The Birgit Krohn Albums:
19th Century Scandinavian Music

The Birgit Krohn Albums are a collection of print and manuscript scores collected by amateur musician Birgit Krohn (1881-1972). The material was likely compiled while Krohn was a student at Nikka Vonen’s school for girls in Dale, Norway; the collection thus reflects the pedagogical, social, and cultural role that music occupied in student life. Both print and manuscript scores are marked with a variety of annotations and marginalia, including names, dates, inscriptions, and even geographic locations. Most of the writing is in Danish and dates from the late 1890s to about 1905. In total, the albums contain eighty-two printed works and fifteen manuscripts; most of these works are art songs for high voice and piano or for solo piano. Most of the compositions were purchased in Bergen, Norway and many of the works are by Scandinavian composers (including Edvard Grieg, Agathe Backer Grøndal, Gydda Rogen, Gustav Lange, and Christian Teilman).

Acknowledgements

Funding for this digital project was provided in part by the Furman Advantage Summer Fellowship. Furman Advantage Fellow Vivian Tompkins (’17) provided research assistance, prepared metadata, and digitized the materials during the summer of 2015.

Questions about the collection may be directed to the Furman University Maxwell Music Library.