with his son-in-law Niels W. Gade, the leading Danish composer of the 19th century. According to Alfred Einstein, he was ″the real founder of the Romantic movement in D ...
and
Niels W. Gade
Niels Wilhelm Gade (22 February 1817 – 21 December 1890) was a Danish composer, conductor, violinist, organist and teacher. Together with Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann, he was the leading Danish musician of his day.
Biography
Gade was born ...
. The first performance took place on 20 March 1854. Set in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
, the ballet tells the story of a
changeling
A changeling, also historically referred to as an auf or oaf, is a human-like creature found in folklore throughout Europe. A changeling was believed to be a fairy that had been left in place of a human (typically a child) stolen by other fairi ...
living among the
trolls
A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...
and
elves
An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes "ligh ...
. Bournonville declared the ballet "The most complete and best of all my choreographic works."
[Terry, Walter. ''The King's Ballet Master: A Biography of Denmark's August Bournonville.'' New York: Dodd, Mead, & Company, 1979. .]
Background
At the beginning of the 1850s,
Svend Grundtvig
Svend Hersleb Grundtvig (9 September 1824, Copenhagen – 14 July 1883, Frederiksberg) was a Danish literary historian and ethnographer. He was one of the first systematic collectors of Danish traditional music, and he was especially interested ...
initiated a systematic recording of
Danish folklore
Danish folklore consists of folk tales, legends, songs, music, dancing, popular beliefs, myths and traditions communicated by the inhabitants of towns and villages across the country, often passed on from generation to generation by word of mout ...
- the stories were told and written down in every little village in Denmark – but Bournonville did not credit Grundtvig as his source of inspiration, even though today Grundtvig is probably considered to be the person who made the most effort to preserve the wealth of Danish national folk tradition. Bournonville found his inspiration in a collection of national Danish songs (''Nationalmelodier'') published by the
philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
R. Nyerup and the composer
A.P. Berggren in
J.M. Thiele's collection of Danish folk legends (''Danske Folkesagn'') published in four volumes between 1818 and 1823. Bournonville also found inspiration in the tales collected by the
Grimm brothers
The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...
in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
The Romantic artists had a passion for the national and the past. The early part of the 19th century was a difficult time both politically and economically for Denmark, and this naturally generated a glorification of times past. The emergent bourgeoisie needed to consolidate its cultural status and found motifs for this in national folklore. The economic growth in a rapidly expanding Copenhagen had to some extent overshadowed spiritual development. Artists interpreted their contemporary society in a purely materialistic light. Oehlenschläger's poem about ''The Golden Horns'' (''Guldhornene'') is probably the most famous example of this issue but Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale ''The Bell'' (''Klokken'') depicted the materialistic fixation of the period with humour, irony and gravity.
In the chapter about ''A Folk Tale'' in ''My Theatre Life'' (''Mit Teaterliv''), Bournonville makes his attitude to the present and the past clear: he indicates that our practical and rather unpoetic times (which seem about to precipitate a period of literary and artistic crop failure on the very lands that were once the richest soil of the imagination) art has fallen by the wayside. The poetic past has been replaced by a 'hypercritical' present, as Bournonville himself writes, and it is the duty of the artist to restore the spiritual, the poetry.
The artist saw himself as endowed by God with the ability to sense the true values and perspective in life. This insight was to be communicated to the ordinary citizen through art.
The function of art as a formative model was something about which Bournonville felt very strongly. In his choreographic credo he writes: It is the mission of art in general, and the theatre in particular, to intensify thought, to elevate the mind, and to refresh the senses. Music and dance elevate the mind and refresh the senses, but it is when the story comes into play that thought is intensified.
''A Folk Tale'' takes as its starting point the archetypal dilemma of the folk ballad, the transition from one home to another in the context of a wedding, where both men and women run the risk of getting into difficulties. The men might be lured under a spell by elves and the women might be carried off by disguised nixes and it always happens in an outdoor, natural environment, which is both compelling and mysterious. Both the elves and the nixes exert a demonic and erotic power over the victims and in most cases have a fateful impact on them - many end in the grave.
Bournonville must have had the folk songs ''
Elveskud
"Elveskud" or "Elverskud" (; Danish for "Elf-shot") is the Danish, and most widely used, name for one of the most popular ballads in Scandinavia (''The Types of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballad'' A 63 'Elveskud — Elf maid causes man's sicknes ...
'' (The
Elf-shot
In English folklore, elf-arrows, elf-bolts and pixie arrows were names given to discovered arrowheads of flint, used in hunting and war by the Pre-Indo-Europeans of the British Isles and of Europe generally. The name derives from the folklore be ...
) and ''
Elvehøj
''Elvehøj'' (''Elf Hill'') is the Danish name of a Scandinavian ballad (''Danmarks gamle folkeviser'' no. 46), known in Swedish as ''Älvefärd'' (''Sveriges medeltida ballader'' no. 31), type A 65 ('knight released from elves at dawn') in '' ...
'' (The Elves' Hill) in mind when he has Junker Ove linger at the hill after lunch with Miss Birthe, his fiancée, only to dream of another - a beautiful and gentle Hilda, the counter-image of Birthe. It is always at this point - the moment of doubt before a wedding - that the elves appear. For the young man in the folksong ''Elveskud'', the encounter proves fatal. He refuses to dance with the elf girl and her punishment is so harsh that he dies. He is laid in his grave on his wedding day, followed by his fiancée and his mother. In ''Elvehøj'', which is of a later date than ''Elveskud'', it is God who has human fate in his hands. He lets the cock crow at dawn and the young man, who had slept by the hill, wakes from his spell (which turns out to have been a dream) and he counts himself lucky. The manager of the Royal Theatre, J.L. Heiberg - who Bournonville fell out with on numerous occasions during this period because he thought that Heiberg was trying to drive the ballet off the stage - had experienced great success with his ''Elvehøj'', which in
Biedermeier
The ''Biedermeier'' period was an era in Central Europe between 1815 and 1848 during which the middle class grew in number and the arts appealed to common sensibilities. It began with the Congress of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars in ...
style, lets the elves' dance dissolve into dream and delusion.
Despite this, Bournonville decided to compose his own version of the story about the young man who is danced into a spell by a group of elf maidens. In an engraving from 1856, the painter
Edvard Lehmann, who was also a close friend of the Bournonville family, portrayed the spellbound Junker Ove encircled by the hovering, luminous elves. Ove is briefly imprisoned in this state, but fortunately the beautiful Hilda comes to his rescue with water from a healing spring. Even though she has grown up among trolls inside the hill, we know that she is really a changeling, swapped as a baby with the temperamental Birthe, who is the real troll child. The changeling aspect means that the story never becomes as seriously dangerous for Ove as the Sylphide's enchantment is for James in Bournonville's Taglioni-inspired ballet from 1836. But then, again, the Danish Romantics did not cultivate fragmentation in the same way as the French. The Danes sought for the harmony and the idyll.
Even though both Junker Ove and Hilda suspect that they are in the wrong place in their lives as the story begins, they are not able to act on their own initiative. The dream gives Hilda an inkling of this other life, and the dream by the hill gives Junker Ove an idea about the ideal woman, but it is the crucifix and the golden goblet, two Christian symbols, which reveal the truth of the matter. Christianity is to be thanked for the restoration of harmony. Junker Ove gets his Hilda, and the promise of gold persuades Sir Mogens to be united with Birthe who, in a modern interpretation, represents the young woman with the unruly disposition unable to conform to society's norms. She is handed over - troll for gold - to Sir Mogens in order to continue her life somewhere else completely.
Following Bournonville's death,
Hans Beck
Hans Beck (6 May 1929, Greiz – 30 January 2009, Markdorf) was the German inventor of Playmobil toys. He is often described as "The Father of Playmobil". He began to make toys at an early age and trained as a cabinet maker, before being recruit ...
took over the stewardship of the ballets. In 1894, '' A Folk Tale'' was once again on stage, in Hans Beck's production. It has since been passed down from generation to generation, re-read and re-staged by successive Bournonville interpreters:
Gustav Uhlendorff in 1922,
Kaj Smith in 1931,
Harald Lander
Harald Alfred Bernhardt Stevnsborg Lander (25 February 1905 – 14 September 1971) was a Danish dancer, choreographer and artistic director of the Royal Danish Ballet.
Lander was born in Copenhagen. He started as a dancer, studying under ballet ...
and
Valborg Borschsenius
Walpurgis Night (), an abbreviation of Saint Walpurgis Night (from the German ), also known as Saint Walpurga's Eve (alternatively spelled Saint Walburga's Eve), is the eve of the Christian feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess i ...
in 1941,
Niels-Bjørn Larsen and
Gerda Karstens
Gerda Elisabeth Karstens (9 July 1903 – 13 June 1988) was a Danish ballet dancer with the Royal Danish Theatre where she became a soloist in 1942. She is remembered in particular for her interpretations of Madge in Bournonville's ''La Sylphide ...
in 1952,
Hans Brenaa
Hans Brenaa (b Copenhagen, 9 October 1910, d Copenhagen, 14 April 1988) was a Danish dancer, teacher, and ballet director. He studied at the Royal Danish Ballet
The Royal Danish Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, bas ...
and
Kirsten Ralov
Kirsten Ralov (26 March 1922 – 30 May 1999) was a Danish ballerina.
She was born to Kai and Kaja Gnatt, née Olsen, a family of dancers living in Baden, Austria. Kirsten's mother encouraged her, and her brother Poul, to train as dancers. She e ...
in 1969, Kirsten Ralov in 1977 and 1979. The most recent version of this lively folklorist ballet was produced in 1991, staged by
Frank Andersen
Frank Andersen (born 15 April 1953 in Copenhagen) is a former Danish ballet dancer who was twice artistic director of the Royal Danish Ballet. He has been an influential supporter of the Danish choreographer August Bournonville.
Biography
Anderse ...
and
Anne Marie Vessel Schlüter
Anne Marie Vessel Schlüter (born 1 May 1949) is a Danish ballet dancer who joined the Royal Danish Ballet in 1965. After retiring from the stage in 1988, she headed the Royal Danish Theatre's ballet school until 2006, maintaining the traditional ...
, with settings and costumes designed by
Queen Margrethe II
Margrethe II (; Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid, born 16 April 1940) is Queen of Denmark. Having reigned as Denmark's monarch for over 50 years, she is Europe's longest-serving current head of state and the world's only incumbent femal ...
.
Plot summary
Act I
The wealthy but fickle Birthe enjoys a forest outing with friends. She flirts with Sir Mogens though her bethrothed, the handsome Junker Ove is present. When the party leaves for home, Ove remains behind. An elf-hill nearby opens. Hilda, an elf-girl, tries to lure Ove into the hill with a magic drink in a gold cup but he refuses it and she returns to the elf-hill. The sorceress Muri conjures up a bevy of elf-girls who dance with Ove and leave him deranged.
Act II
In the elf-hill, troll brothers Diderik and Viderik both woo Hilda. Diderik, the elder, has the right of priority. Viderik protests, but his mother scolds him. In a dream, Hilda sees trolls take a human child from a cradle and steal a gold cup. Hilda recognizes the dream cup as the one she offered Ove. She suspects she is the human child in the dream and becomes uneasy. The wedding of Hilda and Diderik is celebrated with a feast. The trolls become drunk and Hilda flees.
Act III
In scene 1, Hilda dances near a holy spring as harvesters pass by and Mogens notices her. Junker Ove walks by, completely elf-struck after his nocturnal dances with the elf-girls. Hilda leads him to the healing spring where he regains his senses. When Ove tries to defend Hilda against Mogens, he is overpowered by the harvesters. Hilda flees. In scene 2, Birthe bullies her servants. She rages and admits that Hilda is the true heir to the estate while she is an elf. In the last scene of the ballet, Mogens marries Birthe after Muri offers him gold. Hilda is united with Junker Ove. Hilda and Ove celebrate their wedding with a
waltz
The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position.
History
There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the wa ...
.
Characters
*Birthe, a rich, young noblewoman
*Junker Ove, Birthe's bethrothed
*Sir Mogens, a flirtatious nobleman
*Hilda, a changeling
*Muri, a sorceress
*Diderik, an elf-boy
*Viderik, an elf-boy
*Nobles, peasants, gypsies, trolls, elves
Music
Niels W. Gade provided the music for the beech forest scenes of Acts I and III, while J.P.E. Hartmann composed the music with an Old Norse tone for the
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. trolls in Act II.
Act I presents the principal musical characteristics: the brisk music of the hunt, the ballad-like folksong melodies, the nobles' dignified
minuet
A minuet (; also spelled menuet) is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in time. The English word was adapted from the Italian ''minuetto'' and the French ''menuet''.
The term also describes the musical form that accompa ...
, the
peasant
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants ...
s'
reel
A reel is an object around which a length of another material (usually long and flexible) is wound for storage (usually hose are wound around a reel). Generally a reel has a cylindrical core (known as a '' spool'') with flanges around the en ...
and the elf maidens' dance. Gade's orchestration shows patent inspiration from
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sy ...
(1809–1957) and his ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream
''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...
''.
Hartmann's music for Act II is typified by a clear-cut character idiom in which rhythmic tension and dark resonance dominate. For Hilda's solo he composed an elegant
bolero
Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It has ...
and a festive
galop
In dance, the galop, named after the fastest running gait of a horse (see Gallop), a shortened version of the original term galoppade, is a lively country dance, introduced in the late 1820s to Parisian society by the Duchesse de Berry and popul ...
for the drunken trolls.
In Act III, the final scene features a gypsy
polonaise
The polonaise (, ; pl, polonez ) is a dance of Polish origin, one of the five Polish national dances in time. Its name is French for "Polish" adjective feminine/"Polish woman"/"girl". The original Polish name of the dance is Chodzony, meani ...
, followed by the ''Bridal Waltz'', a famous composition Gade considered to be a trifle, but which nowadays accompanies practically every Danish wedding.
References
External links
Bournonville: ''A Folk Tale''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Folk Tale, A
Ballets by August Bournonville
1854 ballet premieres
Ballets premiered at the Royal Danish Theatre
Compositions by Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann
Compositions by Niels Gade