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Thisted Musikforening
Thisted
100 years of Thisted's music societies
In the 2012/13 season the music society celebrated its 100th anniversary.
"The music society" is an established concept among the many music and cultural initiatives in Thisted and Thy.
As early as 1901 Thisted got its music society. The initiative came from the music society in Ringkøbing, which in a letter urged music enthusiasts along the west coast to set up societies in order to "foster the musical life, which has until now lain fallow in most places".
In Thisted it was a circle of ladies and gentlemen headed by the doctor's wife Ingeborg Tolderlund who were behind the call for the founding general meeting.
For the next 25 years Mrs Tolderlund – first as secretary, later as chair – came to shape the musical life of what was then a particularly remote Thisted with only 6000 inhabitants. It was a long way to Thisted for the capital's musicians and singers – from Struer alone the journey took four hours by train, and on the way, until the bridge opened in 1938, one had to cross Oddesund in often strong winds.
The attitude of Mrs Tolderlund and the rest of the board was that the society should be passive. That is to say, the society's members should be able to become acquainted with the "finest" in music, played by the best and most competent musicians. It was not the purpose that the members could together pursue their musical interests by playing for and with each other. Dilettantes were never to perform in the society, where "the great art was to be heard for the delight and development of us small dilettantes".
A concert with local musicians and a dance afterwards, as was done in Nykøbing Musikforening on Mors in 1902, was unthinkable in Thisted. It had to be the best of the best. Among the musicians who performed in the banqueting halls of Hotel Aalborg or Hotel Phønix were names such as Fini Henriques, Peder Møller, Georg Høeberg, Emil Telmányi, Victor Schiøler and Einar Nørby, who was born in Thisted in 1896.
And it went well until 1932. Then Mrs Tolderlund's music society had to give up. 38 of the country's music societies had already closed, and after Thisted Musikforening had folded, there were only seven music societies left in the whole country. The cause was an almost total lack of support from the public. The radio broadcast music - including classical - and other amusements had appeared, not least cinemas.
But the urge and need for music is unquenchable, and in 1943 – in the middle of the occupation – a number of citizens in Thisted gathered to reopen the music society.
Two people in particular came to shape the new society from its beginning. They were its chair, the music teacher Edith Larsen, and board member, the land surveyor Poul Boe.
The premiere concert on 16 September was a pure piano programme with the young pianist France Ellegaard as soloist, and three months later the board succeeded in presenting the audience with "a truly outstanding quality orchestra", namely Aarhus Byorkester, with 34 musicians under the direction of Thomas Jensen. The repertoire was Schubert, Mendelssohn, Knud Aage Riisager and Svend Erik Tarp. The concert ended with the overture to "Elverhøj".
The following years' work was marked especially by Poul Boe's tireless efforts to establish cooperation between the music societies in West Jutland. Small local tours in West Jutland were a great advantage to the visiting musicians and singers and an economic relief to the music societies. In Thisted membership rose steadily and in the 1950s reached over 1500 - the largest music society in the country - and in 1951 Thisted was proclaimed "Denmark's music town".
Many in the town now thought this was taking the importance of music to the town too far, and the town's motor expert, the engineer Poul Vestergaard, founded the Anti-Music Society, "Antimus", whose purpose was "to keep the interest in music in Thisted and surroundings at a decent level". Poul Vestergaard's son, the film director Jørgen Vestergaard, Sennels, still remembers the affair quite well, although it was on a humorous plane. His father and Poul Boe had an excellent and comradely relationship with each other, indeed, they were in fact friends, but Poul Vestergaard did not go much to the music society. His taste in music went in a completely different direction.
The most memorable episode was probably when the lights went out during one of the music society's concerts, because the supply from the then Thisted Elektricitetsværk was not always equally reliable. But afterwards Poul Vestergaard's "Antimus" appointed the power station manager, Mørch, an honorary member of the society.
Today there is still a rich and lively music scene in Thy - more varied than before - classical music is still cultivated, not just in Thisted Musikforening, but in a whole range of initiatives and projects, with church concerts, Thy Masterclass' Chamber Music Festival, Kirsten Kjær's museum in Langvad with the outstanding concert hall "Johns Hall", Thisted Musikteater, Sydthy Teater- og Musikselskab, Vestervig Kirkemusikskole, Musikgården in Boddum, North Atlantic Vocal Academy, the music schools… and much more.
Thisted Musikforening is still an important part of the musical life of Thy, with five or six concerts a year as well as music trips. The ambition is the same as in the old days: to offer concerts with the best forces from Denmark and abroad.
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