Edvard Grieg: Norway’s Universal Composer — Happy 175th Birthday!
By Lori Ann Reinhall
June 15, 2018, marks the 175th birthday of Bergen and Norway’s most famous composer, Edvard Hagerup Grieg. In Norway and around the world, celebrations are taking place that will continue throughout the year. In Bergen, the Grieg Museum and the NRK teamed up to produce a 24-hour “Grieg Minute by Minute” marathon, with live performances of his music broadcast non-stop. In Bergen alone, over 40 Grieg concerts are scheduled throughout the summer; worldwide it is impossible to estimate the number. Even today, the music of Edvard Grieg touches our hearts, as we commemorate his life and accomplishments.
Much has been written about Grieg as a Norwegian composer and his place in the Romantic movement with the rise of national identity in the 19th century. It has been well established that the composer’s work has its roots in Norwegian folk music, building on melodies handed down from generation to generation. For Norwegians, there is something indigenous and familiar about Edvard Grieg. Yet Grieg himself did not like to think of himself as only a Norwegian composer, as he looked beyond Norway’s borders for musical influences and inspiration. He traveled incessantly throughout his life, and he rejected any notions of national chauvinism and embraced a much broader world view. What makes his music special are the complex harmonies and patterns that he juxtaposed on top of the traditional Norwegian folk themes. But Grieg also understood that he needed to produce a sound that was honest and genuine, and Grieg was a Norwegian. His work reflects his own life and the environment that shaped him, and his music is unique.
Edvard Grieg was born in Bergen in 1843, the son of a successful merchant and city vice-counsel, Alexander Grieg, whose family had Scottish origins. His mother, Gesine Judithe Hagerup, was the daughter of a prominent solicitor and politician. Gesine was an accomplished music teacher, and it was soon discovered that the child was a musical wunderkind. Upon the urging of the famous violin virtuoso and composer Ole Bull, it was decided that the boy genius should be sent abroad to study. At age 15, he landed in Leipzig, an experience that would influence the rest of his life, expanding both his musicianship and the way he looked at the world.
In Leipzig, young Grieg was exposed to a world he could not have imagined in Bergen: concert halls, the famous opera house, and one of Europe’s finest music academies. He is reported to have attended 14 performances of Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser in less than one year, eager as he was to expand his horizons. But at the same time, he was still a boy, lonely and homesick. The demands of his studies were heavy, and while he liked to play the piano, he didn’t like to practice, and he struggled with authority. Already there were conflicts and contradictions in his life, then tragically, he contracted tuberculosis and had to suddenly be sent back to Norway.
At home in Bergen, Grieg recovered, but he lost a lung, which would plague him for the rest of his life. Nonetheless, he returned to Leipzig and finished his studies with outstanding marks, and throughout his lifetime, he would a retain a foothold there. It was there he published his works with the renowned publishing house C.F. Peters Musikverlag, and he became a celebrated performer on the city’s stage. Yet it was a love-hate relationship Grieg had with Leipzig until the end of his life. He could not forget the loneliness he had suffered as a student, and he could not overcome the disappointment he felt when the German city’s most prominent music critic had slaughtered him in a review in early days of his career.
If there is one word that might best describe Grieg’s music and life, it would be duality. His works can be melodically light and uplifting or somber, longing, and even resigned. Even in a single composition a dark heaviness can be expressed, only be lifted to joyful playfulness. Fortunately for researchers and musicologists, Grieg was not only a productive composer, but a prolific letter-writer as well. He had an ever-expanding circle of friends, and he wrote openly about his personal circumstances and feelings, and how they affected his music. All the major events of his life are documented: the death of his parents, his love for his wife, the devastating loss of their child, their many travels together, the restlessness and longing that he felt throughout his life.
If any single period of Grieg’s life was marked by happiness, it was his early stay in Denmark. Grieg had known his cousin Nina Hagerup as a child, but when he came to Copenhagen at age 20 and met her again, he was overwhelmed by the beautiful young soprano. They fell in love and married there, and theirs was a partnership for life. But the young couple’s early years together in Norway were marked by tragedy, with the loss of their one-year-old daughter Alexandra. Grieg was devastated, and the marriage suffered. Sadly, the Griegs were to never have any more children, and the loss stayed with them for the rest of their lives.
Encouraged by Ole Bull, the couple travelled to Rome, where they met up with other prominent Norwegians, including the great authors Henrik Ibsen and Bjørnsterne Bjørnson. Above all, in Italy they learned a new way of living. Rome was revelation for Grieg: he was captivated by the locals’ uninhibited spontaneity, and he felt free to express his emotions more than ever before, both as social being and as a musician. From then on, he would never feel quite at home in Norway and would always conjure up some “devilish excuse” to travel and get back out into the world.
But Edvard and Nina Grieg finally settled down in Norway, building their home Troldhaugen in Bergen. Grieg wrote that “Troudhaugen is my best opus so far,” and the villa situated on the hill became a mecca of musical activity. Composers from all of Scandinavia and Europe would visit the couple there. Grieg sat in his tiny composer’s hut with a view of the fjord and composed the Peer Gynt Suite that brought him success and fame all over the world. But in Norway he suffered bouts of melancholia: he was moody and would sit alone for hours. He shut Nina out as he immersed himself in his work, and many of his compositions reflect the anguish he endured during the early years at Troldhaugen.
But Grieg did go on, reaching new heights of fame on the world stage. He travelled to England, where people were taken with “Grieg fever” and he was celebrated as the greatest composer of his day. In England, he embraced the philosophy and teaching of Unitarianism, which appealed to his individual piety and desire for universalism. In France, he found himself caught up in the controversy of the Dreyfus affair. He spoke up publicly for what he believed and was not welcome to perform in Paris for several years, but when he returned, he was able win over the public again with the sheer power of his music. Grieg never regretted standing up for his values and remained true to himself throughout his entire life. He died in Bergen in 1907, 64 years of age.
Edvard Grieg, a quintessentially Norwegian composer? Yes, without a doubt: it was the landscape and sounds of Norway that created the man. He brought something new to classical music, and in the end, his music belongs to the entire world. He influenced countless composers who came after him, both in Norway and abroad. Each year thousands of tourists come from all over the world to visit the Grieg Museum at Troldhaugen, where the Grieg home has been meticulously restored. It is both a center for learning and musical activity, with the Troldsal concert hall overlooking the composer’s hut and the fjord, and countless hours of musical joy are shared there.
In 2018 we celebrate Bergen and Norway’s most famous composer, but also one of the world’s greatest composers. 175 years after his birth, Grieg’s oeuvre, with its breadth of experience, uniqueness, and universality, holds an appeal that goes beyond borders to stand the test of time.
