Life

Background, and studies in Sweden

The composer, pianist and pedagogue Otto Daniel Winge came from a family of hereditary professional musicians. This vocation was passed down to him from his father, and he passed it on to his own children. He was born on 2 May 1810 in Sko Parish as the son of the organist, teacher and leader of singing in the church and composer Daniel Winge (1774–1845), who had been taught during his youth by the German composer Georg Joseph Vogler. Otto Daniel was initially taught by his father, but later studied music under various instructors for several decades while simultaneously working as a teacher himself.

Winge completed his degree as Music Director at the Kungliga Musikaliska akademiens undervisningsverk (the educational institution of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music) in 1832 and was elected later that year as an agré (a junior member) into the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. 1833–40 he worked as a teacher at Adolf Fredrik Lindblad’s Piano Institute in Stockholm and at one point he studied under the noted piano virtuoso Edmond Passy. After an appearance in Stockholm in 1841, in which he performed a piano concerto by Ferdinand Ries in addition to his own work, Variationen nebst einem Capricietto für die linke Hand über ein Thema aus Il crociato op. 35, Winge departed Sweden, not returning again until 1859.

Years in Berlin and Paris

Winge first settled abroad in Berlin, where from circa 1843 until 1845 he was a teacher at the Fanny Schindelmeisser School of Music. At this institution, a dozen piano students had group lessons on silent paper keyboards, according to a method introduced by the school’s founder. (This teaching method originated from Johann Bernhard Logier’s pedagogical ideas on group teaching, which were practiced at Lindblad’s institute in Stockholm, where Winge had taught earlier.) At the same time, he devoted himself to studies in harmony and composition under the music theorist Siegfried Wilhelm Dehn.

He then spent the next five years in Paris, where he studied for an extended period under the piano virtuoso Henri Herz and taught harmony and piano at the Lycée Bonaparte 1846–49.

In 1850, Winge returned to Berlin to study under the Austrian composer Sigismund Ritter von Neukomm while working as a teacher himself. During his years abroad, Winge met a long line of the era’s leading European musicians such as Franz Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn and the Lied composer Carl Loewe. On various occasions, he also took piano lessons from virtuosos such as Frédéric Kalkbrenner, Henri Bertini, Antoni Kątski, Sigismond Thalberg and Ignaz Moscheles.

Return to Stockholm

After 18 years abroad, Winge returned to Stockholm in 1859. Following the retirement of Erik Drake, in 1860 Winge began to teach harmony at the Musikaliska akademiens undervisningsverk. He held this position until 1877, admidst giving private lessons and the occasional concert appearance.

Otto Daniel Winge died in Stockholm on 16 January 1886. Together with his wife from Berlin,  Sophie (née Baër), he had two daughters who both became organists. Daniella Sophia Louisa (1861–1885) died at only 23 years of age, five months before her father’s death. By then she had already achieved recognition as a talented organist and pupil of Wilhelm Heintze. The slightly younger Terzetta Vilhelmina Ottilia (1864–1945) worked for 51 years as a church musician in Västra Ed in northern Småland.

In 1853, Winge was elected as a foreign member to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music before being elected as a full Swedish member in 1860.

Works

The majority of Winge’s musical production consists of piano pieces. Some are primarily intended for educational use, others have pianistic virtuosity in mind, whereas a third group can be categorised as character pieces. The collection Canons mélodieux op. 52 has an explicitly educational purpose. According to the preface, it is intended for piano and counterpoint studies, and is similar in this regard to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Das Wohltemperierte Klavier. Winge proved though that such music could also be presented to a listening audience by performing three of his canons at a concert at the Musikaliska akademien (The Royal Swedish Academy of Music) on 4 December 1859, shortly before he took office as a teacher at the educational institution the following year. For this program, he was given the opportunity to showcase different facets of his compositional skills: the didactic Canons mélodieux, the technically brilliant Grande fantaisie op. 33 and the tone-painting piano piece, Aubade op. 37.

Several of Winge’s compositions are based on traditional Swedish songs. His Grande fantaisie includes variations of ‘Värmlandsvisan’ and ‘Domaredansen’, and his Lied collection Schwedische Nationallieder op. 30 includes arrangements for voice and piano of a number of Swedish folk tunes. Traces of this musical heritage can also possibly be heard in the mazurkas that Winge dedicated to Frédéric Chopin, which lie closer to Swedish folk music than that by the Polish composer.

Winge’s works also include a string quartet op. 53, a duet for piano and harmonium, op. 39 and the choral anthem Hymn med anledning af H. Maj.t Konung Carl XVs kröning den 3dje maj 1860.

Martin Edin © 2016
Trans. Thalia Thunander