Ole Mørk Sandvik

Early life

He was born on the island Helgøya as a son of school inspector Paul Knutsen Barstad Sandvik (1847–1936) and his wife Nikoline Petrine Mørk (1847–1927). His parents hailed from Ørsta and Volda. The family moved to Hamar three years later, and Sandvik finished his secondary education here in 1893. He combined studies and work as a teacher, and graduated with the cand.theol. degree in 1902. In July 1906 he married pianist Nanna Rønneberg Munthe-Kaas (1880–1965).

Career

He spent most of his career at the two schools Vestheim, from 1898 to 1913, and Hegdehaugen, from 1913 to 1945. He also worked part-time as a singing teacher at the University of Oslo and the MF Norwegian School of Theology, from 1916. He remained at the university until 1947 and at MF until 1952. He took his doctorate in 1921 with the thesis Norsk folkemusik, særlig Østlandsmusikken. This was the first thesis on Norwegian folk music. The thesis was built on several travels in Norway, especially the Gudbrandsdal region, where he collected this music. A polemic took place between Sandvik and colleague Catharinus Elling. Elling held that folk music pieces had to be polished by professionals, whereas Sandvik argued that the music should be played in the tradition of the country folk.

Sandvik became vice president of the International Folk Music Council at its inception in 1947. President at the time was Ralph Vaughan Williams. In Norway Sandvik founded the Norwegian Folk Music Research Association in 1948, and chaired the organization from 1948 to 1965. Sandvik also wrote books on church music and choral music. He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters from 1939.

He was decorated as a Knight, First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1949. In 1966 he was awarded honorary membership in the Norwegian National Association for Traditional Music and Dance. He died in August 1976 in Oslo, having reached the age of 101.