Oscar Borg was a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

  and conductor. He is best known for his compositions of marches

March (music)

A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's Götterdämmerung to the brisk military marches of John...

 for wind bands.

Alfred Oscar Johannessen Borg was born in Halden

Halden

is a both a town and a municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The seat of the municipality, Halden is a border town located at the Tista river delta on the Iddefjord, the southernmost border crossing between Norway and Sweden.-History:...

, Norway. His father, Ole Peter Johannesen (1816–1890), was from the Borg farm in Solør

Solør

Solør is a Norwegian traditional district consisting of the valley between Elverum in the north and Kongsvinger in the south. It is part of the county of Hedmark, and includes the municipalities Våler, Åsnes and Grue.-Glomma valley :...

, from which the family name originated. His father was music sergeant in the 1st Brigades Band of Fredriksten

Fredriksten

-History:This Fortresses was constructed ny Denmark-Norway in the 17th century as a replacement for the border fortress at Bohus, which had been lost when the province of Bohuslän was ceded to Sweden by the terms of the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658...

 Fortress in Halden.

Oscar Borg attended the Royal College of Music

Royal College of Music, Stockholm

The Royal College of Music, Stockholm is the oldest institution of higher education in music in Sweden, founded in 1771 as the conservatory of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music...

 (Musikaliska Akademien) in Stockholm, under the sponsorship of the Crown Prince of Sweden, later King Oscar II of Sweden

Oscar II of Sweden

Oscar II , baptised Oscar Fredrik was King of Sweden from 1872 until his death and King of Norway from 1872 until 1905. The third son of King Oscar I of Sweden and Josephine of Leuchtenberg, he was a descendant of Gustav I of Sweden through his mother.-Early life:At his birth in Stockholm, Oscar...

. He entered the Academy in 1869 and took the music director exam with top marks in the spring of 1872. He had a contractual obligation to return to his old band. He gave his first concert in his hometown as flautist and violinist during October 1872. When in 1881, conductor Friedrich August Reissiger resigned as director of the 1st Brigades Band, Oscar Borg was his replacement. Borg remained the director of the 1st Brigades Band in Halden until he resigned 11 June 1918.

Borg's compositions are characterized by good melodies, euphonious harmonies and skillful instrumentation. Oscar Borg composed 60 marches for military bands, 275 songs and about 170 arrangements. Among the marches most played are Kong Haakon VIIs Honnørmarsj (1905), Kronprins Olavs Honnørmarsj, Den Norske Løve (1894) and Norsk Turnermarsj (1886). He received the King's Medal of Merit in gold and was made a Knight 1st Class of the Order of Vasa

Order of Vasa

The Royal Order of Vasa was a Swedish Royal order of chivalry, awarded to citizens of Sweden for service to state and society especially in the fields of agriculture, mining and commerce. It was instituted on 29 May 1772 by King Gustav III of Sweden...

. He was awarded the King Oscar II Medal in gold, and Kaiser Wilhelms Krieg Verdienstmedalje.

Personal life

Oscar Borg was married twice. In 1874, he married Emilie Göthilda Brunstedt (1853–1904). In 1906, he married Marie Gribsrud (1875–1907). Oscar Borg had 12 children, three of whom died early. Several of the children excelled in the artistic direction: Helge Borg (1894–1965) as a composer of dance music, Dag Borg (1893–1966) as architect and artist and his daughter Ellen (Ragnhild) Borg was a singer.

Other sources

• Hjorthaug, S. Oscar Borg. Hans betydning for musikklivet i Fredrikshald og hans mannskorsanger (University of Oslo: 1970)
• Gundersen, E.A. Oscar Borg. Norges Marsjkonge (Skien: 1991)