THEODORA CORMONTAN, Michael and Bonnie Jorgensen
Composer
to have her classical compositions published and widely performed there.2 She continued composing after she immigrated to the United States, and saw several of her hymns published in a Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran songbook. She is still remembered in Norway, where one of her hymns appears in the Church of Norway hymnal. Considering her compelling life and beautiful music, we would do well to remember her here. Theodora Nicoline Meldal Cormontan was born on June 9, 1840, in Beitstad, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway. At age 7 she moved to the southern coastal town of Arendal, where her father, Reverend Even Meldal Schjelderup Cormontan (17981893), was called to lead the Trinity Church.3 She received her early musical education from the town musician, F.W. Thoschag, and performed regularly in concerts.4 Young women could not attend high school in Norway until the 1880s, and Norwegian public colleges were not open to them until 1890,5 but Theodora’s economically advantaged and supportive parents enabled her to continue her
Theodora Cormontan, approximately 1865, 25 years old, taken in Norway. Photo courtesy of the authors, given to them by Nancy Clasen, the great grand-daughter of Theodora’s younger sister. Marie Cormontan Lyders.
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few miles southwest of Decorah, Iowa, in the midst of a meadow and encircled by Norwegian pines that whisper secrets when the wind stirs them, the Aase Haugen Cemetery serves as the final resting place for Norwegian-American pioneers who came to the “Aase Haugen Sunset Home for Old People” to live their last years. This includes Theodora Cormontan, whose tombstone, with its misspelled last name and incorrect birth date, attests that she was being forgotten even while she lived. Forgotten, that is, until May 2011, when over 150 of her original handwritten music manuscripts were rediscovered in St. Peter, Minnesota. Subsequent research reveals that Theodora Cormontan was the first woman to start her own music publishing business in Norway,1 and one of the first 28
From left to right, Eivinda, Theodora and Even Cormontan, circa 1865-1870, Norway. Photo courtesy of Aust-Agder Cultural History Center, Arendal, Norway.
Vesterheim