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Oluf Ring

1884 - 1946

Danish

Summary

Oluf Ring wrote about 300 songs that have entered the treasury of Danish song. He lived and breathed for the folk song, and was the initiator for a number of projects, all with the vision of giving Danish music a more popular appeal. In 1930 Oluf Ring was engaged as a music teacher at the Skårup State Teacher Train­ing College, and his writing activities began to pick up speed. He felt comfortable in the musical environment, and with inspiration from the field of teaching in which he worked, he wrote several song compositions for beginners. Many of these have later been pub­lished in a succession of booklets and textbooks. 

But Oluf Ring also found inspiration outside the field of teaching. In the years around the First World War, along with his colleagues Thomas Laub, Thorvald Aagaard and Carl Nielsen, he participated in the composition of over 300 melodies for popular Danish communal singing. Many of these melodies are today considered Danish national heritage. Oluf Ring was a co-editor of the Folk High School songbook Folkehøjskolens Melodibog from 1922 and 1940, the workers’ songbook Arbejdermelodibogen from 1936, and Syng i Denmark ("Sing in Denmark") from 1938 – all publications that included several of his popular songs.