Hovkapellet turns 500

The 1520s ushered in a new kind of courtly life for the Swedish royal family. Sources show that the elected kings of the Middle Ages brought with them hired courtiers, ladies-inwaiting, diplomatic envoys and even musicians. However, the payroll that was established when King Gustav Vasa paid a couple of Polish string players on the same terms as his Cooks and coachmen in 1526–27 signifies something different. He was not simply a powerful political player – which Gustav Vasa certainly was – who personally surrounded himself with musicians, like the regent Sten Sture during the 1489 enshrinement of Katarina of Vadstena’s remains, but an elected Swedish king who, a few decades later, would transform the throne into a hereditary monarchy, thereby allowing his sons to inherit the entire payroll, which included a number of musicians.

Alongside Gustav Vasa’s royal Court orchestra, his sons eventually had their own orchestras at Kalmar, Turku and other castles. These ensembles could be said to have eclipsed those of their father in musical terms. Together, these early organised and salaried musicians can be seen as the embryo of Sweden’s Royal Court Orchestra.

During the 16th century, payroll records indicate that these musicians consisted of various internally formed groups: ‘fiddlers’, ‘trumpeters’ and ‘descants’ (i.e. singers who specialised in polyphonic music). It is clear that, over time, not only were ‘ready trained’ musicians recruited from all over Europe, but skills were also enhanced within these Groups in a kind of transfer of skills and knowledge that emphasised organisational unity.

The international turnover and new recruitment that initially characterised court music was clearly reinforced during the 17th century. Entire groups of musicians could be employed alongside others, so that, for example, Queen Christina – in addition to the Royal Swedish Orchestra consisting mainly of German musicians that she inherited from her father Gustav II Adolf – also recruited a group of castrati and other Italian musicians with their own conductor, Vincenzo Albrici, during her last years in Sweden in the 1650s. The court served both diplomatic and starkly realpolitik purposes, and it was important for the legitimacy of the Swedish royal family to be able to display a sophisticated musical culture with the ability to stage dances, ballets, ecclesiastical music and ceremonial music from every corner of Europe. The Düben Collection, now held at Uppsala University Library, Paints a detailed picture of the music of the Swedish royal court orchestra during the 17th century, when the Düben family served as court conductors for several generations.

The position of court conductor and its role within the royal court varied during the early modern era. In the 18th century, this was an office that was regulated in accordance with all the functions of the court, which did not prevent court conductors from carrying out long-term work with what could be called reforms. Johan Helmich Roman was Court conductor in the early 18th century, a dynamic period for the Royal Swedish Orchestra, while at the same time the royal power was curtailed during what is now known as the Age of Liberty. Female singers were employed, and the ensemble performed in what are usually considered to be the first public Music concerts in Sweden, in Riddarhuset’s Great Hall. Roman wrote a significant amount of music himself, although he also continued to collect and adapt the music of foreign masters, partly through his personal contacts and partly through his own travels at the expense of the state.

When he ascended to the Swedish throne in 1751, King Adolf Fredrik brought his existing orchestra with him. Right up until the end of the 18th century, tensions remained between the ‘old’ Royal Swedish Orchestra and Adolf Fredrik’s own ensemble. There were notable families of musicians in both. As an example of possible internal orchestral diplomacy, when the Royal Swedish Academy of Music was established in 1771, alongside the nobles and officials who made up the main founding members, there was also a representative from the ‘old’ orchestra – Ferdinand Zellbell the Younger – and one from Adolf Fredrik’s Royal Swedish Orchestra: Hinrich Philip Johnsen. Both were given important roles within the new academy, and when they both died within ten years, it could be said that parts of the Royal Swedish Orchestra’s structure for training younger musicians had been taken over by the academy; while at the same time, in 1773, it became the designated ensemble for the new public opera house.

Despite newcomers to the public Music scene – the Utile Dulci society from the 1760s onwards and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music from the 1770s – the Royal Swedish Orchestra managed to maintain a guild-like structure in the early 19th century, whereby sons and nephews could inherit positions within the ensemble, and where one could marry into the ranks of wind or string musicians. The renowned Royal Swedish Orchestra families included the Berwalds, the Hirschfelds and the Preumayers – virtuosos who gained international reputations. Several of these families were of German origin, and it took some time before it became common for musicians to join the orchestra without being members of these specialised families. Compared to today, the degree of specialisation was lower. Musicians were expected to be able to play a number of instruments, giving the orchestra great flexibility.

The orchestra, which during the 19th and 20th centuries was largely an operatic orchestra, also performed many other types of music: ballets, symphonies, cantatas and other repertoire genres. The specialised role of conductor gave rise to the series of modern Royal Swedish Orchestra conductors that we still have the pleasure of hearing on recordings to this day. However, Nils Grevillius, Sixten Ehrling, Kurt Bendix and Stig Westerberg had all ‘worked their way up the ranks’ as accompanists or orchestra musicians Before leading the Royal Swedish Orchestra.

Throughout the orchestra’s 500-year history, the ensemble has been characterised by high mobility and international recruitment, coupled with its own mini-society with varying degrees of self-determination vis-à-vis the king, the royal court, the state and the government. In return, these latter institutions have regarded the orchestra with a great sense of pride. An anniversary year is now approaching, during which the opera will also temporarily move to new premises. In critical times, the value of this venerable institution has Always been apparent. In 1888, Finance Minister Fredrik von Essen made an appeal from the podium of the Riksdag amid the so-called ‘theatre question’, when certain members of parliament proposed making cuts to the orchestra’s operations. He emphasised that Swedish music had brought honour to the nation’s name around the world, and that “our Royal Swedish Orchestra... one of the finest in Europe” was therefore a more important asset to the state than many people seemed to realise.

One of the most common descriptions of the 20th century – “the one and only Royal Swedish Orchestra” – shows how highly valued this institution is, having grown from a couple of Polish musicians in the 1520s to become a state-of-the-art orchestra. And it is precisely this “one and only Royal Swedish Orchestra” that, in its current form, is celebrating this honour as one of the oldest in the world.

Mattias Lundberg
Professor of Musicology, Uppsala University