McFarland Salmodikon Quartet

Left to right: Bertha Larson, Nora Brickson, Charlotte Sullivan, Elsie Thompson. The McFarland Salmodikon Quartet was invited to participate in the National Folk Festivals in Orchestra Hall, Chicago in 1937 and Constitution Hall, Washington, D.C. in 1938. They also played at the State Fair in West Allis, Wisconsin, the Century of Progress exhibition in Chicago and many other places. They also made recordings of salmodikon music for the Library of Congress. They would often use a sound amplification system when playing for a program since the sound was then more like a pipe organ. To play at the National Folk Festival, the quartet drove four days from McFarland, Wisconsin to Washington, D.C. in Nora Brickson’s car. They were able to rehearse for a couple of days before the Festival began. “The girls suggested that we go to hotels this time, on account of my age” said Elsie Thompson, 78 years of age at the time, “but I told them that I can take it as well as anyone in the group and we will buy groceries, do our own cooking and sleep in tourist cabins”. The cost of the trip was about $80.00. The Idun Sons of Norway lodge gave them $10.00 toward travel expenses and other societies in Stoughton, Madison and Edgerton contributed as well. Tørbjørn Vik, a school teacher in Norway, brought a salmodikon with him when he came to America in 1862. He decided to use four salmodikons together so that four-part harmony could be played. His daughters, one of whom was Elsie Thompson, along with her sister Julia Larson and other family members began using instruments he made to play four-part harmony as a quartet. T he salmodikons that he made for the quartet were given to Beatrice Hole by Ruth Reitan of Decorah, Iowa, a great-granddaughter of Tørbjørn.