In 1935, composer Taneli Kuusisto wrote in the Finnish periodical Musiikkitieto (Musical Insight): “There was a period of several years in our concert culture when pianists making their début came almost exclusively from the school of Ingeborg Hymander. Their always supremely confident appearance, solid and impeccable technical skills and overall correctness of performance are testimony to wider musical circles of the rare pedagogical talent of their instructor.”
This tribute was published in celebration of the 70th birthday of Ingeborg Hymander (1865–1938) and provides an apt encapsulation of just how important Hymander was in her field in Finland at the time. Three years later, her numerous obituaries praised her as “one of the most significant music educators in Finland”.
Hymander taught piano at the Helsinki Music Institute, subsequently the Helsinki Conservatory (which in 1939 became the Sibelius Academy) from 1889 to 1936 and was the coordinating teacher for piano pedagogy for decades as well. The first Finnish piano primer, Pianonsoiton alkeiskurssi I–III [Beginner’s course in piano] (1906), which she co-authored with her colleague Aline Ahlfors, remained in use well beyond her lifetime: the last edition was printed in 1962. Hymander also wrote the first Finnish textbook on piano pedagogy, Nuori pianonsoiton opettaja [The young piano teacher] (1924).
It was not until the 1980s that the next Finnish books on piano pedagogy were published, and these do not mention Hymander at all. The reason is clear: the canonised founder of Finnish piano culture is Italian-German pianist and composer Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924), who undeniably did have a huge impact on Finnish music through his brilliant recitals and extensive networking. However, he only taught piano at the Helsinki Music Institute for two years (1888–1890), and during that time spent one semester on leave.
Pianist Ernst Linko, who was rector of the Sibelius Academy from 1939 to 1956, claimed in the periodical Musiikkitieto in 1944 that it was Busoni who laid the groundwork for the piano teaching in which the institution had attained its widely acknowledged success. This is only one example of how internationally known names were elevated in the history of Finnish piano music, to the detriment of appreciation for Finnish teachers.
Hymander as a teacher at the Helsinki Music Institute
The first director of the Helsinki Music Institute, Martin Wegelius (1846–1906), considered it necessary to import the Continental piano tradition, following Franz Liszt, to Finland. He engaged pupils of Liszt for the position of head teacher (or ‘first teacher’, as they were known) of piano. The position was held longest, for four academic years, by Ludwig Dingeldey (1856–1920) and William Humphrey(s) Dayas (1863–1903). Dingeldey took up the position in 1883. Hymander studied in his class for four years along with Aline Grönqvist (later Ahlfors, 1865–1920) and Antonie Leontjeff (1861–1922), both of whom also subsequently taught piano at the institution for decades. Having graduated, Hymander went on to study with Hans Bischoff and former Liszt pupils Karl Klindworth and Eugen d’Albert in Germany.
Hymander was not appointed head teacher, but she was installed as Busoni’s locum for the autumn semester in 1889, immediately on her return from Germany. (We should note that Busoni was never a pupil of Liszt but became a prominent performer of and advocate for Liszt’s music.) Wegelius trusted the pedagogical skills that Hymander had demonstrated while still a student, and her studies abroad had undoubtedly improved her competence in the Continental tradition.
Apart from temping for Busoni, Hymander held the position of ‘third teacher’ of piano, where the duties included teaching beginner students and focusing on pedagogical aspects of training. Hymander’s duties further included teaching students at the upper levels (i.e. the music school and the advanced studies department, also known as the ‘Academy Class’). In 1892, she was appointed ‘second teacher’ in piano and no longer had to teach beginners. In 1898, the position of ‘first teacher’ was given to a Finnish pianist for the first time – Karl Ekman (1869–1947) – while it was not until 1912 that the first woman to occupy the position was appointed. This was Sigrid Sundgren-Schnéevoigt (1878–1957), who had studied with Busoni and Dayas among others and who had initially acquired her skills studying with Leontjeff, Ahlfors and Hymander.
In the course of her extensive career, Hymander trained a great number of pianists, a considerable percentage of whom went on to create a career as professional musicians. In piano pedagogy, Hymander may be considered a pioneer even by international standards. Building on the ideas of Wegelius, she developed and established a model for teaching in piano pedagogy which has attracted attention beyond Finland’s borders and which essentially remains in use to this day: theory studies were synchronised with practical training, and piano students nearing the end of their studies were assigned to teach beginner students for one academic year. Hymander herself was the supervising teacher, or ‘beginner school inspector’, for this practical training for decades.
This model developed for piano pedagogy was eventually adopted in pedagogy for other instruments, and this too is still evident in the training given today.
Institutions of music education
The education and training provided by the Helsinki Music Institute was strongly institutionalised from the start. Not only was the institution divided into units such as the Beginner School and the Academy Class; the studies themselves were highly regimented. It was a demanding training programme, but many of the pedagogical principles established in those days survive in Finnish music today.
All students who progressed beyond the most basic level had to study ‘general subjects’ (music theory, aural skills and music history), and Wegelius authored several textbooks for these subjects. His most substantial contribution was a comprehensive history of Western music (1891–1893), which was heavily influenced by his admiration for Richard Wagner and showed certain anti-Semitic tendencies. The underlying principle that studying music must not be “merely” about singing or playing an instrument but must also include general and theoretical studies has stood the test of time.
Another major feature was the graded system of level performance examinations developed in the 1890s to provide intermediate goals for studies. This extended from the beginner level to soloist diplomas. The graded system, guiding both teachers and students systematically in their progress, was – and probably still is – an outlier in European music education. It has often been claimed that Busoni co-developed this system with Wegelius, but it is far more likely that the detailed content of the system was devised by experienced teachers at the Music Institute, perhaps inspired by ideas floated by Busoni. Hymander’s class soon began to complete level performance examinations at a brisk rate.
Level performance examinations are still used in the training of professional musicians in Finland. They have been criticised on occasion and described with varying terminology, but they have undoubtedly been of major significance in fostering the blossoming of Finnish musical culture.
A third major feature was the introduction of musical soirées, which became an important activity at the Music Institute. Both students and teachers performed at these events, and consequently the Music Institute soon became an important concert institution in Helsinki – a role still maintained today by what is now the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. The musical soirées were designed with ambitious and serious programming from the start, forming a contrast to the popular entertainments that formed much of the concert offering available in Helsinki at the time.
Hymander and Hegelian influences
Neither Finnish music in general nor Hymander in particular existed in an ideological vacuum. One of the major influences in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was German philosophical idealism, specifically the thinking of G. W. F. Hegel.
The influence of Hegel was apparent in academic music scholarship, newspaper reviews and countless other aspects of music culture. One of the most interesting examples comes from Hymander herself, who wrote in her book Nuori pianonsoiton opettaja:
“For human development to be possible, the individual must have potential = powers. The purpose of education is to nurture this. Such nurturing must be natural in that the educator must appreciate the talents of the student, not suppressing them but fostering and helping to improve them. Since body and soul remain indivisible throughout our lifetime, education must seek to elevate the soul, to awaken and guide its expressions in a rational way. Human consciousness, collective awareness and self-awareness must be developed to aspire to freedom, independence and Spirit.”
Such a declaration of freedom allied with “rationality” recalls Hegelian ideals. For all that it was so institutionalised, music education aimed to foster freedom, and instead of emotion it hailed reason (“rationality”) as its guiding light. This ties in directly with Hegel’s concept of ‘rational freedom’, as opposed to nature in the sense of instincts and uncontrolled impulses. With rational freedom, human individuals are governed by reason rather than by wild natural impulses.
Hegel considered that social institutions promoted rational freedom. Hymander’s “freedom” and “rationality” gave ideological meaning to the heavily institutionalised structure of the Helsinki Music Institute, with its performance examinations, general subjects and soirées. The concept of rational freedom may seem paradoxical to a modern individual accustomed to the liberal notion of freedom of the individual, but it is a possible explanation for why the Helsinki Music Institute was structured in the way it was.
Hegelian ideals were also of significance to how musicians lived their lives: the ideas of reason, education and freedom fed into a new cultured bourgeois way of life, represented by German-born musical polymath Richard Faltin (1835–1918) and Hymander, who had studied piano with him when she was young.
Musical pedagogy took on board a variety of further ideological influences, including Swedish feminist Ellen Key and German piano pedagogue Rudolf Breithaupt, whom Hymander visited on a study trip in 1912. The emphasis on the free flow of physical movement and Hymander’s encouraging approach building on the strengths of each individual student are remarkably similar to the approaches favoured in pedagogy today.
We would therefore do well to remember that piano culture and teaching were not developed only by international stars. Backstage, so to speak, we can find formidable individuals like Hymander who interacted with major players in their time and operated in the then current ideological environment. These individuals have had a major and lasting impact, as we can see in the strength of Finnish music today.
Featured photo: Hymander photographer at her home in 1931. Source: Finna / The Finnish Heritage Foundation, Pietinen archive Translation: Jaakko Mäntyjärvi
