”Vad är detta för en kurre?”

Om attribueringen av J. Palms musiklexikon på Statens musikbibliotek

Abstract

A handwritten dictionary about musicians has long been available at The Library of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music/The Music Library of Sweden. Until the end of the twentieth century it was attributed to Wilhelm Berg (1839-1915), a skilled amateur researcher who wrote several books about the history of Gothenburg and its cultural life in particular. But by the end of the century it was discovered that the real author was a man named J. Palm. Very little was known about him, although he had also authored other dictionaries about Swedish artists, prompting Otto Walde in his great work about archives in Sweden to end his section on Palm “Who is this little goblin?”.

This article identifies Josef Palm (1816-82) as a well-educated deputy judge in Jönköping, Sweden, and as a skilled amateur musician who participated in the public musical life and in concerts together with both Swedish and internationally well reputed musicians, including Jenny Lind, Joseph Ghys, Christian Kellermann, Anton Door, Edvard Pratté, and Edvard d’Aubert. The article also assesses the dictionary - a somewhat valuable contemporary source, but with many unreliable entries - and addresses the importance for the musical life of these, often anonymous amateur musicians and the problem of their underresearched status.