(Svenskt Porträttarkiv)

Early years and studies in Sweden

Johan Isidor Dannström was born on 15 December 1812 in Stockholm. His parents were the appraiser Anders Dannström and his wife Charlotta Lovisa Rönnqvist. Skills in music came from his mother’s side of the family, and Isidor Dannström grew up with three brothers and two sisters in a musical home. Dannström’s good singing voice and skills in music were first noticed when he was a pupil at Jakobs högre apologistskola (his lower secondary school in Stockholm) from 1821−25. As a fourteen year old he began classes at the Kungliga Musikaliska akademien (the Royal Swedish Academy of Music) including harmony and counterpoint with Erik Drake and singing with Johan Nordblom (1826−29). In addition, Dannström played the guitar, the lute, and the flute.

In 1829 Dannström’s father, against his son’s will, decided that Isidor should dedicate himself to a career in business. Dannström spent four tough years working in an office. At the same time he taught singing, guitar and flute. In this way, he made enough money and clients to resign from his post, despite his father’s protests, and devote himself to music. He resumed his lessons in harmony and counterpoint with Drake and started to study singing with Isak Berg, the Kungliga Teatern’s sångmästare (head of singing at the Royal Opera). In 1836 he published his first song, ‘Romance’. In the same year he published two songs in a collection. These compositions paid such good dividends that he was able to begin an educational trip to Europe which would last for four years.

Studies on the Continent, and being a part of the Kungliga Teatern’s golden age

In the years 1837−38 Dannström studied harmony and counterpoint with Siegfried Dehn in Berlin, and joined the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin as a soloist and chorister. In Berlin he also became acquainted with Felix Mendelssohn. In 1839 Dannström studied at the music conservatoire in Bergamo where he trained as a singing teacher with Girolamo Forini. At the same time he gave lessons himself and gave performances as both singer and conductor in predominantly Roman Catholic churches to maintain his travel funds. From Bergamo he travelled to Paris to study Italian art song at the Théâtre Italien. Dannström particularly admired the tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini, but also named the singers Giulia Grisi, Fanny Persiani, and Luisi Lablache as significant sources of inspiration. He then gave an acclaimed series of concerts in Warsaw and Krakow, before returning home in 1841 to a position as a singer with the Kungliga Teatern in Stockholm.

Dannström can be counted among the elite artists of the golden age of the Kungliga Teatern in 1841−44, along with Jenny Lind, Mathilda Gelhaar, Giovanni Belletti, and Julius Günther. In January 1893 the editor and publisher of the Swedish music journal Svensk Musiktidning gave the following judgment of Dannström’s operatic career: ‘Dannström’s baritone was neither great nor wide-ranging but even and sonorous, extremely well schooled and thus capable of the finest modulations; any song part, which he always executed artistically, won universal approval; his acting prowess was likewise extraordinarily outstanding. [...] He even succeeded in comic roles.’

Further training: towards Sång-metod

Dannström left the Kungliga Teatern in 1844, at the same time as Jenny Lind. Inspired by her, he made his way to Paris to train with one of the era’s foremost singing teachers, Manuel García (1805−1906). Dannström was greatly influenced by García and when he returned to Stockholm after one year it was principally in order to teach and compose, activities which he continued until 1886. From that time on, he travelled approximately once a year in order to keep himself up to date with developments in singing in Europe.

In 1849 his Sång-metod (singing method) was published for the first time. He continued to work on it, and an enlarged edition was published in 1876. This was considered at the time to be the most thorough singing textbook to have been written in Swedish. He spent some short stints working as a music critic for various Swedish newspapers: for Dagligt Allehanda and Aftonposten in 1848−49, and for Aftonbladet in 1854−55. In 1851 he was elected to the Kungliga Musikaliska akademien. In 1853 he married Betty Natalia Boije af Gennäs (1822−1854). In the same year the couple set out on a long voyage to the USA where Dannström gave a concert tour and taught singing. After a year he was forced to cut the trip short due to his wife’s becoming ill. She died soon after their return to Sweden.

The last decades

In 1855 Dannström published a book of advice for emigrating Swedes. In 1858 he married Gustava Rosalie Åkerman (1834−1902). In 1856 Dannström founded a musical instrument business, and from then on had less time for his composing which became restricted to the summer months. In 1876 he was awarded the Musikaliska konstföreningen (the Swedish Art Music Society) prize for one of his song collections. Between 1857 and 1892 he was a fellow of the Dramatiska och musikaliska artisternas pensionsförening (the Swedish association for retired dramatic and musical performers). In 1876 he was awarded the Vasaorden (the Order of Vasa, an award of merit conferred by the Swedish monarch). Dannström retired from both his instrument business and his work as a singing teacher in 1886. His autobiography Minnesanteckningar (memoranda) was published in 1896, a year before his death on 17 October 1897 in Stockholm.

Works: songs

Dannström wrote several comic operas and operettas. Skomakaren och hans fru premiered at the Mindre teatern in 1847, Herr och fru Tapperman at the Djurgårdsteatern in 1848. Doktor Tartaglia was written for the Kungliga Teatern in 1851. This operetta was later turned into Crispinos giftermål and premiered at the Stora teatern in Gothenburg in 1878. In 1861 his Lordens rock was performed at Djurgårdsteatern. Dannström had little success with his music-theatrical works, however. He himself wrote: ‘For the stage I have left but a few insignificant works.’

He had greater success with his individual songs and works for solo singers, duets, or small ensembles. ‘As a singer himself, his work as a composer principally leaned towards songs’, wrote Frans Huss in his obituary of Dannström in Svensk Musiktidning in November 1897. Dannström himself observed in his memoirs that ‘the human voice is the most perfect of all musical instruments’. And it can be clearly seen in his compositions that he himself was a singer. He has a feel for the song phrase, both in text and melody, and on high notes he principally uses the vowels a, ä, and ö which are relatively easy to sing high without going sharp. García’s strong influence on Dannström is perhaps most visible in Sång-metod. Several of Dannström’s practice exercises are essentially identical with García’s.

Dannström leaned towards the Swedish song tradition of his time which was inspired by the German Lied tradition. Several of Dannström’s songs are simple, both harmonically and melodically, in a manner which makes them suitable for the amateur performers of the time. His work also shows influences from the Italian bel canto tradition. His harmonic language is likewise typical of his time: the expressive melodies with small harmonic deviations where dissonances often comprise of passing accidentals and chromaticisms are also found in operatic works of the nineteenth century, as are broken chords in the accompaniments which are typical of Bellini’s operas.

Vocally, several of his songs require a comparatively large range and the tessitura is considered relatively high. Dannström was able to apply simple means to make a song appear virtuosic. He used large leaps, small cadences, and turns, and his melodies build up towards a high point with the upper tones sounding at the end. In the cadence to the duet ‘Rataplan’ both voices take turns but finish together, which requires precision from the performers. Several of Dannström’s songs are miniature dramas, as with other vocal music of the era. Operatic works and salon music are often intimately connected in nineteenth-century vocal music, and in this Dannström is typical of his time.

Ingela Tägil © 2014
Trans. Kate Maxwell