The music of Norway — Edvard Grieg
A letter from Bc dated 21st December 2016
Hey there,
So, today, let’s talk about Edvard Grieg.
Whenever we think about Grieg, we think about the Norwegian born composer who created the two notable works: Music in Peer Gynt and his Piano Concerto.
(Fun fact: Grieg always keeps a figurine/toy of a little frog in his pocket, and he kisses it for good luck before all of this concerts.)
To be honest, if I have to choose some of my most-listened pieces or my favourite composers, the Nordics will not be the likely contenders. Most of their works do not reach the ‘Hollywood’ status as some of the known greats such as Beethoven, Bruckner, Wagner and Mahler. However, there is a special place for the Nordics in my heart, especially for Grieg and his Finnish counterpart Sibelius.
For me, Grieg will always be remembered as the romanticist who created “Våren” (The Last Spring) in 1880. Click to listen
Perhaps this is an over-simplification of the works of both of them, but the following photo is something I have in my mind when listening to the Nordics and to Grieg. There’s snow, there’s life and there’s a tranquility in the air.
It’s the love of nature and the never over-the-top love of nature. Grieg, in particular, focuses on the beauty of the tiniest things. Simple longing for the old days, the brilliance of life, the cold and the elegance of the first melted snowflake on your palm.
That is not to say that other composers do not write about nature. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Debussy’s La Mer are phenomenal. I guess if I have to use a word to describe Grieg’s depiction of the Norwegian landscape through his music, that would be of ‘stillness’.
The nature in Grieg’s music is slow, but not dull. Try watching a sunrise whilst the warm rays melt the blanket of snow on a hill when tiny colourful flower-buds pop up from the ground, and then tell me if its full.
This is why I adore Grieg and Våren The Last Spring. Originally written as a song by adapting the words from the great poet Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, Grieg composed the String-Orchestra version of this small piece to convey the yearning of a dying man watching his last spring by the window.
Many composers of the time are nationalistic, but Grieg’s anthem to Norway is not composed with elements from folk songs, but through his visualisation of Norway’s nature, elegant yet simplistic melodies cushionsed by complex harmony and utter emotional honesty.
What Grieg means to me
When I first played this music back in my music school years, I found the melody a bit child-like, a bit ordinary, and just like my ill-founded criticisms of Nordic composers back then, not spicy enough. I was 17.
Years gone by, I stopped listening to Våren and by some weird ‘wiring’ in my brain, that was the first tune that popped into my head when I arrived in Norway.
At that instant, time stopped and everything suddenly made sense. There was nothing else I could do but to embrace the music in my head, appreciating my surroundings (I can still recall the smell of flowers, the rocks, the mountains, the freezing waters, the melting snow and the warm sun on my face), and remembering the words from Vinje’s poem once again.
This is why I will always adore the music of Edvard Grieg.
Last Spring
by Aasmund Olavsson Vinje
tr. by William Jewson
Once again I have seen the winter
give way to spring;
The wild cherry trees in full bloom,
I saw once again.
Once again I saw the ice
break free from the land,
Saw the snow melt and the foam of the river
swirl and rage.
And the plants and flowers once again
I saw them bloom;
And again I heard the spring song of the birds
expectant of sun and summer.
And I was privileged to see
dancing on the spring hillsides,
Butterflies fluttering and flitting
among the garlands of flowers.
All the life of the spring I saw again
that I so missed.
But I am weary and I ask myself:
is this the last one?
Let it be so: much that was waited
in life I have enjoyed;
I have received more than I deserved
and all may fade.
Once I was myself, in the full flow of spring
that fills my sight,
Once I wanted to find myself a home
and convivial company.
All that the spring presented to me
and even the flowers I plucked,
And I thought it was the ancestral spirits
that danced and sighed,
And so between birch and fir tree I found
a mystery in the spring;
And so the sound of the flute that I cut
seemed full of tears.
