William Bergsma, Composer

William Laurence Bergsma was born on April 1st, 1921, to parents Helen and William Joseph Bergsma in Oakland, CA. His mother was an aspiring operatic coloratura, who frequently sang concerts in the Bay Area. Very little is known about his father, who disappeared from their lives when his son was 6 years old.. The breakup of the marriage plunged the family into poverty. Young Bill remembered walking through the city streets with his mother as she tried to sell encyclopedias to keep his small frame alive. She later married George Bennett, a silver polish manufacturer, and this provided financial security. Bennett wanted to raise young William to take over the silver polishing business, but Helen demurred, already feeling certain that her son was destined for a life in music. William Bergsma studied viola and violin, playing in the school orchestra, and studied composition with the conductor. He accompanied his mother at the piano when she sang concerts and learned the song literature this way. In 7th grade home room, Bergsma met the love of his life, schoolmate Nancy Nickerson (affectionately known as NIckie.) She used to sit next to him on the piano bench while he composed. (Many years later, a student remarked that she was the music between the notes Bergsma wrote.) This is the first piece of his that was published: The Paul Bunyan Suite. He wrote it when he was 16 and it was first performed when he was 17.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99hyiyGVTE4&list=RD99hyiyGVTE4&start_radio=1

April 1, 2026

Today would have been William Bergsma's 105th birthday. In tribute, I'd like to play selections from his opera, "The Wife of Martin Guerre."

The Wife of Martin Guerre (first published 1941) is a short novel by American writer Janet Lewis based on the story of Martin Guerre, the 16th-century French peasant who apparently returned home to his wife after a long absence but was later revealed to be an impostor. The novel has its origins in research Lewis made into trials based on circumstantial evidence, after reading in-depth about famous trials turning on circumstantial evidence, which prompted her to write a pamphlet describing the risks of using it.[1]

The novel tells the tale from the point of view of Bertrande, Martin's wife, and turns on the compelling moral problem presented to her when a man—possibly an impostor—takes the place of her husband. The first Martin is a hard, unkind person who appears not to love her whilst the second Martin is the opposite. What should she do?

At the end of the novel, her husband, the real Martin, returns, and Bertrande has to make her moral decision: does she reveal that it is not the same man, thus subjecting herself to a lifetime of misery, or does she continue the lie? She chooses the truth, yet the real Martin Guerre rejects her, saying, "Dry your tears, Madame. They cannot, and they ought not, move my pity. The example of my sisters and my uncle can be no excuse for you, Madame, who knew me better than any living soul. The error into which you plunged could only have been caused by willful blindness. You, and you only, Madame, are answerable for the dishonor which has befallen me" (Lewis, p. 107).

Lewis adapted the novel into a three-act opera libretto for William Bergsma; the resulting work was premiered at the Juilliard School on February 15, 1956.[

Links to recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOUoAVewTho&list=RDjOUoAVewTho&start_radio=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i_O18ooxn0&list=RD1i_O18ooxn0&start_radio=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf9NXgSnbwk&list=RDnf9NXgSnbwk&start_radio=1