CHAPTER III.
GRIEG.
EDVARD GRIEG.
Born 1843, at Bergen, Norway.
Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born June 15, 1843, at Bergen, Norway. His musical talent asserted itself early, and fortunately his parents were able to provide him with the best of conditions for its development. The famous violinist Ole Bull was a friend of the family and encouraged him to devote himself to the musical profession. In 1858 Grieg went to Leipsic to study under Moscheles, Hauptmann, Wenzel, and Reinecke. He graduated in 1862, receiving praise for one or two small compositions which were played at the final rehearsal, but he was not considered as marked for certain distinction.
Soon after he went to Copenhagen and studied with Gade. Here he met a compatriot, Nordraak, with whom he struck up a warm friendship. The latter, so it is said, imbued Grieg with the idea of giving form and expression to the national spirit and life, and from that time on he devoted himself assiduously to national music, literature, and folk-lore.
Later he married Miss Nina Hagerup, a popular Norwegian singer, who has helped to make his songs well known in all Europe.
The next few years were spent in travel and study, and later in hard, successful work among his own countrymen. The latter are genuinely proud of him, and he has a firm hold on the affections of the people of his native city, where he now resides. His country home, which is his favorite retreat, is almost ideally located, with a commanding view of the fjord and surrounded by forest and heights.
PROGRAM.
Suite. "From Holberg's Time." Opus 40.
Praeludium.
Sarabande.
Gavotte.
Air.
Rigaudon.
Songs for Alto Voice.
Sunset.
Cradle Song.
The Poet's Last Song.
Eight Lyric Pieces. Opus 12.
Arietta, Walzer, Wachterlied, Elfentanz, Volksweise, Norwegisch,
Albumblatt, Vaterländisches Lied.
Songs for Soprano.
"Good Morning."
"Thanks for Thy Hand."
Suite, Peer Gynt, Opus 46, 1.
"Morning Mood" (Morgenstimmung).
"The Death of Ase."
"Anitra's Dance."
"In the Halls of the Mountain King."
"On the Mountains." Opus 19, No. 1.
NOTE.--In case a good violinist is available, I recommend modifying the
above by omitting the "Holberg" suite and taking the "Peer Gynt" to
begin with; then close with the Sonata for Piano and Violin, Opus 8.
In many respects Edvard Grieg is one of the most interesting composers of the present time. While it is by no means certain that his works will find a place in the classics of the tone poetry of the world, he is entitled, at least, to this much credit—of having, in the first place, found a wider acceptance outside of his native Norway than has fallen to the lot of any Scandinavian composer before him. He has also made a more marked impression, and has brought into the music of the world what might be called, in literary parlance, "a characteristic note." It would be very curious and interesting, if it were convenient, to trace the gradual evolution of this talent, as shown in the successive works which have come from his pen. But for the present it must suffice to speak of a few of them in a more particular manner.