Toralf Tollefsen – Obituary
by John Mackie
There are times when the expression ’end of an era’ embodies connotations of great loss, and therefore, also great sadness. Such was the occasion of the sudden death of, the one and only, Toralf Tollefsen on Sunday, 27th November.
I had spoken to his wife, Nona, on the phone on the Saturday, and she told me that Tolly had fallen on ice the day before and was in hospital with a broken leg, but was in good spirits and had even cast his vote in hospital on the Norwegian Referendum on the E.E.C.
On Monday, 5th December, I came home to find a message on my answering machine from Jon Feukstad, a great friend of Tolly’s, to say that he had died suddenly on the Sunday, a sad culmination to the extensive celebration of his 80th birthday in August, but he had at least known the pleasure of the great appreciation the world held for his unquestionable genius. He was an artiste many years ahead of his time, when one considers that he recorded pieces such as ‘Dance of the Hours’, ‘Dance of the Comedians’, Bach’s Toccata and Fuge in D Minor and the Frosini arrangement of ‘The Carnival of Venice’ in the early 30’s, one realises the extent of the man’s vision in regard to the extent of the potential of the accordion, which of course has been greatly enhanced by the advent of the free bass.
Tolly was not merely content to settle for an instrument with a free bass converter, but used the Zero Zette with an extra row of free bass as he incorporated both the Stradella and free bass in some of his transpositions.
He gave concerts in America, Australia, New Zealand and of course all over Europe. He and his wife, Nona, a colleen from Belfast, were decorated by the Norwegian Government for their often dangerous work in the Norwegian Resistance during the German Occupation, as they had been on a concert tour of Norway when the Germans invaded.
After the war, they moved back to London, with their baby daughter Sonia Marie. That was when I first contacted him concerning any further recordings he had made, also to replace one or two of my own which had been damaged while I was in the Army during the war.
He was most helpful and so we corresponded from time-to-time, until he went back to Norway in the early 60’s. Until then he had broadcast regularly on radio and BBC television. We more or less lost contact until some fifteen years ago when I came across an article about him in a magazine, so I contacted the Norwegian Consul who promptly looked up the Oslo telephone directory and gave me both Tolly’s telephone number and address. Tolly was delighted to hear from me, with the result that we have communicated on a regular basis ever since.
We met at Malcolm Gee’s Festival in Caister in 1986, where we used to have breakfast together and some fine extended blethers. He was the principal guest artiste at Caister that year and he told me then that he never used cassotto in his accordion.
It was that year after going home from Caister that he discovered he was diabetic, and in 1980 had to have a foot amputated as a consequence, a pretty traumatic experience for someone of his fairly advanced years. However, he was physically a very strong man, and equally so mentally, and so made a full recovery, although latterly developed back problems, which many of us are aware can be an occupational hazard of the accordionist.
His last public appearance was in April when he gave a short concert on Norwegian television as part of his 80th birthday celebration.
Toralf Tollefsen has bequeathed to the world a legacy of wonderful music in his one hundred plus single recordings, his L.P.s and now the latest release, the C.D. which has proved so timely in its production. His death, so unexpected, has been a great blow to the accordion movement worldwide, and certainly to myself, as he has played a significant part in my life for the last sixty years, and will be remembered with great affection wherever accordionists foregather.
by John Mackie
There are times when the expression ’end of an era’ embodies connotations of great loss, and therefore, also great sadness. Such was the occasion of the sudden death of, the one and only, Toralf Tollefsen on Sunday, 27th November.
I had spoken to his wife, Nona, on the phone on the Saturday, and she told me that Tolly had fallen on ice the day before and was in hospital with a broken leg, but was in good spirits and had even cast his vote in hospital on the Norwegian Referendum on the E.E.C.
On Monday, 5th December, I came home to find a message on my answering machine from Jon Feukstad, a great friend of Tolly’s, to say that he had died suddenly on the Sunday, a sad culmination to the extensive celebration of his 80th birthday in August, but he had at least known the pleasure of the great appreciation the world held for his unquestionable genius. He was an artiste many years ahead of his time, when one considers that he recorded pieces such as ‘Dance of the Hours’, ‘Dance of the Comedians’, Bach’s Toccata and Fuge in D Minor and the Frosini arrangement of ‘The Carnival of Venice’ in the early 30’s, one realises the extent of the man’s vision in regard to the extent of the potential of the accordion, which of course has been greatly enhanced by the advent of the free bass.
Tolly was not merely content to settle for an instrument with a free bass converter, but used the Zero Zette with an extra row of free bass as he incorporated both the Stradella and free bass in some of his transpositions.
He gave concerts in America, Australia, New Zealand and of course all over Europe. He and his wife, Nona, a colleen from Belfast, were decorated by the Norwegian Government for their often dangerous work in the Norwegian Resistance during the German Occupation, as they had been on a concert tour of Norway when the Germans invaded.
After the war, they moved back to London, with their baby daughter Sonia Marie. That was when I first contacted him concerning any further recordings he had made, also to replace one or two of my own which had been damaged while I was in the Army during the war.
He was most helpful and so we corresponded from time-to-time, until he went back to Norway in the early 60’s. Until then he had broadcast regularly on radio and BBC television. We more or less lost contact until some fifteen years ago when I came across an article about him in a magazine, so I contacted the Norwegian Consul who promptly looked up the Oslo telephone directory and gave me both Tolly’s telephone number and address. Tolly was delighted to hear from me, with the result that we have communicated on a regular basis ever since.
We met at Malcolm Gee’s Festival in Caister in 1986, where we used to have breakfast together and some fine extended blethers. He was the principal guest artiste at Caister that year and he told me then that he never used cassotto in his accordion.
It was that year after going home from Caister that he discovered he was diabetic, and in 1980 had to have a foot amputated as a consequence, a pretty traumatic experience for someone of his fairly advanced years. However, he was physically a very strong man, and equally so mentally, and so made a full recovery, although latterly developed back problems, which many of us are aware can be an occupational hazard of the accordionist.
His last public appearance was in April when he gave a short concert on Norwegian television as part of his 80th birthday celebration.
Toralf Tollefsen has bequeathed to the world a legacy of wonderful music in his one hundred plus single recordings, his L.P.s and now the latest release, the C.D. which has proved so timely in its production. His death, so unexpected, has been a great blow to the accordion movement worldwide, and certainly to myself, as he has played a significant part in my life for the last sixty years, and will be remembered with great affection wherever accordionists foregather.