Born in Hamar, Norway

Pauline Margarete Hall was born on August 2, 1890, in the town of Hamar, Norway. She grew up in a cultured, middle-class Norwegian family during a period when Norway was asserting its cultural independence, having only recently separated from Sweden in 1905.

Her early exposure to music and the arts within her family environment set the stage for a lifelong devotion to composition, criticism, and cultural leadership. Norway at the turn of the twentieth century offered limited formal opportunities for women pursuing serious musical careers, particularly in composition, which was still dominated by men. Hall's birth in this era of national cultural awakening would later prove significant, as she became one of the most important voices shaping Norwegian modern music in the twentieth century.

Her birthplace and early Norwegian upbringing grounded her strong national identity, even as she later traveled and drew influence from Paris and broader European modernist movements. The significance of her birth is best understood retrospectively: she would go on to found the Ny Musikk society, chair Norwegian composer organizations, and serve as a trailblazing music critic, making her formative years in Hamar the foundation for a remarkable career that broke gender barriers in Nordic musical life.