Stockholm

Stockholm
Protest and Communication, Civilisation
Psalm29:4
"The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty"

Pod of Dolphins, Gulf of California, Mexico

© Robert Harding / Corbis

September 3, 2012

Chess: "Stockholm"

"Du gamla, Du fria" ("Thou ancient, Thou free") is the de facto national anthem of Sweden. It was originally named "Sång till Norden" ("Song to the North"), and the first words of its lyrics have become adopted as the title in the interim.


Although the Swedish constitution makes no mention of a national anthem, Du gamla, Du fria enjoys universal recognition and is used, for example, at government ceremonies as well as sporting events. It first began to win recognition as a patriotic song in the 1890s, and the issue of its status was debated back and forth up until the 1930s. In 1938, the Swedish public service radio company Sveriges Radio started playing it at the end of transmitting in the evenings, which marked the beginning of the de facto status as national anthem the song has had since.^[1]
Despite a widespread belief that it was adopted as the national anthem in 1866, no such recognition has ever been officially accorded. A kind of official recognition was when the King Oscar II rose in honour when the song was played, the first time in 1893. In 2000 a Riksdag committee rejected, as "unnecessary", a proposal to give the song legally official status. However, there have since been repeated motions with a similar intent.

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The original lyrics were written by Richard Dybeck in 1844, to the melody of a variant of the ballad Kärestans död. The ballad type is classified as D 280 in The Types of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballad; the variant from Västmanland that Dybeck reproduced is classified as SMB 133 G.^[2] It was recorded by Rosa Wretman in the beginning of the 1840s. Dybeck published the traditional text in Folk-lore I, and the melody in 1845 in his Runa, where he also published his new text "Sång till Norden".
                     Wikipedia

Original verses by Richard Dybeck:

1

Du gamla, Du fria, Du fjällhöga nord
Du tysta, Du glädjerika sköna!
Jag hälsar Dig, vänaste land uppå jord,
/: Din sol, Din himmel, Dina ängder gröna.:/

2

Du tronar på minnen från fornstora dar,
då ärat Ditt namn flög över jorden.
Jag vet att Du är och Du blir vad Du var.
/:Ja, jag vill leva, jag vill dö i Norden.:/

Louise Ahlén's addition from 1910 (usually not sung)

3

Jag städs vill Dig tjäna, mitt älskade land,
Dig trohet till döden vill jag svära.
Din rätt skall jag värna med håg och med hand,
/:Din fana, högt den bragderika bära.:/

4

Med Gud skall jag kämpa, för hem och för härd,
för Sverige, den kära fosterjorden.
Jag byter Dig ej mot allt i en värld
/: Nej, jag vill leva, jag vill dö i Norden!.:/

Literal translation

Original verses:

1

Thou ancient, thou free, thou mountainous North

Thou quiet, thou joyful [and] fair!

I greet thee, most beautiful land upon earth,

/:Thy sun, Thy sky, Thy meadows green.:/

2

Thou art enthroned upon memories of great olden days,

When honored thy name flew across the earth,

I know that thou art and wilt remain what thou wast,

/:Yes, I want to live I want to die in the North:/

Additional verses:

3

I forever want to serve thee, my beloved country,

Loyalty until death I want to swear thee,

Thy right I will protect with mind and with hand,

/: thy banner, the heroes carry high.:/

4

With God I shall fight for home and for hearth,

for Sweden, the beloved native soil.

I trade thee not, for anything in a world

/: No, I want to live, I want to die in the North.:/






Protest and Communication

Civilisation’s “Protest and Communication”

For an introduction to these series, see here.
Below, some indented excerpts of “Protest and Communication,” the sixth chapter of Civilisation by Kenneth Clark,.........(not my views or opinions in that site, aclaro)

The dazzling summit of human achievement represented by Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci lasted for less than twenty years. It was followed (except in Venice) by a time of uneasiness often ending in disaster. For the first time since the great thaw civilised values were questioned and defied, and for some years it looked as if the footholds won by the Renaissance—the discovery of the individual, the belief in human genius, the sense of harmony between man and his surroundings—had been lost. Yet this was an inevitable process, and out of the confusion and brutality of sixteenth-century Europe, man emerged with new faculties and expanded powers of thought and expression.
In this room in the castle of Würzburg are the carvings of Tilman Riemenschneider, one—perhaps the best—of many German carvers in the late Gothic style. The Church was rich in fifteenth-century Germany, and the landowners were rich, and the merchants of the Hanseatic League were rich; and so, from Bergen right down to Bavaria, sculptors were kept busy doing huge, elaborate shrines and altars and monuments like the famous group of St George in the old church at Stockholm: a supreme example of late Gothic craftsman deploying his fancy and his almost irritating skill of hand.
The Riemenschneider figures show very clearly the character of the northern man at the end of the fifteenth century.
First of all, a serious personal piety—a quality quite different from the bland conventional piety that one finds, say, in a Perugino. And then a serious approach to life itself. These men (although of course they were unswerving Catholics) were not to be fobbed off by forms and ceremonies. They believed that there was such a thing as truth, and they wanted to get at it. What they heard from Papal legates, who did a lot of travelling in Germany at this time, did not convince them that there was the same desire for truth in Rome, and they had a rough, raw-boned peasant tenacity of purpose. Many of these earnest men would have heard about the numerous councils that had tried throughout the fifteenth century to reform the organisation of the Church. These grave northern men wanted something more substantial.
So far so good. But these faces reveal a more dangerous characteristic, a vein of hysteria. The fifteenth century had been the century of revivalism—religious movements on the fringe of the Catholic Church. They had, in fact, begun in the late fourteenth century, when the followers of John Huss almost succeeded in wiping out the courtly civilisation of Bohemia. Even in Italy Savonarola had persuaded his hearers to make a bonfire of their so-called vanities, including pictures by Botticelli: a heavy price to pay for religious conviction.

The Germans were much more easily excited. Comparisons are sometimes an over-simplification; but I think it is fair to compare one of the most famous portraits, Dürer’s Oswald Krell, with Raphael’s portrait of a cardinal in the Prado [above]. The cardinal is not only a man of the highest culture but balanced and self-contained. Oswald Krell is on the verge of hysteria.

Those staring eyes, that look of self-conscious introspection, that uneasiness, marvellously conveyed by Dürer through the uneasiness of the planes in the modelling—how German it is.

In 1506 Erasmus went to Italy. He was in Bologna at the exact time of Julius II’s famous quarrel with Michelangelo; he was in Rome when Raphael began work on the Papal apartments. But none of this seems to have made any impression on him. His chief interest was in the publication of his works by the famous Venetian printer and pioneer of finely printed popular editions, Aldus Manutius. Whereas in the last chapter I was concerned with the enlargement of man’s spirit through the visual image, in this one I am chiefly concerned with the extension of his mind through the word. And this was made possible by the invention of printing.
Printing, of course, had been invented long before the time of Erasmus. Gutenberg’s Bible was printed in 1455. But the first printed books were large, sumptuous and expensive. It took preachers and persuaders almost thirty years to recognise what a formidable new instrument had come into their hands, just as it took politicians twenty years to recognise the value of television. The first man to take advantage of the printing press was Erasmus. He poured out pamphlets and anthologies and introductions; and so in a few years did everyone who had views on anything.

CHAPTER 6

PROTEST AND COMMUNICATION

The dazzling summit of human achievement represented by Michelangelo, Raphael and leonardo da Vinci lasted for less than twenty years.  It was followed (except in Venice ) by a time of uneasiness often ending in disaster.  For the first time since the great thaw of civilised values were questioned and defied and for some years it looked as if the footholds won by the Rennaisance - the discovery of the individual, the belief in human genius, the sense of harmony between man and his surroundings - had been lost.  yet this was an inevitable process, and out of the confusion and brutality of 16th century Europe, man emerged with new faculties and expanded powers of thought and expression.

In the late gothic Riemenshneider figures show very clearly the character of northern man at the end of the fifteenth.  The men depicted (though staunch catholics) were not to be fobbed off by forms and ceremony (what they called 'works')  They believed that there was such a thing as truth, and they wanted to get at it.  Many had heard of 15th century attempts to reform the church and wanted something more substantial.

So far so good.  But these faces reveal a more dangerous characteristic, a vein of hysteria.  The 15th century had been the century of revivalism - religious movements on the fringe of the church.  They had in fact, begun in the late fourteenth century, when the followers of John Huss almost succeeded in wiping out the courtly civilisation of Bohemia.  Even in italy Savonarola had persuaded his hearers tomake a bonfire of their so-called vanities,( including Botticelli's)

Look at Durer's Oswald Krell compared to one of Raphaels balanced self-contained, cultured portraits it is on the verge ofhysteria.  The staring eyes are very german and a nuisance for the rest of the world. 

However, in the 1490s these destructive national characteristics had notshown themselves.  It was still an age of internationalism. 

Then in 1498 there arrived in Oxford a poor scholar who was destined to become the spokesman of northern civilisation and the greatest internationalist of his day, the Dutchman, Erasmus.  All his life he moved due to the plague.  Loved as a charmer and, like all humanists, perhaps like all civilised men, he put a high value on friendship.  He was friend to Thomas More who was, against his will , first minister of the crown and put to death by henry the 8th.

In the 19th century people used tot hink of the invention of printing as the lynchpin in the history of civilisation.  Well, 5th century Greece and 12 century chartres and early 15th centry florence got on very well without it, and who shall say that they were less civilised than we.  Still on the balance I suppose that printing has done more good than harm.

printing , of course, had ben invented long before the time of erasmus.  Gutenberg's bible was printed in 1455.  But the first printed books were large, sumptuous and expensive.  The printers still thought of themselves as competing with the scribes of manuscripts.  Many of them were printed on vellum and had illustrations.  It took nearly 30 years to realise what a formidable new instrument they had.  just as it took politicians twenty years to recognise the value of television.  The first  man to take full advantage of the printing pres was Erasmus.  He was the first journalist.  Opinions on all (in Latin so he could be read everywhere).

He wrote the Praise of Folly  and it washed away everything: popes, kings, monks, scholars, war theology - the whole lot.  In the ordinary way satire is a negative activity; but there are tunes when in the history of civilisation when it has a positive value.

However, it was not Erasmus's wit and satire that made him, for ten years themost famous man in Europe, bu trather his appeal to the earnest, pious, truth seeking state of mind.

After Praise he translated the new testament from Greek.

During the period in which erasmus was spreading enlightenment and information through the word, another develpment of the art of printing was nourishing the imagination: the woodcut.  Albrecht Durer was its user.He was an unusually intense man, compared himself to christ, shared leonardos curiousity, although not his determination to find out how things worked.   He collected all kinds of rarities and oddities , the kid of curiosities which a hundred years later were to lead to the first museums.  And died going to see a whale in Zeeland.

He produced one of the great prophetic documents of western man, the egraving he entitled Melancholia I.  Around her are allt he emblems of constructive action: a saw, a plane, etc.  The german mind that produced Durer and the Reformation also produced psychoanalysis.

His woodcuts diffused a new way of looking at art, not as something magical or symbolic, but as something accurate and factual.

He was aware of all the intellectual currents and wrote "O erasmus of Rotterdam, where wilt thou take thy stand?  Hark, thou knight of christ ride forth at the side of Christ our lord, protect the truth, obtain the martyr's crown. 

For fifteen years after Durer's cry to Erasmus was echoed by his contemporaries all over Europe, and it still appears in old fashioned history books.  Why didn't Erasmus intervene?  Erasmus says of the protestants:  "I have seen them return from hearing a sermon as if inspired by an evil spirit.  The faces of all showed a curious wrath and ferocity."  He was by nature a man of the preceding century - a humanist in the wider sense.  The heroic world that came to birth in Florence in the year 1500 was not his climate.   His sucess shows how even in a time of crisis  folk yearn for tolerance and reason - in fact for civilisation.  But on the tide of fierce emotional and biological impulses they are powerless.

So almost 20 years after  the heroic spirit was made visible in the work of michelangelo, it appeared in Germany in the words and actions of luther.

Whatever else he may have been, luther was a hero; and after all the doubts and hesitations of the humanists, luther says "here i stand"  No doubt he was extremely impressive, the leader for which the earnest German people is always waiting.

He settled their doubts and gave them courage of their convictions: he also released latent violence and an earthy, animal hostility to reason and decorum that Nordic man seems to have retained from his days in the forest.

HG Wells distinguishes between comunities of obedience (stable societies like Egypt and Mesopotamia) and communities of will (that produced the restless nomads of the north)

Erasmus tells us only one of the protestants raised hishat to him.  He was aginst forms and ceremony in religion, but not in society.

luther was the same.  He hated the peasants revolt and asked his princely patrons to put it down fiercely.  He didn't like the destruction of images (what we now call works of art).  But most of his follwers were men who owed nothing to the past - to whom it meant no more than an intolerable servitude.  It was an artistic disaster.

I suppose the motive wasn't so much religious as an instinct to destroy anything comely, anything that reflected a state of mind that an unevolved man couldn't share.  But it had to happen.  if civilisation was not to whither or petrify.  It had to draw life from deeper roots than those which had nourished the intellectual and artistic triumphs of the Renaissance.  And ultimately a new civiisation was created - but it was a civilisation not of the image, but of the word.

There can be no thought without words.  Luther gave his country men words.  Erasmus had written soley in Latin.  Luther translated the bible into german, calvin into french, tyndale and coverdale into english.  These were crucial in the developmet of the western mind; and if I hesitate to say to the deveolopment of civilisation, it is because they were also a stage in the growth of nationalism, and as I have said, nearly allt he steps upward in civilisation have been made inperiods of internationalism.  But whatever the long-term effects of Protestantism, the immediate results were very bad: not only bad for art, but bad for life.  The north was full of bully boys who rampaged about the country and took any excuse to beat people up.  They appear frequently frequently in 16th centruy german art, pleased withthemselves and admired.  Thirty years after Durers woodcuts of the apocalypse.

Its a terrible though that so-called wars of religion, religion of course being used as a pretext for political ambitions, but  still providing a sort of emotional dynamo, went on for one hundred and twenty years.  No wonder the art of the time (MANNERISM) should have abandoned all that belief in decency and high destiny of man of the Rennaissance.  Play it for kicks : that is the mannerist motto, and like all forms of indecency, it's irresistible.

What could an intelligent, open-minded man do in the mid-16th? Keep quiet, work in solitude, outwardly conform, inwardly be free.  That was what Michel di Montaigne (born in southern france to a Jewish protestant mother in 1533) did. 

Only one thing engaged his mind - to tell the truth.  But it was a concept of truth very different from that which serious men had sought in Colet's sermons or Erasmus' new testament.  It involved always looking at the other side of every question no mattter how shocking.  To communicate these ideas (No pleasure hath any savour unless I can communicate it" he said) he invented the essay.

These self-searchings really mark the end of the heroic spirit of the renaissance.  montaigne said 'Sit we upon the highest throne in the world, yet sit we only upon our own tail"

He lived in a tower and this isolation was forced on all in late 16th century europe except, after 1570, in England.

England then was  brutal unscrupulous and disorderly.  But if the first requisites of civilisation are intellectual energy, freedom of mind , a sense of beauty and a craving  for immortality it was a civ.  It created an architecture intolerably droughty, but designed to give men a free relationship with nature and with each other, which architecture has tried to regain inour own day.

This is the background of Shakespeare.  His plays are the poetic fulfilment of Montaignes intellectual honesty.  Montaign was a big influence on him, but  his scepticism was much more complete.  Instead of Montaigne's detatchment there is a spirit of passionate engagement.  And shakespeare is the first supremely great poet to have been without religious belief, even without the humanists belief in man.

Shakespeare said "What a piece of work man! How noble in reason....And yet, to me, what isthis quintessence of dust? man delights not me."

How unthinkable before the break-up of Christendom, the tragic split that followed the reformation; and yet i feel that the human mind has gained a new greatness by outstaring this emptiness.