"The Other Swedes"
~ Honoring Them and Remembering Them ~
Samuel Thorstenberg
(1871-1938)
~ Remembering him as the "earliest"
internationally acclaimed Bethany College "Messiah Chorus" conductor
~ Honoring Them and Remembering Them ~
Samuel Thorstenberg
(1871-1938)
~ Remembering him as the "earliest"
internationally acclaimed Bethany College "Messiah Chorus" conductor
Conductor
1898 to 1909
1898 to 1909
"G. N. Malm," 163
Samuel Thorstenberg (1871-1938), the son of Kansas Smoky Valley Swedish pioneers, a Bethany College graduate gifted in music was a brilliant and gifted bass soloist and conductor. Following graduations from Bethany, he continued his music studies in Stockholm, England and New York City. Seventeen years from the first Messiah performance, in 1898, he would take to the Messiah Auditorium stage as the ninth conductor of the Bethany College Messiah Chorus (Oratorio Society,) a position he held from 1898 to 1909, from age 27 to 38. Under his leadership the Messiah chorus grew from 343 to more than 500, and would become renown nationally and internationally.
During Conductor Thorstenberg's second year in 1899, a "first" time ever event occurred for the Messiah performance on the stage of the Messiah Auditorium, that was of the guest soloist international opera singer Eloise Vitti arriving from Milan, Italy. She would be followed by countless other national and international opera stars and instrumentalists gracing the Messiah Festival stages, thus becoming part of Lindsborg and Bethany College early history.
Newly built in 1895, the Messiah Auditorium had a seating capacity of 4,000. From the octagonal structure topping it on one side facing the railroad tracks was a large marquee with these large capital letters: BETHANY COLLEGE THE HOME OF THE MESSIAH CHORUS. This needed structure, only, came-to-be due to Bethany College founder and president Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson's pleading with the board of trustees, "Please let me try it. I pray you!" They said okay, but also communicated that they would bear no responsibility for it! In those days, the established Oratorio Society was referred to as the "Messiah Chorus," as so displayed by the Messiah auditorium's marquee.
A first document of national note on these performances could have been in 1900, Conductor Thorstenberg's third year, when the Messiah Chorus performances were "first" recognized nationally through the April edition of the Ladies Home Journal regarding their past performances. This article, in turn, introduced Swedish American Lindsborg culture to the cultured social circles of the East. It reads as follows:*
During Conductor Thorstenberg's second year in 1899, a "first" time ever event occurred for the Messiah performance on the stage of the Messiah Auditorium, that was of the guest soloist international opera singer Eloise Vitti arriving from Milan, Italy. She would be followed by countless other national and international opera stars and instrumentalists gracing the Messiah Festival stages, thus becoming part of Lindsborg and Bethany College early history.
Newly built in 1895, the Messiah Auditorium had a seating capacity of 4,000. From the octagonal structure topping it on one side facing the railroad tracks was a large marquee with these large capital letters: BETHANY COLLEGE THE HOME OF THE MESSIAH CHORUS. This needed structure, only, came-to-be due to Bethany College founder and president Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson's pleading with the board of trustees, "Please let me try it. I pray you!" They said okay, but also communicated that they would bear no responsibility for it! In those days, the established Oratorio Society was referred to as the "Messiah Chorus," as so displayed by the Messiah auditorium's marquee.
A first document of national note on these performances could have been in 1900, Conductor Thorstenberg's third year, when the Messiah Chorus performances were "first" recognized nationally through the April edition of the Ladies Home Journal regarding their past performances. This article, in turn, introduced Swedish American Lindsborg culture to the cultured social circles of the East. It reads as follows:*
Singing "The Messiah" on the Plains*
by
Charles M. Harger
by
Charles M. Harger
"Because of its surroundings, and uplifting by its earnest methods and teaching, the Easter performance of “The Messiah” by the Swedish colony at Lindsborg, in Central Kansas, is each spring one of the interesting events of the West. A musical festival that out on the comparatively sparsely settled prairies can bring together ten thousand people during Holy Week, many of them coming two hundred miles, must be excellent indeed. The growth of the audiences in this instance, year after year, indicates a thorough appreciation of a worthier rendering of Handel’s great oratorio.
"The Swedes are a singing people, and the religious sentiment is strong in their hearts. The one cherished day for this colony of perhaps three thousand (3,000) families is Easter, and the chief glory thereof is “The Messiah.” The Lindsborg settlement dates back to 1869, when the Rev. Olof Olson led from Sweden the first comers and founded the colony on the unbroken prairies. The settlers toiled, and prospered, and saved. They were homesick for the scenes of childhood, but learned to love their new home. Amid the struggle against drought and storm they sang their folksongs of cheer.
"… The concert engages the very best of the talent of the college, but it is not the event for which the auditors long.
"That comes in the evening. The crisp, frosty air outside and the early darkness make the octagonal auditorium ablaze with the light, most alluring, and its four thousand seats are quickly filled. Over the gathering broods a tenderness appropriate to the memories of the occasion, its influence being manifest in hushed tones, as if this were indeed a service of the heart. Easter is not here, but its forerunner has shed abroad a spirit of consecration.
"Before the audience is the chorus—tier on tier of men and maidens, nearly four hundred of them. Bunting and banners transform the stern outlines of the great stage. The men are in black; the maids in pink and white, the costumes making vivid contrast. Whole sections are in a flutter of light; others are somber and still. The central figure of all, occupying the place of honor, is the powerful organ, and supporting it the orchestra of forty (40) pieces. When the time arrives for the opening Doctor Swensson steps forward and in a few words tells the story of the first Easter—the prelude of the music that is to come.
"A tremor passes over the ranks of the singers; they are rising to their feet. The orchestra breaks the stillness."
"The Swedes are a singing people, and the religious sentiment is strong in their hearts. The one cherished day for this colony of perhaps three thousand (3,000) families is Easter, and the chief glory thereof is “The Messiah.” The Lindsborg settlement dates back to 1869, when the Rev. Olof Olson led from Sweden the first comers and founded the colony on the unbroken prairies. The settlers toiled, and prospered, and saved. They were homesick for the scenes of childhood, but learned to love their new home. Amid the struggle against drought and storm they sang their folksongs of cheer.
"… The concert engages the very best of the talent of the college, but it is not the event for which the auditors long.
"That comes in the evening. The crisp, frosty air outside and the early darkness make the octagonal auditorium ablaze with the light, most alluring, and its four thousand seats are quickly filled. Over the gathering broods a tenderness appropriate to the memories of the occasion, its influence being manifest in hushed tones, as if this were indeed a service of the heart. Easter is not here, but its forerunner has shed abroad a spirit of consecration.
"Before the audience is the chorus—tier on tier of men and maidens, nearly four hundred of them. Bunting and banners transform the stern outlines of the great stage. The men are in black; the maids in pink and white, the costumes making vivid contrast. Whole sections are in a flutter of light; others are somber and still. The central figure of all, occupying the place of honor, is the powerful organ, and supporting it the orchestra of forty (40) pieces. When the time arrives for the opening Doctor Swensson steps forward and in a few words tells the story of the first Easter—the prelude of the music that is to come.
"A tremor passes over the ranks of the singers; they are rising to their feet. The orchestra breaks the stillness."
-------
"Bethany in Kansas"
"Hagbard Brase," 56
It is likely that the most important performances during the Thorstenberg period were those that took place from November 10 - 13, 1901, when King Oscar II (1872-1907) of Sweden's Emissary Bishop and Lady Von Scheele visited Lindsborg for celebrating Bethany College's Twentieth Year Founding Anniversary. This was indeed a historic event between the King's emissary and the Church of Sweden and Lindsborg, her Augustana Lutheran Synod Bethany Church and Bethany College!
This was also a grand affair, all with filling the air with wonderful inspirational music and at its end would be a "surprise," the first time that the King of Sweden would recognize and honor a citizen of Lindsborg and that was Bethany College founder and president Rev. Carl Aaron Swensson, for his educational labor in creating a school. King Oscar II knighted Rev. Swensson through his emissary Bishop Von Scheele. That story is Here.
This was also a grand affair, all with filling the air with wonderful inspirational music and at its end would be a "surprise," the first time that the King of Sweden would recognize and honor a citizen of Lindsborg and that was Bethany College founder and president Rev. Carl Aaron Swensson, for his educational labor in creating a school. King Oscar II knighted Rev. Swensson through his emissary Bishop Von Scheele. That story is Here.
"Forget-Me-Not," 1902
Some of the other international opera stars who graced the Messiah Auditorium stage during Conductor Thorstenberg's tenure were in 1902 and 1904, Lillian Nordica (December 12, 1857 – May 10, 1914), an American opera singer who performed on the major stages of Europe and of the U.S. who was one of the foremost dramatic sopranos of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Then in 1905 followed the German soprano, Johanna Emilia Agnes Gadski-Tauscher (June 15, 1872 – February 22, 1932) whose highly successful career in New York City and London found her performing heavy dramatic roles in the German and Italian repertoires. The next year, in 1906 was the Polish coloratura, Marcella Sembrich (February 15, 1858 – January 11, 1935), (Prakseda Marcelina Kochańska was her stage name.) who successful international singing career was found primarily at the New York Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London.
Concluding, the Thorstenberg period would be a period in which the Bethany College Messiah Chorus became known well beyond the borders of the Kansas Smoky Valley for its unbelievable inspirational moving Handel's Messiah performances. Dr. Emory Lindquist in his 1975 Bethany In Kansas, the history of a college, writes on page 139, "The name of Samuel Thorstenberg plays a prominent role in the Bethany musical tradition... His musicianship served him well as conductor of the oratorio society, 1898-1909."
Conductor Thorstenberg would leave Lindsborg to head a music school in Jamestown, New York, a predominately Swedish town with Lutheran Augustana connections.
* Dr. Lindquist's 1975 Bethany In Kansas, The History of a College, page 167.
Concluding, the Thorstenberg period would be a period in which the Bethany College Messiah Chorus became known well beyond the borders of the Kansas Smoky Valley for its unbelievable inspirational moving Handel's Messiah performances. Dr. Emory Lindquist in his 1975 Bethany In Kansas, the history of a college, writes on page 139, "The name of Samuel Thorstenberg plays a prominent role in the Bethany musical tradition... His musicianship served him well as conductor of the oratorio society, 1898-1909."
Conductor Thorstenberg would leave Lindsborg to head a music school in Jamestown, New York, a predominately Swedish town with Lutheran Augustana connections.
* Dr. Lindquist's 1975 Bethany In Kansas, The History of a College, page 167.
* * *
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~
reconnecting past to present
* * *
All color photography throughout Swedes: The Way They Were is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated.
Copyright © since October 8, 2015 to Current Year
as indicated on main menu sections of
www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~
reconnecting past to present
* * *
All color photography throughout Swedes: The Way They Were is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated.
Copyright © since October 8, 2015 to Current Year
as indicated on main menu sections of
www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.
