Ole Bull

A child prodigy, Bull was admitted to the Bergen orchestra as first violin at the age of eight. He soon was idolized on both sides of the Atlantic for his superb improvisations and his ability to play the violin polyphonically. Though he was hailed as "the Paganini of the North," some critics labeled him a charlatan for his apparently magic tricks on the violin. Bull counted among his friends the great names of his era: Schumann and Lizst, Emerson and Wagner. Longfellow and Hans Christian Andersen modeled characters on him, and he was in part the inspiration for Ibsen's Peer Gynt. Although he spent most of his adult life abroad, Bull was a tireless promoter of Norwegian art and culture. His concert improvisations were rooted in his native slåtter (folkdance tunes), and he modified his own instrument using the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle as a model. By mid-century, Bull realized his dream of establishing a national theater in Bergen. He gave Henrik Ibsen a start in theater management, employed the poet Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, and promoted the music of Edvard Grieg. His attempt to establish a Norwegian colony, "Oleana," in the United States, however, failed through poor management. The words of the poet Aasmund Vinje, "That surely would be a man to write a book about," have been taken to heart by authors Einar Haugen and Camilla Cai. In addition to providing the first comprehensive listing of Bull's works (with full descriptions of all known sources), analyses of his compositions and their influences, and reviews of his performances, this biography gives life once again to a fascinating and flamboyant figure.

CD-ROM contains: Fully searchable version of Fuller's complete writings for the New-York Tribune.

The violin was first mentioned in a book in the sixteenth century. An abundant and diverse literature on the instrument has grown since then, and a complete general guide to these materials has not been produced in the modern era. The last, Edward Heron-Allen's De Fidiculis Bibliographia , was published in1894. This book fills that void, organizing and annotating information on the violin from a variety of fields and sources. It provides a comprehensive, though selective, guide to all facets of the instrument. The book is divided into 4 main parts: Reference and General Studies; Acoustics and Construction; Violin Playing, Performance Practice, and Music; and Violinists, Composers, and Violin Teachers. It will serve as a ready reference for students and scholars, and is a welcome addition to the esteemed Routledge Music Bibliography series.