Catharinus Elling

Catharinus Elling (13 September 1858 – 8 January 1942) was a Norwegian music teacher, organist, music critic, and composer. He was also a folk music collector and the author of a number of books. Biography Elling was born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. He was the son of Andreas Schaft Elling (1818–1872) and Pauline Bangsboe (1826–1905). His brother was engineer Ægidius Elling (1861–1949). As a composer, he wrote symphonies, a violin concerto, chamber music, an opera, and more than 200 songs, most in the 1890–1905 period. His works are seldom performed now, but many musicians were influenced by him, such as Fartein Valen, who studied music under Elling. Elling is principally known for his extensive work on collecting and recording Norwegian folk music. Elling was named a Government scholar in 1899. He continued a folk music collection across many rural parts of the country: Trøndelag, Gudbrandsdalen, Oppland, Telemark, Setesdal, Valdres and Sunnfjord. At the same time, folk music collector Olav Sande (1850–1927) was also named to a state stipend, and the two divided the country between them; Sande taking the music tradition from Sogn to Vest-Agder. Elling’s mandate was to collec