Edvard Grieg

Edvard Hagerup Grieg [ ɛdʋɑɖ hɑ ː gəɾʉp gɾɪg ] ( born June 15, 1843 in Bergen, Norway, † September 4, 1907 ) was a Norwegian pianist and composer of the Romantic period.

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Life

Childhood and youth

Edvard Grieg was born in 1843 as the fourth of five children in West Bergen, Norway. His father Alexander was a wealthy merchant and British consul in Bergen. He continued the, founded by his grandfather immigrated from Scotland in 1779 fish trade. His mother, Gesine (born Hagerup ) was sent as a young girl from her parents for training to Albert Methfessel to the then standing under Danish rule Altona. She has performed in Bergen with success as a pianist and poet and was one of the most respected piano teachers in the city. She held in her house allwöchentliche Musizierkreise, in which not only instrumental works also parts from operas were performed. In his 1903 published, in its explanatory power, however, controversial autobiographical sketch My first success Grieg measures the impressions he gathered in the bustling commercial and cultural center, a decisive importance for his musical inspiration:

"So I could, if I was allowed as a small boy to go to a funeral or to attend an auction to tell exactly what an impact the process had on me. If you had forbidden me to pursue these childish instincts, who knows if my imagination had not been suppressed and driven in a different direction, which was foreign to my true nature. "

From the age of six, he received from the mother regular piano lessons. At age nine, he began to design his first compositions. From his youth, many piano pieces are obtained, which were later partially published in the complete edition.

His schooling was rather unfavorable. After primary school, he graduated from the school Tanksche, oriented towards new languages ​​, mathematics and science secondary school, which the artistic and musical assessed Edvard came to meet less. His interest in music and composition met the teachers some with derision and cynicism. Grieg in 1903 to his school days:

As a result, he had to repeat the third grade. It has been argued that the negative experiences Grieg worked on during his school days to his dealings with the teachers at the Conservatory. This opinion preclude studies that attest to the teachers benevolent recognition of their gifted student.

The visit and the positive assessment of the boy's musical talents by Ole Bull, the famous violinist and champion its own Norwegian music and culture, in 1858 eventually led to Grieg's visit to the Leipzig Conservatory.

Training in Leipzig

From 1858 to 1862 he studied music at the conservatory in Leipzig with Carl Reinecke, Louis Plaidy, Ernst Ferdinand Wenzel and Moscheles. In 1862 he returned with a stopover in Karlshamn Sweden, where he made ​​his debut as a pianist, to Bergen.

After the training

A year later he moved to Copenhagen. Decisive musical impulses mediated to him there, the encounter with the prematurely deceased Rikard Nordraak. In 1864 he founded together with Nordraak, EC Horneman and JG Matthison -Hansen in Copenhagen Concert Company Euterpe for the care of new Scandinavian music. In 1866 he moved to Christiania (Oslo ), where he met his cousin Nina Hagerup married in 1867. 1869/70 he held a scholarship in Rome, where he met Franz Liszt. From 1874, he lived with State Sold as a freelance composer and partly in mountains, partly in Oslo, partly in Lofthus at Bosvik, an offshoot of the Hardangerfjord. A stroke of fate, the processed compositionally Grieg Ballade in G minor, Op 24 for piano - In the fall of 1875 in quick succession both his parents died.

He traveled throughout Europe as a pianist and conductor. From 1880 to 1882 he was conductor of the orchestra of the music society "harmony" in Bergen. 1884 moved into the house with the name Grieg Troldhaugen in the hamlet hop south of Bergen, where today is located the Edvard Grieg Museum.

During the Dreyfus Affair Grieg rejected in 1899 in a public statement the invitation of Édouard Colonne to run their own concert on the grounds that he could not go to France because of the affair and the so practiced contempt of Law and Jurisdiction

"By you very much for your kind invitation, I regret that I am on the outcome of the Dreyfus trial now can not decide to come to France. Like all non-French I am outraged at the injustice in your country and therefore unable to enter into any relations with the French public. Forgive me that I feel this way, and try to understand my feelings. "

Then he got some anti -Semitic invective and threatening letters. Even before the acquittal of Dreyfus, he took in 1903 to the recent invitation Colonnes. At the concert in Paris Théâtre du Châtelet had Grieg to go through a chipped it past the French public. In the summer of 1906, then he wrote his colleague, the Norwegian composer Johan Halvorsen, on the occasion of the publication of the peasant dances ( Slåtter ) op 72 from the new-found enthusiasm of the French for " le nouveau Grieg ".

Edvard Grieg died on 4 September 1907 in Bergen from emphysema.

Famous fellow

Edvard Grieg and his wife Nina were friends of Peter Tchaikovsky, the most famous in the Western world Russian composers of his time. Although his style was not readily comparable with that of Grieg, reviewers felt a kind of "musical soul mate " between the two. In France they even spoke of a Russian and a Norwegian dominance in the classical music of the late 19th century.

On his many trips to Europe Grieg met, among others Johannes Brahms, Max Bruch, Clara Schumann and Franz Liszt. Although Johannes Brahms and Tchaikovsky appreciated the music of the other not particularly Grieg was able to build both a sincere relationship and maintain.

Towards the end of his life, Grieg placing more emphasis examine contemporary music. He praised the songs of Hugo Wolf, studied the Symphony No. 5 by Gustav Mahler and commented on the works of Max Reger, Richard Strauss and Carl Nielsen.

Was almost worshiped Grieg of the German-born English composer Frederick Delius, who repeatedly sought the advice of his senior colleagues Norwegian especially at the beginning of his career as a composer.

Work and reception

Like the Mighty Handful in Russia with Mussorgsky at the top Grieg merged elements of folk music of his homeland - as open fifths, sharp pointed dance rhythms, the oscillation between modal and major-minor tonalities - with compositional achievements of the late Romantic period. His harmony has partially ahead to Impressionism and in some compositions such as Klokkeklang (bell sound from the cycle of the Lyric Pieces, Op 54) of unique radicalism. He is especially abroad as the Norwegian composer par excellence (which is a little unfair to his colleague Johan Svendsen ).

Grieg's greatest significance lies in the piano and chamber music; his Lyric Pieces were and are widely used in house music. Of his orchestral works, the two Peer Gynt suites, suite From Holberg's Time and the piano concerto to date extraordinary popularity.

Outstanding is his String Quartet in G minor, Op 27, The music in the past and present is considered one of the most remarkable compositions of chamber music in the 19th century in the encyclopedia.

In addition, Grieg also wrote valuable but lesser-known choral and song literature. The highlight of the latter is generally considered to be cycle " Haugtussa " by Arne Garborg which focuses on the youth and first love of a girl, the "second face" has that and is in communication with the spirit world of the mountains.

Little known is that the Danish composer Niels Wilhelm Gade was inspirer of some early works of Grieg. Among others was Grieg's first symphony prompted Gades, when the two met in Copenhagen. However, Grieg was never as often degenerate, Gades students.

The influence of Grieg in the works of later composers generation shows itself in many ways. Already during his lifetime betrayed individual compositions of Sweden Emil Sjögren and Hungary Árpád Doppler Grieg's popularity, which also struck his publisher Max Abraham. The early piano music of Dohnányi Ernő ( in Germanized spelling Ernst von Dohnányi ), the Grieg estimated as a performer of his own works also includes, among many brahms between griegsche also trains on. Is very clear in the aftermath of Grieg's string quartets by Claude Debussy and Carl Nielsen, one of which is dedicated to Grieg. Even his former opponent Niels Wilhelm Gade gave his last string quartet in a little reminiscent of the Norwegian colleagues. Among the many others who are encrypted in their composition or activity explicitly in the music appealed to Grieg, can be found next to Frederick Delius also Maurice Ravel, Sergei Rachmaninov, Dmitri Shostakovich, Sigfrid Karg- Elert, Nicolai Medtner and Béla Bartók.

Honors and awards

Towards the end of his lifetime, in 1900, to him by the University of Cambridge was awarded an honorary doctorate in music (next to Camille Saint- Saëns and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ).

From the Norwegian postal administration numerous postage stamps were issued in honor of the composer.

Works (selection)

• Peer Gynt, incidental music, Op 23 after the eponymous drama by Henrik Ibsen, it two suites: Suite No. 1, Op 46 ( morning mood, Åse Death, Anitra's Dance, In the Hall of the Mountain King )
• Suite No. 2, Op 55 ( The Abduction of the Bride, Arab dance, homecoming Peer Gynt, Solveig's Song )

• Symphony No. 1 in C minor (1863 /4)
• Symphony No. 2 in spring (fragment )
• Symphonic Dances, op 64
• Concert Overture In Autumn, Op 11
• Norwegian dance
• Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in A minor, Op 16

• Humoresken op 6
• Sonata for Piano in E minor, Op 7
• Ballade for Piano in G minor, Op 24
• Folk music edits op 29 ( improvisations ), op 66 (Norwegian folk tunes ) and Op 72 ( Bauerntänze Slåtter )
• Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, Op 65, No. 6
• Lyric Pieces for Piano, multiple albums, created in different creative periods
• Suite From Holberg's Time Op 40, later arranged for string orchestra

• Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in F major, Op 8 (1865 )
• Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano in G major, Op 13 (1867 )
• String Quartet in G minor, Op 27 (1877-1878)
• Piano Trio in A major (?), Unfinished (1878 )
• Sonata for Cello and Piano in A minor, Op 36 (1882-1883)
• Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Piano in C minor, Op 45 (1886 )
• String Quartet in F Major, unfinished (1891 )
• Piano Quintet in B flat major, unfinished ( year? )

• Four Psalms for baritone and mixed chorus a cappella, Op 74
• Ave Maris Stella
• Butterfly

Research

In 1995, the Edvard Grieg Research Centre was established at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, which was moved to the University of Arts in Berlin in 2007. Was founded in 1995 with the collaboration of Joachim Dorfmüller the German Edvard Grieg Society eV, established in Wuppertal.