Winter Hjelm saw clearly how the elements of folk music could be used to create a national type of music along grander lines. Another composer worthy of mention in this connection is Ludvig Mathias Lindeman , whose collection of Norwegian folk melodies formed an important basis for Grieg's further development.
Later, Grieg went in search of folk music in its native environment, the written notes of folk music could only imperfectly reproduce the special atmosphere and the almost magical rhythms and harmonies that the folk musicians could coax out of their instruments.
In the hope of making his living as a musician in Norway, Grieg initially had to concentrate on playing and teaching music in Oslo. Composing was largely relegated to the summer holidays, but during these years Grieg exhibited a considerable capacity for hard work.
It was thanks to him that a concert society with both choir and orchestra was established in the capital, a society which provided him with valuable experience in the art of instrumentation. In the autumn of , Grieg put the finishing touches to his first great masterpiece, the Piano Concerto in A minor. With the passing of time it has become almost synonymous with Norway. It is now a part of the international repertoire of piano music and is played constantly throughout the world.
Every time it is performed, the concerto evokes in both performers and audience strong associations with Norway. Though patterned to some extent on European models, Grieg has succeeded in bringing these together with elements of Norwegian folk music and his own personal conceptions of Norwegian nature and the Norwegian character. His musical style has become identical to the Norwegian intonation. Even in Grieg's lifetime those who heard his music gained the impression that it was strongly linked to the landscapes and way of life of the people around him.
His first biographer, Aimer Gronvold, helped to strengthen this impression through a situation he once described. When Gronvold, one summer day in the s, sailed past the little settlement of Ullensvang in Hardanger on the local steamer, he caught sight of the small figure of Edvard Grieg, striding along beside the fjord at Lofthus. Picking a path through rocks and scree he made his way towards his destination, a small knoll with a wooden cabin specially built for him to compose in.
It boasted but one tiny room, and was poised on the edge of the fjord, in the midst of the exquisite beauty of Ullensvang, with the dark, deep fjord below, and the glittering ridge of the Folgefonna glacier on the other side of the water.
Grieg returned there every summer, and sometimes in the winter too, to seek the peace and tranquillity he needed for his work. In the heart of this matchless amphitheater of nature, surrounded by the most sublime and majestic scenery in Norway, Grieg placed his grand piano and his writing desk.
Here he sat, like an Orpheus reborn, and played in his mountain fastness, among the wild animals and the rocks. His music came from the depths of rural Norway, where the quick and resonant tones of the Hardanger fiddle met his ear, and the Hardangerfjord's shifting moods enchanted his eye. Gronvold concluded that there was an intense and indissoluble relationship between the environment he lived in and the music that he created. It is almost impossible to listen to Grieg, be it in a concert hall or a drawing room, without sensing a light, fresh breeze from the blue waters, a glimpse of sparkling glaciers, a recollection of the steep mountains and of life in the fjordland of western Norway, where Grieg was born and dearly loved to roam.
In good times and bad But this romantic image of the composer, and of his art and environment was only half the truth. Success did not come easily to Grieg. His life was a struggle where he encountered both success and adversity. In the s he worked hard to support both himself and his family as a choir and orchestral conductor, as a music teacher and as a performer. In these fields he was successful, but it took time to win the recognition of other musicians and of the public.
His harmonies seemed dissonant and unorthodox to a public still striving to understand Beethoven and Mozart. Grieg could not spend long periods in such an environment without being destroyed as an artist. The Norwegian school of painters, with Hans Gude at its head, had taken the obvious consequence of this several years before. Every summer they sketched and planned in the Norwegian mountains. But with the advent of the autumn, they packed their bags and went to Dusseldorf to complete and sell the paintings.
At regular intervals Bjornson and Ibsen had to do the same, gathering new impulses and appreciation in Germany, Italy and France. That was a success! Nothing since has been able to excite me so profoundly as this. With loving, but firm guidance, his mother led Edvard forward into the wonder of music.
He preferred to discover the music himself. Instead of the compulsory etudes he preferred to improvise and play and finding new tunes and melodies.
However, despite the certain amount of reluctance, his love for music grew into what was to become, in his innermost spirit, the right thing to do in life — to be an artist. His marks were quite bad and give a good account of his deepest interests. His interest lay in music.
A nickname he got at school was Mosak, because he had answered Mozart when the teacher had asked which composer had composed a work called Requiem. The event became, according to Grieg, the most important single event in his life. After that he came over to Edvard and said: «You are going to Leipzig to become an artist! This conservatory was founded in by Felix Mendelsohn, and was reckoned to be the best and most modern conservatory in Europe.
Even though Edvard Grieg had dreamed his whole youth to become an artist, it was a strange experience to come from a small city like Bergen to a European metropolis with narrow streets, tall buildings and crowds of people.
The first time was a time with homesickness and language-problems, but shortly he started to feel at home. As teachers in Leipzig he had some of the best pedagogues in Europe: Ignaz Moscheles in piano, Carl Reinecke in composition and Moritz Hauptmann, whom Edvard Grieg had the greatest respect for.
During his stay in Leipzig Edvard Grieg came in contact with the European music-tradition, first of all he studied the works of Mozart and Beethoven, but also the compositions of more modern composers like Mendelsohn, Schumann and Wagner. Unfortunately he got pleuritt, a kind of tuberculosis, which marked him for the rest of his life.
His left lung collapsed, which made his back bend, and greatly reduced his lung-capacity. Nevertheless he graduated from the conservatory with excellent marks in His debut in his hometown came the year after. Among other works at this concert, his string-quartet in d-minor was performed, a work that has disappeared without a trace.
Thus Grieg went to Copenhagen, the only Scandinavian city with a rich cultural life on an international level. The time in Denmark was a happy time for Edvard Grieg. Even though Grieg did well in his studies, he disliked the discipline involved in serious musical study at the conservatory. Grieg made his concert piano debut in in Sweden which was very well received. Another rave review for Grieg. A year Grieg travelled to Denmark for a three-year stay where he met Danish composer Niels Gade who became a great friend and large influence.
Grieg married his first cousin in and composed his seminal Piano Concerto a year later. Grieg met Franz Liszt in Rome in
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