had sung into their instruments. He thought this to be both amusing and interesting; but at the same time he vouchsafed that in comparison with vocal music this music sung through instruments had no future in the country. Knowing today’s situation, we can indeed smile at Pjodolfur’s declaration, but the article nonetheless compels us to examine the background. To be sure, Iceland had been granted its own constitution a few years earlier (1874) by the Danish king but the country was still more or less ruled from Denmark. Isolated and situated at the world’s end, it still lacked the essential requirements for the creation of a musical society in the urban traditon of the Western world. For more than five hundred years the country had been ruled from afar, and there had been no court or aristocracy to give the necessary environment and the money for the creation of symphonies, quartets, cantatas, ballet or opera. .. when the grass Iceland was still a country with an extremely low standard dies.,of living. Indeed the country’s prosperity was directly dependent on the result of the hay harvest. Matthias Jochumsson, the nineteenth century poet, wrote: “When the grass dies, the animals die; first the horses, then the sheep, then the cows, and then the village pauper; then the farmer, his wife and finally his children.” Fishing was at this time only a part-time occupation and was not a particularly important source of provision for the people. This was mainly due to the lack of boats that could withstand the open sea. The average life expectancy for a man as late as 1860 was just under 32 years and the number of child deaths (26%) was about double that of the central Scandinavian countries. Even as late as 1882-83, the number of deaths was higher than the comparatively high birth rate, mostly due to famine and accompanying cholera epidemics. Foreign visitors in the middle of the century gave appalling reports of scurvy, leprosy, elephantiasis, various skin diseas- es, and undescribably bad hygienic conditions. There is an Icelandic folk song, Bi, bi og blaka, that in a nutshell describes the hard life of older times and tells of the Icelander’s attempt to survive with the help of his dreams and poetry. The song - a lullaby - begins in the reality of everyday life. “Let us endure the long winter months until we reach 16

(1) Front Board
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