Herman Severin Løvenskiold
Encyclopedia
August Bournonville
August Bournonville was a Danish ballet master and choreographer. August was the son of Antoine Bournonville, a dancer and choreographer trained under the French choreographer, Jean Georges Noverre, and the nephew of Julie Alix de la Fay, née Bournonville, of the Royal Swedish Ballet.August was...
's 1836 version of the ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
La Sylphide
La Sylphide
La Sylphide is one of the world's oldest surviving romantic ballets. There were two versions of the ballet; the version choreographed by the Danish balletmaster August Bournonville is the only version known to have survived....
for the Royal Danish Ballet
Royal Danish Ballet
The Royal Danish Ballet is one of the oldest ballet companies in the world. Based in Copenhagen, Denmark, it originates from 1748, when the Royal Danish Theatre was founded, and was finally organized in 1771 in response to the great popularity of French and Italian styles of dance...
in Copenhagen.
Life
Løvenskiold was born on July 30, 1815 in Holmestrand, Norway, where his father, Baron ECF Løvenskiold, was director of the royal ironworks. In 1829 Løvenskiold's father relocated his family to Denmark where he had accepted a position with the forestry service, where he supervised the area surrounding Furesø Lake north of Copenhagen.Løvenskiold was originally intended for military service, but his great musical talent came to the attention of the composers Christoph Weyse
Christopher Ernst Friedrich Weyse
Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse was a Danish composer.Weyse was born at Altona, now in German territory, but Danish at the time the composer was born. He studied music with Johann Abraham Peter Schulz in Copenhagen...
and Friedrich Kuhlau
Friedrich Kuhlau
Friedrich Daniel Rudolf Kuhlau was a German-Danish composer during the Classical and Romantic periods. He was a central figure of the Danish Golden Age....
, and through their intervention the young Løvenskiold was allowed to study music.
Soon Løvenskiold took up composition, showing a great facility for melody and instrumentation. In 1835 he came to the attention of the great choreographer August Bournonville
August Bournonville
August Bournonville was a Danish ballet master and choreographer. August was the son of Antoine Bournonville, a dancer and choreographer trained under the French choreographer, Jean Georges Noverre, and the nephew of Julie Alix de la Fay, née Bournonville, of the Royal Swedish Ballet.August was...
, Maître de Ballet en Chef of the Royal Danish Ballet
Royal Danish Ballet
The Royal Danish Ballet is one of the oldest ballet companies in the world. Based in Copenhagen, Denmark, it originates from 1748, when the Royal Danish Theatre was founded, and was finally organized in 1771 in response to the great popularity of French and Italian styles of dance...
, who commissioned the 21-year-old composer to create the music for his version of the ballet La Sylphide
La Sylphide
La Sylphide is one of the world's oldest surviving romantic ballets. There were two versions of the ballet; the version choreographed by the Danish balletmaster August Bournonville is the only version known to have survived....
.
The work had originally been staged in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
by Filippo Taglioni
Filippo Taglioni
Filippo Taglioni was an Italian dancer and choreographer and personal teacher to his own daughter, the famous Romantic ballerina Marie Taglioni. He is the son of Carlo and father of both Marie and Paul...
for the legendary Ballet du Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique (today known as the Paris Opéra Ballet
Paris Opera Ballet
The Paris Opera Ballet is the oldest national ballet company in the world, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it...
) to the music of Jean-Madeliene Schnietzhoeffer. Bournonville saw the ballet in 1834, and was so delighted with it that he decided to stage the work for the Royal Danish Ballet
Royal Danish Ballet
The Royal Danish Ballet is one of the oldest ballet companies in the world. Based in Copenhagen, Denmark, it originates from 1748, when the Royal Danish Theatre was founded, and was finally organized in 1771 in response to the great popularity of French and Italian styles of dance...
in Copenhagen. But the administration of the Royal Danish Theatre
Royal Danish Theatre
The Royal Danish Theatre is both the national Danish performing arts institution and a name used to refer to its old purpose-built venue from 1874 located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The theatre was founded in 1748, first serving as the theatre of the king, and then as the theatre of the...
refused to supply Bournonville the funds for the extremely high price the Paris Opéra demanded for Schnietzhoeffer's orchestral parts. In light of this, Bournonville chose to stage his own version. Rather than create a musical pastiche from popular airs derived from operas and/or various other sources (which was how a great many ballet scores of the period were crafted), the Balletmaster turned to the young Løvenskiold, who supplied an original score filled with the melodious, rhythmically clear musique dansante Bournonville required. Burnonville's version of La Sylphide premiered to great success on November 28, 1836, with the legendary ballerina Lucille Grahn as the Sylph. The Danish version of the work would prove to be the most enduring (though by default), and has been staged for many companies throughout the world
In 1838 Løvenskiold traveled to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, and St. Petersburg to continue his musical studies. He settled in Copenhagen in 1842 when he was appointed royal kammermusikus to the Royal Danish Court. By 1851 he was named court organist to the church of Christiansborg Palace
Christiansborg Palace
Christiansborg Palace, , on the islet of Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen, is the seat of the Folketing , the Danish Prime Minister's Office and the Danish Supreme Court...
by King Frederick VII
Frederick VII of Denmark
Frederick VII was a King of Denmark. He reigned from 1848 until his death. He was the last Danish monarch of the older Royal branch of the House of Oldenburg and also the last king of Denmark to rule as an absolute monarch...
.
Løvenskiold continued composing ballets, as well as music for plays, singspiels, and several piano and chamber pieces. However, none of this work attained the fame of his score for Bournonville's La Sylphide. Having been Baron by title, he was considerably wealthy, and composed merely for his own pleasure.
He died in Copenhagen on December 5, 1870.
Notable works
- La SylphideLa SylphideLa Sylphide is one of the world's oldest surviving romantic ballets. There were two versions of the ballet; the version choreographed by the Danish balletmaster August Bournonville is the only version known to have survived....
, ballet, 1836 - Hulen i Kullafjeld, Singspiel, 1839
- Ny the Penelope, ballet, 1847
- Turandot, opera, 1854
- Fra skoven ved Furesø, Concert Overture, 1863