Bergen Public Library Norway / Edvard Grieg by the piano

Edvard Hagerup Grieg (Norwegian Edvard Hagerup Grieg; June 15, 1843 - September 4, 1907) - Norwegian composer of the Romantic period, musical figure, pianist, conductor.

Edvard Grieg was born and spent his youth in Bergen. The city was famous for its national creative traditions, especially in the field of theater: Henrik Ibsen and Bjornstjerne Bjornson began their activities here. Ole Bull was born and lived in Bergen for a long time, who was the first to notice Edward's musical talent (who composed music from the age of 12) and advised his parents to assign him to the Leipzig Conservatory, which took place in the summer of 1858.

One of Grieg's most famous works to this day is considered the second suite - "Peer Gynt", which includes the pieces: "Ingrid's Complaint", "Arabian Dance", "Peer Gynt's Return to his Homeland", "Solveig's Song".

The dramatic piece is Ingrid's Complaint, one of the dance melodies that sounded at the wedding of Edvard Grieg and Nina Hagerup, who was the composer's cousin. The marriage of Nina Hagerup and Edvard Grieg gave the couple a daughter, Alexandra, who died of meningitis after one year of life, which began to cool relations between the spouses.

Grieg published 125 songs and romances. About twenty more plays by Grieg were published posthumously. In his lyrics, he turned almost exclusively to the poets of Denmark and Norway, and occasionally to German poetry (G. Heine, A. Chamisso, L. Ulanda). The composer showed an interest in Scandinavian literature, and in particular in the literature of his native language.

Grieg died in his native city - Bergen - on September 4, 1907 in Norway. The composer is buried in the same grave with his wife Nina Hagerup.

Biography

Childhood

Edvard Grieg was born on June 15, 1843 in Bergen, the son of a descendant of a Scottish merchant. Edward's father, Alexander Grieg, served as British consul in Bergen, his mother, Gesina Hagerup, was a pianist who graduated from the Hamburg Conservatory, which usually only accepted men. Edward, his brother and three sisters were taught music from childhood, as was customary in wealthy families. For the first time, the future composer sat down at the piano at the age of four. At the age of ten, Grieg was sent to a comprehensive school. However, his interests lay in a completely different area, in addition, the boy's independent nature often pushed him to deceive teachers. According to the composer's biographers, in the elementary grades, Edward, having learned that students who got wet under frequent rains in his homeland, were allowed to go home to change into dry clothes, Edward began to wet his clothes on the way to school. Since he lived far from school, classes were just finishing by the time he returned.

At the age of twelve, Edvard Grieg was already composing his own music. Classmates gave him the nickname "Mozac" because he was the only one who correctly answered the teacher's question about the author of "Requiem": the rest of the students did not know about Mozart. In music lessons, Edward was a mediocre student, despite his genius for music. Contemporaries of the composer tell how one day Edward brought to school a music notebook signed "Variations on a German theme by Edvard Grieg op. No. 1". The class mentor showed visible interest and even leafed through it. Grieg was already looking forward to great success. However, the teacher suddenly pulled his hair and hissed: “Next time, bring a German dictionary, but leave this nonsense at home!”

early years

The first of the musicians who determined the fate of Grieg was the famous violinist Ole Bull, who was also an acquaintance of the Grieg family. In the summer of 1858, Bull was visiting the Grieg family, and Edward, in order to respect his dear guest, played a couple of his own compositions on the piano. Listening to music, the usually smiling Ole suddenly became serious and quietly said something to Alexander and Gesina. Then he approached the boy and announced: “You are going to Leipzig to become a composer!”

Thus, the fifteen-year-old Edvard Grieg got into the Leipzig Conservatory. In the new educational institution, founded by Felix Mendelssohn, Grieg was far from satisfied with everyone: for example, his first piano teacher Louis Plaidy, with his inclination towards the music of the early classical period, turned out to be so dissonant with Grieg that he turned to the administration of the conservatory with a request for a transfer (in Later Grieg studied with Ernst Ferdinand Wenzel, Moritz Hauptmann, Ignaz Moscheles). After that, the gifted student went to the Gewandhaus concert hall, where he listened to the music of Schumann, Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner. “I could listen to a lot of good music in Leipzig, especially chamber and orchestral music,” Grieg later recalled. Edvard Grieg graduated from the conservatory in 1862 with excellent grades, acquired knowledge, mild pleurisy and purpose in life. According to the professors, during the years of study he showed himself as "a highly significant musical talent", especially in the field of composition, as well as an outstanding "pianist with his characteristic thoughtful and full of expressive manner of performance." His destiny now and forever was music. In the same year, in the Swedish city of Karlshamn, he gave his first concert.

Life in Copenhagen

After graduating from the conservatory, the educated musician Edvard Grieg returned to Bergen with an ardent desire to work in his homeland. However, Grieg's stay in his hometown this time was short-lived. The talent of the young musician could not be improved in the conditions of the poorly developed musical culture of Bergen. In 1863, Grieg traveled to Copenhagen, the center of the musical life of the then Scandinavia.

The years spent in Copenhagen were marked by many events that were important for Grieg's creative life. First of all, Grieg is in close contact with Scandinavian literature and art. He meets prominent representatives of it, for example, the famous Danish poet and storyteller Hans Christian Andersen. This involves the composer in the mainstream of the national culture close to him. Grieg writes songs based on texts by Andersen and the Norwegian romantic poet Andreas Munch.

In Copenhagen, Grieg found an interpreter of his works, the singer Nina Hagerup, who soon became his wife. The creative community of Edvard and Nina Grieg continued throughout their life together. The subtlety and artistry with which the singer performed Grieg's songs and romances were that high criterion for their artistic embodiment, which the composer always had in mind when creating his vocal miniatures.

The desire of young composers to develop national music was expressed not only in their work, in the connection of their music with folk music, but also in the promotion of Norwegian music. In 1864, in collaboration with Danish musicians, Grieg and Rikard Nurdrok organized the Euterpe Musical Society, which was supposed to acquaint the public with the works of Scandinavian composers. This was the beginning of a great musical and social, educational activity. During the years of his life in Copenhagen (1863-1866), Grieg wrote many musical works: "Poetic Pictures" and "Humoresques", the piano sonata and the first violin sonata. With each new work, the image of Grieg as a Norwegian composer emerges more clearly.

In the lyrical work "Poetic Pictures" (1863), national features are very timidly broken through. The rhythmic figure underlying the third piece is often found in Norwegian folk music; it became characteristic of many of Grieg's melodies. The graceful and simple outlines of the melody in the fifth "picture" are reminiscent of some of the folk songs. In the juicy genre sketches of Humoresque (1865), the sharp rhythms of folk dances and harsh harmonic combinations sound much bolder; there is a Lydian modal coloring characteristic of folk music. However, in "Humoresques" one can still feel the influence of Chopin (his mazurkas) - a composer whom Grieg, by his own admission, "adored". At the same time as Humoresques, the piano and first violin sonatas appeared. The drama and impetuosity inherent in the piano sonata seem to be a somewhat outward reflection of Schumann's romance. On the other hand, the bright lyricism, hymnism, and bright colors of the violin sonata reveal the figurative structure typical of Grieg.

Personal life

Edvard Grieg and Nina Hagerup grew up together in Bergen, but as an eight-year-old girl, Nina moved to Copenhagen with her parents. When Edward saw her again, she was already an adult girl. A childhood friend turned into a beautiful woman, a singer with a beautiful voice, as if created to perform Grieg's plays. Previously in love only with Norway and music, Edward felt that he was losing his mind from passion. At Christmas 1864, in a salon where young musicians and composers gathered, Grieg presented Nina with a collection of sonnets about love, called Melodies of the Heart, and then knelt down and offered to become his wife. She held out her hand to him and agreed.

However, Nina Hagerup was Edward's cousin. Relatives turned away from him, parents cursed. Against all odds, they married in July 1867 and, unable to endure the pressure of their relatives, moved to Christiania.

The first year of marriage was typical for a young family - happy, but financially difficult. Grieg composed, Nina performed his works. Edward had to get a job as a conductor and teach piano to save the family's financial situation. In 1868 they had a daughter, who was named Alexandra. A year later, the girl will fall ill with meningitis and die. What happened put an end to the future happy life of the family. After the death of her daughter, Nina withdrew into herself. However, the couple continued their joint concert activity.

They traveled around Europe with concerts: Grieg played, Nina Hagerup sang. But their tandem has not received wide recognition. Edward began to despair. His music did not find a response in the hearts, relations with his beloved wife cracked. In 1870, Edward and his wife came on tour to Italy. One of those who heard his works in Italy was the famous composer Franz Liszt, whom Grieg admired in his youth. Liszt appreciated the talent of the twenty-year-old composer and invited him to a private meeting. After listening to a piano concerto, the sixty-year-old composer approached Edward, squeezed his hand and said: “Keep it up, we have all the data for this. Don't let yourself be intimidated!" “It was something like a blessing,” Grieg later wrote.

In 1872, Grieg wrote "Sigurd the Crusader" - the first significant play, after which the Swedish Academy of Arts recognized his merits, and the Norwegian authorities appointed him a lifetime scholarship. But world fame tired the composer, and the confused and tired Grieg left for his native Bergen, away from the hubbub of the capital.

In solitude, Grieg wrote his main work - music for Henrik Ibsen's drama Peer Gynt. It embodied his experiences of that time. The melody "In the Hall of the Mountain King" (1) reflected the violent spirit of Norway, which the composer liked to show in his works. The world of hypocritical European cities, full of intrigues, gossip and betrayal, was recognizable in the "Arabian Dance". The final episode - "Song of Solveig", a poignant and exciting melody - spoke of the lost and forgotten and not forgiven.

Death

Unable to get rid of heartache, Grieg went into creativity. From dampness in his native Bergen, pleurisy worsened, there was a fear that he could turn into tuberculosis. Nina Hagerup moved further and further away. The slow agony lasted eight years: in 1883 she left Edward. For three long months Edward lived alone. But an old friend, Franz Beyer, convinced Edward to meet his wife again. “There are so few truly close people in the world,” he told a lost friend.

Edvard Grieg and Nina Hagerup reunited and, as a sign of reconciliation, went on tour to Rome, and upon their return they sold their house in Bergen, buying a wonderful estate in the suburbs, which Grieg called "Trollhaugen" - "Troll Hill". It was the first house that Grieg really fell in love with.

Over the years, Grieg became more and more withdrawn. He was little interested in life - he left his home only for the sake of the tour. Edward and Nina have been to Paris, Vienna, London, Prague, Warsaw. During each performance, a clay frog lay in the pocket of Grieg's jacket. Before the start of each concert, he always took it out and stroked its back. The talisman worked: at the concerts every time there was an unimaginable success.

In 1887, Edward and Nina Hagerup were again in Leipzig. They were invited to the New Year's Eve by the outstanding Russian violinist Adolf Brodsky (later the first performer of Grieg's Third Violin Sonata). In addition to Grieg, two more eminent guests were present - Johann Brahms and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The latter became a close friend of the couple, a lively correspondence ensued between the composers. Later, in 1905, Edward wanted to come to Russia, but this was prevented by the chaos of the Russo-Japanese War and the composer's ill health. In 1889, in protest against the Dreyfus affair, Grieg canceled a performance in Paris.

Increasingly, Grieg had problems with his lungs, it became more difficult to go on tour. Despite this, Grieg continued to create and strive for new goals. In 1907, the composer was going to go to a music festival in England. He and Nina stayed at a small hotel in their hometown of Bergen to wait for a ship to London. Edward got worse there and had to go to the hospital. Edvard Grieg died in his native city on September 4, 1907.

Musical and creative activity

The first period of creativity. 1866-1874

From 1866 to 1874, this intense period of musical, performing and composing work continued. Closer to the autumn of 1866, in the capital of Norway, Christiania, Edvard Grieg organized a concert that sounded like a report on the achievements of Norwegian composers. Then Grieg's piano and violin sonatas, Nurdrok's and Hjerulf's songs (to texts by Bjornson and others) were performed. This concert allowed Grieg to become the conductor of the Christian Philharmonic Society. Grieg devoted eight years of his life in Christiania to hard work, which brought him many creative victories. Grieg's conducting activity was in the nature of musical enlightenment. The concerts included symphonies by Haydn and Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann, works by Schubert, oratorios by Mendelssohn and Schumann, excerpts from Wagner's operas. Grieg paid great attention to the performance of works by Scandinavian composers.

In 1871, together with Johan Svensen, Grieg organized a society of performing musicians, designed to increase the activity of the city's concert life, to reveal the creative possibilities of Norwegian musicians. Significant for Grieg was his rapprochement with the leading representatives of Norwegian poetry and artistic prose. It included the composer in the general movement for national culture. Creativity Grieg these years has reached full maturity. He wrote a piano concerto (1868) and a second sonata for violin and piano (1867), the first book of Lyric Pieces, which became his favorite type of piano music. Many songs were written by Grieg in those years, among them wonderful songs to texts by Andersen, Bjornson, Ibsen.

While in Norway, Grieg comes into contact with the world of folk art, which has become the source of his own creativity. In 1869, the composer first got acquainted with the classical collection of Norwegian musical folklore, compiled by the famous composer and folklorist L.M. Lindeman (1812-1887). The immediate result of this was Grieg's cycle Norwegian Folk Songs and Dances for Piano. Images presented here: favorite folk dances - halling and springdance, various comic and lyrical, labor and peasant songs. Academician B. V. Asafiev aptly called these adaptations “sketches of songs”. This cycle was for Grieg a kind of creative laboratory: in contact with folk songs, the composer found those methods of musical writing that were rooted in folk art itself. Only two years separate the second violin sonata from the first. Nevertheless, the Second Sonata "is distinguished by the richness and variety of themes, the freedom of their development" - say music critics.

The Second Sonata and the Piano Concerto were highly acclaimed by Liszt, who became one of the first promoters of the concerto. In a letter to Grieg, Liszt wrote about the Second Sonata: "It testifies to a strong, deep, inventive, excellent composer's talent, which can only follow its own, natural path in order to achieve high perfection." For the composer, who made his way in the art of music, for the first time representing the music of Norway in the European arena, Liszt's support has always been a strong support.

In the early 70s, Grieg was busy with the idea of ​​an opera. Musical dramas and theater became a great inspiration for him. Grieg's ideas were not realized mainly because there were no traditions of opera culture in Norway. In addition, the libretto promised to Grieg was not written. From the attempt to create an opera, only the music for individual scenes of Bjornson's unfinished libretto Olaf Trygvason (1873), according to the legend of King Olaf, who planted Christianity among the inhabitants of Norway in the 10th century, remained. Grieg writes music for Bjornson's dramatic monologue "Bergliot" (1871), which tells about the heroine of a folk saga who raises the peasants to fight the king, as well as music for the drama of the same author "Sigurd Jursalfar" (the plot of the Old Icelandic saga).

In 1874, Grieg received a letter from Ibsen with a proposal to compose music for a production of the drama Peer Gynt. Collaboration with the most talented writer of Norway was of great interest to the composer. By his own admission, Grieg was "a fanatical admirer of many of his poetic works, especially Peer Gynt." Hot enthusiasm for the work of Ibsen coincided with Grieg's desire to create a major musical and theatrical work. During 1874, Grieg wrote the music for Ibsen's drama.

Second period. Concert activity. Europe. 1876-1888

The performance of Peer Gynt in Christiania on 24 February 1876 was a great success. Grieg's music in Europe began to become popular. A new creative period begins in the life of the composer. Grieg stops working as a conductor in Christiania. Grieg moves to a secluded area in the beautiful nature of Norway: first it is Lofthus, on the shore of one of the fiords, and then the famous Troldhaugen (“troll hill”, the name given to the place by Grieg himself), in the mountains, not far from his native Bergen. From 1885 until the death of Grieg, Troldhaugen was the main residence of the composer. In the mountains "healing and new life energy" come, in the mountains "new ideas grow", from the mountains Grieg returns "as a new and better person". Grieg's letters often contained similar descriptions of the mountains and nature of Norway. So writes Grieg in 1897:

“I saw such beauties of nature that I had no idea about ... A huge chain of snowy mountains with fantastic shapes rose directly from the sea, while the dawn in the mountains was four in the morning, a bright summer night and the whole landscape was as if painted with blood. It was unique!

Songs written under the inspiration of Norwegian nature - “In the Forest”, “Hut”, “Spring”, “The Sea Shines in Bright Rays”, “Good Morning”.

Since 1878, Grieg has performed not only in Norway, but also in various European countries as a performer of his own works. Grieg's European fame is growing. Concert trips take on a systematic character, they bring great pleasure to the composer. Grieg gives concerts in the cities of Germany, France, England, Holland, Sweden. He performs as a conductor and pianist, as an ensemble player, accompanying Nina Hagerup. The most modest person, Grieg in his letters notes "giant applause and countless challenges", "colossal furor", "giant success". Grieg did not leave concert activity until the end of his days; in 1907 (the year of his death) he wrote: “Invitations to conduct are pouring in from all over the world!”

Grieg's numerous trips led to the establishment of contacts with musicians from other countries. In 1888 Grieg met with P. I. Tchaikovsky in Leipzig. Having received an invitation in the year when Russia was at war with Japan, Grieg did not consider it possible for himself to accept it: “It is mysterious to me how you can invite a foreign artist to a country where almost every family mourns those who died in the war.” “It's unfortunate that this had to happen. First of all, you have to be human. All true art grows only from man. All Grieg's activities in Norway are an example of pure and selfless service to his people.

The last period of musical creativity. 1890-1903

In the 1890s, Grieg's attention was most occupied with piano music and songs. From 1891 to 1901, Grieg wrote six notebooks of Lyric Pieces. Several of Grieg's vocal cycles belong to the same years. In 1894, he wrote in one of his letters: "I ... tuned in so lyrically that songs pour from my chest like never before, and I think they are the best I have ever created." The author of numerous arrangements of folk songs, a composer always so closely associated with folk music in 1896, the cycle "Norwegian Folk Melodies" is nineteen subtle genre sketches, poetic pictures of nature and lyrical statements. Grieg's last major orchestral work, Symphonic Dances (1898), was written on folk themes.

In 1903, a new cycle of arrangements of folk dances for piano appeared. In the last years of his life, Grieg published the witty and lyrical autobiographical novel "My First Success" and the program article "Mozart and His Significance for Modernity." They vividly expressed the composer's creative credo: the desire for originality, for the definition of his style, his place in music. Despite a serious illness, Grieg continued his creative activity until the end of his life. In April 1907, the composer made a big concert trip to the cities of Norway, Denmark, and Germany.

Characteristics of works

The characteristic was compiled by Asafiev B.V. and Druskin M.A.

Lyric plays

"Lyric Pieces" make up the bulk of Grieg's piano work. Grieg's "Lyrical Pieces" continue the type of chamber piano music that is represented by Schubert's "Musical Moments" and "Impromptu" and Mendelssohn's "Songs Without Words". The immediacy of the statement, lyricism, the expression in the play of predominantly one mood, the tendency to small scale, the simplicity and accessibility of the artistic conception and technical means are the features of the romantic piano miniature, which are also characteristic of Grieg's Lyric Pieces.

Lyrical pieces fully reflect the theme of the composer's homeland, which he loved and revered so much. The theme of the Motherland sounds in the solemn "Native Song", in the calm and majestic play "At the Motherland", in the genre-lyrical skit "To the Motherland", in numerous folk dance plays conceived as genre and everyday sketches. The theme of the Motherland continues in Grieg's magnificent "musical landscapes", in the peculiar motifs of folk-fiction plays ("Procession of the Dwarves", "Kobold").

Echoes of the composer's impressions are shown in works with lively titles. Such as "Bird", "Butterfly", "Song of the watchman", written under the influence of Shakespeare's "Macbeth"), the composer's musical porter - "Gade", pages of lyrical statements "Arietta", "Impromptu Waltz", "Memoirs") - this is the circle of images of the cycle of the composer's homeland. Life impressions, covered with lyricism, the author's lively feeling - the meaning of the composer's lyrical works.

The features of the style of "lyric plays" are as diverse as their content. Very many plays are characterized by extreme laconicism, stingy and precise strokes of miniature; but in some plays there is a desire for picturesqueness, a wide, contrasting composition (“Procession of the Dwarves”, “Gangar”, “Nocturne”). In some pieces, you can hear the subtlety of the chamber style (“Dance of the Elves”), others sparkle with bright colors, impress with the virtuosic brilliance of the concert (“Wedding Day in Trollhaugen”)

"Lyrical plays" are distinguished by a great variety of genres. Here we meet elegy and nocturne, lullaby and waltz, song and arietta. Very often, Grieg turns to the genres of Norwegian folk music (springdance, halling, gangar).

The artistic integrity of the cycle of "Lyrical Pieces" is given by the principle of programming. Each piece opens with a title that defines its poetic image, and in each piece one is struck by the simplicity and subtlety with which the “poetic task” is embodied in music. Already in the first notebook of Lyrical Pieces, the artistic principles of the cycle were defined: the diversity of content and the lyrical tone of music, attention to the themes of the Motherland and the connection of music with folk origins, conciseness and simplicity, clarity and elegance of musical and poetic images.

The cycle opens with the light lyrical "Arietta". An extremely simple, childishly pure and naive melody, only a little "excited" by sensitive romance intonations, creates an image of youthful spontaneity, peace of mind. The expressive “ellipsis” at the end of the piece (the song breaks off, “freezes” at the initial intonation, it seems that the thought has gone to other spheres), as a bright psychological detail, creates a vivid feeling, a vision of the image. The melodic intonations and the texture of Arietta reproduce the character of the vocal piece.

"Waltz" is distinguished by its striking originality. Against the background of a typical waltz figure of accompaniment, an elegant and fragile melody with sharp rhythmic outlines appears. "Cranky" variable accents, triplets on a strong beat of the measure, reproducing the rhythmic figure of spring dance, bring a peculiar flavor of Norwegian music to the waltz. It is enhanced by the modal coloration characteristic of Norwegian folk music (melodic minor).

"A Leaf from an Album" combines the immediacy of lyrical feeling with the elegance, "chivalry" of an album poem. In the artless melody of this play, the intonations of a folk song are heard. But light, airy ornamentation conveys the sophistication of this simple melody. Subsequent cycles of "Lyric Pieces" bring new images and new artistic means. "Lullaby" from the second notebook of "Lyric Pieces" sounds like a dramatic scene. An even, calm melody is made up of variants of a simple chant, as if grown out of a measured movement, swaying. With each new holding, the feeling of peace and light intensifies.

"Gangar" is built on the development and variant repetitions of one theme. It is all the more interesting to note the figurative versatility of this play. The continuous, unhurried unfolding of the melody corresponds to the character of a majestic smooth dance. The intonations of flute tunes woven into the melody, a long sustained bass (a detail of the folk instrumental style), hard harmonies (a chain of large seventh chords), sometimes sounding rude, “clumsy” (as if a discordant ensemble of village musicians) - this gives the play a pastoral, rural flavor. But now new images appear: short powerful signals and response phrases of a lyrical nature. Interestingly, with a figurative change in the theme, its metro-rhythmic structure remains unchanged. With a new version of the melody, new figurative facets appear in the reprise. Light sounding in a high register, clear tonicity give the theme a calm, contemplative, solemn character. Smoothly and gradually, singing every sound of the tonality, keeping "purity" up to major, the melody descends. The thickening of the register color and the amplification of the sound lead the light, transparent theme to a harsh, gloomy sound. It seems that this procession of melody will never end. But now, with a sharp tonal shift (C-dur-As-dur), a new version is introduced: the theme sounds majestic, solemn, chased.

"Procession of the Dwarfs" is one of the magnificent examples of Grieg's musical fantasy. In the contrasting composition of the play, the bizarreness of the fairy-tale world, the underground kingdom of trolls and the enchanting beauty and clarity of nature are opposed to each other. The play is written in three parts. The extreme parts are distinguished by bright dynamism: in the rapid movement, the fantastic outlines of the “procession” flicker. Musical means are extremely sparse: motor rhythm and against its background a whimsical and sharp pattern of metrical accents, syncopation; chromatisms compressed in tonic harmony and scattered, hard-sounding large seventh chords; "knocking" melody and sharp "whistling" melodic figurines; dynamic contrasts (pp-ff) between two period sentences and broad slurs of rise and fall in sonority. The image of the middle part is revealed to the listener only after the fantastic visions have disappeared (a long A, from which a new melody seems to pour out). The light sound of the theme, simple in structure, is associated with the sound of a folk melody. Its pure, clear structure was reflected in the simplicity and severity of the harmonic structure (alternating the major tonic and its parallel).

"Wedding Day at Trollhaugen" is one of Grieg's most joyful, jubilant works. In terms of brightness, "catchy" musical images, scale and virtuoso brilliance, it approaches the type of a concert piece. Its character is most of all determined by the genre prototype: the movement of the march, the solemn procession lies at the heart of the play. How confidently, proudly invocative ups sound, chased rhythmic endings of melodic images. But the melody of the march is accompanied by a characteristic fifth bass, which adds to its solemnity the simplicity and charm of rural color: the piece is full of energy, movement, bright dynamics - from muffled tones, a stingy transparent texture of the beginning to sonorous ff, bravura passages, a wide range of sound. The play is written in a complex three-part form. Solemn festive images of the extreme parts are contrasted with tender lyrics of the middle one. Her melody, as if sung in a duet (the melody is imitated in an octave), is built on sensitive romance intonations. There are also contrasts in the extreme sections of the form, also three-part. The middle evokes a dance scene in the performance with a contrast of energetic courageous movement and light graceful “pas”. A huge increase in the power of sound, activity of movement leads to a bright, sonorous reprise, to a culminating performance of the theme, as if raised by the strong, powerful chords that preceded it.

The contrasting theme of the middle part, tense, dynamic, connecting active, energetic intonations with elements of recitation, introduces notes of drama. After it, in the reprise, the main theme sounds with disturbing exclamations. Its structure is preserved, but it has taken on the character of a living statement, the tension of human speech is heard in it. The gentle lulling intonations at the top of this monologue turned into mournful pathetic exclamations. In "Lullaby" Grieg managed to convey a whole range of feelings through.

Romances and songs

Romances and songs are one of the main genres of Grieg's work. Romances and songs were mostly written by the composer in his Troldhaugen Manor (Troll Hill). Grieg created romances and songs throughout his creative life. The first cycle of romances appeared in the year of graduation from the conservatory, and the last one not long before the composer's career ended.

The passion for vocal lyrics and its wonderful flowering in Grieg's work were largely associated with the flowering of Scandinavian poetry, which aroused the composer's imagination. The poems of Norwegian and Danish poets form the basis of the vast majority of Grieg's romances and songs. Among the poetic lyrics of Grieg's songs are poems by Ibsen, Bjornson, Andersen.

In Grieg's songs, a large world of poetic images, impressions and feelings of a person arises. Pictures of nature, written brightly and picturesquely, are present in the vast majority of songs, most often as the background of a lyrical image (“In the forest”, “The hut”, “The sea shines in bright rays”). The theme of the Motherland sounds in sublime lyrical hymns (“To Norway”), in the images of its people and nature (song cycle “From the Rocks and Fjords”). In Grieg's songs, a person's life appears diverse: with the purity of youth ("Margarita"), the joy of love ("I Love You"), the beauty of labor ("Ingeborg"), with the suffering that occurs on the path of a person ("Lullaby", "Woe mother"), with his thought of death ("The Last Spring"). But no matter what Grieg's songs "sing" about, they always carry a sense of the fullness and beauty of life. In the songwriting of Grieg, various traditions of the chamber vocal genre continue their life. Grieg has many songs based on a single broad melody that conveys the general character, the general mood of the poetic text (“Good morning”, “Izba”). Along with such songs, there are also romances in which subtle musical recitation marks the nuances of feelings (“The Swan”, “In Separation”). Grieg's ability to combine these two principles is peculiar. Without violating the integrity of the melody and the generalization of the artistic image, Grieg is able to concretize and make tangible the details of the poetic image with the expressiveness of individual intonations, successfully found strokes of the instrumental part, the subtlety of harmonic and modal coloring.

In the early period of creativity, Grieg often turned to the poetry of the great Danish poet and storyteller Andersen. In his poems, the composer found poetic images consonant with his own system of feelings: the happiness of love, which reveals to man the infinite beauty of the surrounding world, nature. In songs based on Andersen's texts, the type of vocal miniature characteristic of Grieg was determined; song melody, couplet form, generalized transmission of poetic images. All this makes it possible to classify such works as "In the Forest", "The Hut" as a song genre (but not a romance). With a few bright and precise musical strokes, Grieg brings in lively, “visible” details of the image. The national characteristic of the melody and harmonic colors gives a special charm to Grieg's songs.

"In the Forest" is a kind of nocturne, a song about love, about the magical beauty of night nature. The swiftness of the movement, the lightness and transparency of the sound determine the poetic image of the song. In the melody, wide, freely developing, impetuosity, scherzo and soft lyrical intonations are naturally combined. Subtle shades of dynamics, expressive changes of mode (variability), mobility of melodic intonations, sometimes lively and light, sometimes sensitive, sometimes bright and jubilant, accompaniment, sensitively following the melody - all this gives the figurative versatility of the whole melody, emphasizes the poetic colors of the verse. A light musical touch in the instrumental introduction, interlude and conclusion creates an imitation of forest voices, birdsong.

"The Hut" is a musical and poetic idyll, a picture of happiness, the beauty of a person's life in the bosom of nature. The genre basis of the song is barcarolle. Calm movement, uniform rhythmic swaying is the best fit for the poetic mood (serenity, peace) and the picturesqueness of the verse (movement and bursts of waves). The punctuated accompaniment rhythm, unusual for a barcarolle, frequent in Grieg and characteristic of Norwegian folk music, imparts clarity and elasticity to the movement.

A light, plastic melody seems to float above the chased texture of the piano part. The song is written in strophic form. Each stanza consists of a period with two contrasting sentences. In the second, tension is felt, the lyrical intensity of the melody; the stanza ends with a well-defined climax; in the words: "... after all, love lives here."

Free moves of the melody in thirds (with the characteristic sound of a major seventh), quarts, fifths, the breadth of the melody's breathing, a uniform barcarolle rhythm create a feeling of spaciousness, lightness.

"The First Meeting" is one of the most poetic pages of Grigov's song lyrics. An image close to Grieg - the fullness of a lyrical feeling, equal to the feeling that nature, art gives a person - is embodied in music, full of peace, purity, sublimity. A single melody, wide, freely developing, "embraces" the entire poetic text. But in the motives, phrases of the melody, its details are reflected. Naturally, the motif of a horn playing with a muffled minor repetition is woven into the vocal part - like a distant echo. The initial phrases, “hovering” around long foundations, relying on stable tonic harmony, on static plagal turns, with the beauty of chiaroscuro, recreate the mood of peace and contemplation, the beauty that the poem breathes. On the other hand, the conclusion of the song, based on the wide spills of the melody, with gradually increasing "waves" of the melody, with the gradual "conquest" of the melodic peak, with intense melodic moves, reflects the brightness and strength of emotions.

“Good morning” is a bright hymn to nature, full of joy and jubilation. Bright D-dur, fast tempo, clearly rhythmic, close to dance, energetic movement, a single melodic line for the whole song, striving to the top and culminating in a culmination - all these simple and bright musical means are complemented by subtle expressive details: elegant "vibrato", "decorations" of the melody, as if ringing in the air ("the forest is ringing, the bumblebee is buzzing"); variant repetition of a part of the melody (“the sun has risen”) in a different, tonally brighter sound; short melodic ups and downs with a stop on a major third, all growing stronger in sound; bright "fanfare" in the piano conclusion. Among the songs of Grieg, a cycle on the verses of G. Ibsen stands out. The lyric-philosophical content, mournful, concentrated images seem unusual against the general light background of Grigov's songs. The best of Ibsen's songs - "The Swan" - is one of the pinnacles of Grieg's work. Beauty, the strength of the creative spirit and the tragedy of death - this is the symbolism of Ibsen's poem. Musical images, as well as the poetic text, are distinguished by extreme laconicism. The contours of the melody are determined by the expressiveness of the recitation of the verse. But stingy intonations, intermittent free-declamatory phrases grow into an integral melody, unified and continuous in its development, harmonious in form (the song is written in three-part form). Measured movement and low mobility of the melody at the beginning, the severity of the texture of the accompaniment and harmony (the expressiveness of the plagal turns of the minor subdominant) create a feeling of grandeur and peace. Emotional tension in the middle part is achieved with even greater concentration, "stinginess" of musical means. Harmony freezes on dissonant sounds. A measured, calm melodic phrase achieves drama, increasing the height and strength of the sound, highlighting the top, final intonation with repetitions. The beauty of the tonal play in the reprise, with the gradual enlightenment of the register color, is perceived as a triumph of light and peace.

Many songs were written by Grieg based on the poems of the Norwegian peasant poet Osmund Vigne. Among them is one of the composer's masterpieces - the song "Spring". The motive of spring awakening, the spring beauty of nature, frequent in Grieg, is associated here with an unusual lyrical image: the sharpness of perception of the last spring in a person's life. The musical solution of the poetic image is remarkable: it is a bright lyrical song. The wide smooth melody consists of three constructions. Similar in intonation and rhythmic structure, they are variants of the initial image. But not for a moment there is a feeling of repetition. On the contrary: the melody flows on a big breath, with each new phase approaching the sublime hymn sound.

Very subtly, without changing the general nature of the movement, the composer translates musical images from picturesque, vivid to emotional (“far, far, space beckons”): whimsicality disappears, firmness, striving rhythms appear, unsteady harmonic sounds are replaced by stable ones. A sharp tonal contrast (G-dur - Fis-dur) contributes to the clarity of the line between different images of a poetic text. Giving a clear preference for the Scandinavian poets in the choice of poetic texts, Grieg only at the beginning of his career wrote several romances to the texts of the German poets Heine, Chamisso, Uhland

Piano concert

Grieg's Piano Concerto is one of the outstanding works of this genre in European music of the second half of the 19th century. The lyrical interpretation of the concerto brings Grieg's work closer to that branch of the genre, which is represented by the piano concertos of Chopin and especially Schumann. Proximity to Schumann's concerto is found in the romantic freedom, the brightness of the manifestation of feelings, in the subtle lyrical and psychological nuances of the music, in a number of compositional techniques. However, the national Norwegian flavor and the figurative structure of the work, characteristic of the composer, determined the bright originality of Grieg's concerto.

The three parts of the concerto correspond to the traditional dramaturgy of the cycle: the dramatic "knot" in the first part, the lyrical concentration in the second, the folk-genre picture in the third.

A romantic outburst of feelings, light lyrics, the assertion of a strong-willed beginning - this is the figurative structure and the line of development of images in the first part.

The second part of the concerto is a small but psychologically multifaceted Adagio. Its dynamic three-part form follows from the development of the main image from concentrated, with notes of dramatic lyricism to an open and complete revelation of a bright, strong feeling.

The finale, written in the form of a rondo sonata, is dominated by two images. In the first theme - a cheerful energetic hulling - folk-genre episodes found their completion as a "life background" that set off the dramatic line of the first part.

Artworks

Major works

* Suite "From the Times of Holberg", Op. 40

* Six Lyric Pieces for Piano, Op. 54

* Symphonic dances op. 64, 1898)

* Norwegian dances op.35, 1881)

* String Quartet in G minor Op. 27, 1877-1878)

* Three Violin Sonatas Op. 8, 1865

* Cello Sonata in A minor Op. 36, 1882)

* Concert Overture "In Autumn" (I Hst, op. 11), 1865)

* Sigurd Jorsalfar op. 26, 1879 (three orchestral pieces from music to B. Bjornson's tragedy)

* Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, Op. 65, no. 6

* Heart Wounds (Hjertesar) From Two Elegiac Melodies, Op.34 (Lyric Suite Op.54)

*Sigurd Jorsalfar, Op. 56 - Homage March

* Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46

* Peer Gynt Suite No. 2, Op. 55

* Last Spring (Varen) from Two Elegiac Pieces, Op. 34

* Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16

Chamber instrumental works

* First Violin Sonata F-dur Op. 8 (1866)

* Second Violin Sonata G-dur Op. 13 (1871)

* Third Violin Sonata in c-moll Op. 45 (1886)

* Cello Sonata a-moll Op. 36 (1883)

* G-moll String Quartet Op. 27 (1877-1878)

Vocal and symphonic works (theatrical music)

* "Lonely" for baritone, string orchestra and two horns - Op. 32

* Music for Ibsen's Peer Gynt, Op. 23 (1874-1875)

* "Bergliot" for recitation and orchestra Op. 42 (1870-1871)

* Scenes from Olaf Trygvason, for soloists, choir and orchestra, Op. 50 (1888)

Piano works (about 150 in total)

* Small plays (op. 1 published in 1862); 70

contained in 10 "Lyric Notebooks" (ed. from the 70s to 1901)

* Among major works: Sonata e-moll op. 7 (1865),

* Ballad in the form of variations Op. 24 (1875)

* For piano, 4 hands

* Symphonic Pieces Op. 14

* Norwegian Dances Op. 35

* Waltzes-Caprices (2 pieces) op. 37

* Old Norse Romance with Variations Op. 50 (there is an orchestral edition)

* 4 Mozart sonatas for 2 pianos 4 hands (F-dur, c-moll, C-dur, G-dur)

Choirs (total - with posthumously published - over 140)

* Album for male singing (12 choirs) op. thirty

* 4 psalms to old Norwegian melodies, for mixed choir

* a capella with baritone or bass Op. 70 (1906)

Interesting Facts

E. Grieg's unfinished opera (op. 50) - turned into a children's epic opera "Asgard"

Call from beyond

Grieg gave a big concert in the city of Oslo, the program of which consisted exclusively of the composer's works. But at the last minute, Grieg unexpectedly replaced the very last number of the program with a work by Beethoven. The next day, a very venomous review by a well-known Norwegian critic, who did not like Grieg's music, appeared in the largest metropolitan newspaper. The critic was especially stern about the last number of the concerto, noting that this "composition is simply ridiculous and completely unacceptable." Grieg telephoned this critic and said:

You are disturbed by the spirit of Beethoven. I must tell you that the last work performed in Grieg's concerto was composed by me!

From such embarrassment, the unfortunate disgraced critic had a heart attack.

Where to put the order?

Once the king of Norway, a passionate admirer of Grieg's music, decided to award the famous composer with an order and invited him to the palace. Putting on a tailcoat, Grieg went to the reception. The order was presented to Grieg by one of the Grand Dukes. After the presentation, the composer said:

Convey to His Majesty my gratitude and appreciation for the attention to my humble person.

Then, turning the order in his hands and not knowing what to do with it, Grieg hid it in the pocket of his tailcoat, which was sewn on at the back, at the very bottom of his back. There was an awkward impression that Grieg had stuffed the order somewhere into his back pockets. However, Grieg himself did not understand this. But the king was very offended when he was told where Grieg put the Order.

Miracles happen!

Grieg and his friend, the conductor Franz Beyer, often went fishing in Nurdo-svannet. Once, while fishing, Grieg suddenly came up with a musical phrase. He took out a piece of paper from his bag, wrote it down, and calmly placed the paper next to him. A sudden gust of wind blew the leaf into the water. Grieg did not notice that the paper had disappeared, and Beyer quietly fished it out of the water. He read the recorded melody and, hiding the paper, began to hum it. Grieg turned around with lightning speed and asked:

What is this? .. Beyer answered completely calmly:

Just an idea that just popped into my head.

- "" Well, everyone says that miracles do not happen! Grieg said in great amazement. -

Imagine, because I, too, a few minutes ago came up with exactly the same idea!

mutual praise

The meeting between Edvard Grieg and Franz Liszt took place in Rome in 1870, when Grieg was about twenty-seven years old, and Liszt was preparing to celebrate his sixtieth birthday. Grieg showed Liszt, along with his other compositions, the Piano Concerto in A minor, which was extremely difficult. Holding his breath, the young composer waited for what the great Liszt would say. After reviewing the score, Liszt asked:

Will you play it for me?

No! I can't! Even if I start to rehearse for a month, I’m unlikely to play, because I never specifically studied the piano.

I can’t either, it’s too unusual, but let’s try.” With these words, Liszt sat down at the piano and began to play. And best of all he played the most difficult places in the Concerto. When Liszt finished playing, the amazed Edvard Grieg exhaled:

Fabulous! Unfathomable...

I join your opinion. The concert is really magnificent, - Liszt smiled good-naturedly.

Grieg's legacy

Today, the work of Edvard Grieg is highly revered, especially in the composer's homeland - in Norway.

Leif Ove Andsnes, one of the most famous Norwegian musicians today, actively performs his compositions as a pianist and conductor. The house where the composer lived for many years - "Troldhaugen" became a house-museum open to the public.

Here, visitors are shown the native walls of the composer, his manor, interiors, memorabilia belonging to Edvard Grieg is also preserved.

Permanent things that belonged to the composer: coat, hat and violin still hang on the wall of his working house. A monument to Edvard Grieg has been opened near the estate, which everyone who visits Troldhaugen and the working hut, where Grieg composed his best musical works and wrote arrangements of folk motifs, can see.

Music corporations continue to release CDs and cassettes of Edvard Grieg's greatest works. CDs of Grieg's melodies in modern processing are being released (see in this article Musical fragments - "Erotic", "Wedding Day in Troldhaugen"). The name of Edvard Grieg is still associated with Norwegian culture and musical creativity of the country. Grieg's classical plays are used in various artistic and cultural events. Various musical performances, scenarios for professional performances on ice and other performances are staged.

"In the Hall of the Mountain King" is perhaps Grieg's most popular and recognizable composition.

She survived many treatments by pop musicians. Candice Knight and Ritchie Blackmore even wrote lyrics for "The Hall of the Mountain King" and edited it into the song "Hall of the Mountain King". The composition, its fragments and arrangements are often used in soundtracks for films, TV shows, computer games, commercials, etc., when it is necessary to create a mysterious, slightly ominous or slightly ironic atmosphere.

For example, in the film "M" she clearly showed the character of the hero Peter Lorre - Beckert, a maniac who hunted children.

Edvard Grieg is a great Norwegian composer, outstanding pianist and conductor. Grieg created truly immortal works and glorified the Norwegian people. Most of his compositions are based on Norwegian folk songs and dances.

Edvard Grieg was born in 1843. He started playing music very early. First he studied piano, then studied music theory and composition. In 1858 he entered the Leipzig Conservatory, from which he successfully graduated in 1862. Grieg's teachers were I. Moscheles in the piano class and K. Reinecke in the composition class. After graduating from the conservatory, Edward continued to study composition with the famous teacher N. Gade, moving to Copenhagen.

In Copenhagen, Grieg wrote his first works, which brought him fame. Here, Edward meets the composer Nurdrok, who had a huge influence on the formation of the style of Grigov's works. In the middle of the nineteenth century, Edvard Grieg, together with R. Nurdrok, E. Horneman and other composers, organized the Scandinavian musical community "Euterpe". In the seventies, Grieg lives in Oslo, where he takes an active part in the cultural and social life of the country, closely communicating with influential people in Norway.

On the verses of the Norwegian playwright B. Bjornson, Grieg writes a number of works, among which it is worth noting the opera "Olaf Trygvason", music for the play "Sigurd Yursalfar", sketches for the opera "Arnljut Helline", melodrama for a reader and orchestra "Bergliot", and so a huge number of songs. In 1871, Grieg again organizes a musical community that still exists today - the Philharmonic Society.

Eldvard Grieg's fame peaked at the end of the nineteenth century. In the eighties and nineties of this century, the composer toured a lot, gave concerts of his own music, acting as a performer and conductor. In 1898, Edvard Grieg organized the first Norwegian music festival in history. These festivals are still held today. The composer died in 1907.

Brief list of works by Edvard Grieg

For choir, soloists and orchestra:

• Bergliot (1885),
• At the gates of the monastery (1870-71),
• Homecoming (1881),
• In captivity of the mountains (1878),

For orchestra:

• Symphony in C minor, (1863-64),
• Concert Overture "In Autumn" (1866),
• Peer Gynt (1888)
• Sigurd the Crusader (1892),
• Symphonic Dances on Norwegian Themes (1898),
• lyric suite,
• Bell ringing (1904),

For string orchestra:

• 2 elegiac melodies (1883),
• From the time of Holberg (1884-1885),
• 2 melodies (on the themes of his own songs, 1890)
• Norwegian melodies on the themes of folk songs,

Concerts with orchestra

10

The influence of music on a person 03.09.2016

Dear readers, today we continue our conversation under the rubric. I invite you to plunge into the world of romance. We will get acquainted with the era of romanticism and the music of the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. Lilia Shadkovsky, a reader of my blog, a music teacher with great experience, invites us on such a journey. Those who often visit the blog know Lilia from some articles.

We are very pleased with your response. Thank you very much Lily for her interesting stories. And I strongly advise you to listen to musical fragments with your children, tell them about Grieg's music, I think they will also be interested in listening to a lot. When I worked at a music school, my children and I often took works into our repertoire, I often gave ensembles, and I also touched this music with pleasure. And now I give the floor to Lilia.

Good afternoon to all readers of Irina's blog. The beautiful summer season has come to an end. And so you want to light candles on a cool evening, pour a cup of hot tea, sit on your favorite sofa and listen to music.

Dear our readers! I think you will be interested to know how the wonderful music of life sounds! Do you hear? The murmur of a transparent stream in the summer heat, the chirping of birds, the rustling of the wind in the foliage, the awakening of nature. Wonderful music of life, opening joy for us! The music is so bright and colorful that even without words it becomes clear what it is about. Let's start our musical journey.

“Music is the only world language, it does not need to be translated, the soul speaks it with the soul.” Berthold Auerbach

E. Grieg. Morning. From the suite "Peer Gynt"

A very popular melody by Grieg, written for the first part of Ibsen's play "Peer Gynt". This music is now associated with typically Scandinavian scenes. But originally this melody was intended to depict the sunrise in the Sahara Desert.

Marvelous images of the world of dreams of the era of romanticism

Not only the triumph of nature became an object of worship for romantic composers. But also the wondrous images of the world of dreams, man, his lofty feelings and spirituality - the musical culture of the era of romanticism is painted with such colors.

Romanticism is an artistic trend in art that developed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Europe and America. The word "romanticism" (French romantisme) means fantastic, picturesque. Indeed, this trend has enriched the world with new colors and sounds. Composers with the help of musical means expressed a deep interest in the harmony of the world, in the human personality, his feelings and emotions.

The most prominent representatives of the romantic school of composers were Niccolo Paganini, Franz Liszt, Frederic Chopin, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann Giuseppe Verdi, Edvard Grieg. In Russia, A. Alyabyev, P. Tchaikovsky, M. Glinka, M. Mussorgsky worked in this style.

There are many countries in the world, but today, with the help of music, we will make a trip to Norway, to visit Edvard Grieg, the composer of the romantic period.

Music by Edvard Grieg

“If anyone could show the world the proud and pure spirit of Norway, full of dark power, passionate romance and dazzling light, then this is certainly Edvard Hagerup Grieg”

Norway is fabulously beautiful and majestic. A harsh, but stunningly beautiful land, a land of dazzling white mountain peaks and blue lakes, a land of magical northern lights and a blue sky.

Folk music, songs, dances, fascinating ancient legends and tales are rich and original. The music of E. Grieg absorbed all the richness of the fabulous Scandinavian folklore. Fantastic images of trolls and gnomes living in dark caves, the exploits of folk heroes in unforgettable melodies are probably known to you.

"Singer of Scandinavian Legends"

Edvard Hagerup Grieg (1843-1907) is a Norwegian composer, musical figure, pianist, conductor, whose work was formed under the influence of Norwegian folk culture. The musical language of Edvard Grieg is deeply national and it is not surprising that the Norwegians are very fond of his music.

E. Grieg. A little biography

Childhood and youth. Edvard Grieg was born on June 15, 1843 in the seaside town of Bergen, a major trading center in Western Norway. Edward's father, Alexander Grieg, served as British Consul in Bergen, and his mother, Gesina Hagerup, was a pianist. They gave their children an excellent and thorough education, taught music, as was customary in wealthy families.

Musical evenings were very often held in the house, and these first musical impressions determined the future fate of Edward. Already at the age of four he played the piano, and at the age of twelve he began to compose his own music. The famous Norwegian violinist and composer Bull Ole, having heard Edward's music, advised his parents to send the young talent to study at the Leipzig Conservatory.

New stage in life

After training, Grieg returns to his homeland and rushes to the Copenhagen center of musical culture. The wonderful concerts that the Gewandhaus Concert Hall was famous for helped Edward understand and fall in love with romanticism.

Here he met the greatest storyteller G. Andersen and playwright G. Ibsen. who literally proclaimed the idea of ​​nationality in art, This theme found a warm response in the heart of the composer.

In 1865, E. Grieg and his comrades organized the Euterpa musical society, which actively promoted folk art and organized concerts. And in 1898 he established the first festival of Norwegian folk music in Bergen (this festival is still held.) Grieg felt a huge surge of creative energy.

The magical power of Grieg's music

One after another, wonderful works appear: romances, songs - poems, piano pieces and concerts, the music of which merges with the feeling of the harsh northern region, native nature.

E. Grieg. Concerto in A-minor (1 movement) for piano and orchestra

“The composer tells God about his perception of nature. The Lord listens and smiles, he is pleased: among his creations there are brilliant images…”

But live direct sketches from nature: "Bird", "Butterfly", "Stream" from the cycle "Lyric Pieces" are favorite works of many concert programs, including concert programs of children's music schools.

E. Grieg. birdie

"Bird" is an example of the composer's rare gift to create the exact image of a bird from "singing" trills and "jumping" rhythm with a few strokes.

E. Grieg. Creek

But a view opens up to the valley, the air is transparent and cool, and the stream is silvering on the stones.

E. Grieg. Butterfly

The composer wrote it with inimitable ease and grace, conveying the fragility and grace of the image.

Images of folk fiction

In collaboration with Anderson and Ibsen, Grieg creates in his music the heroes of the Scandinavian epic, Icelandic legends and Norwegian sagas, unforgettable images of trolls, gnomes. Listening to Grieg's music, you feel that elves are fluttering among the flowers, that a dwarf is behind every stone, and a troll is about to jump out of a forest hole.

E. Grieg. Procession of the Dwarves

This unusual fabulous march, known to almost every one of us for its dynamics and bright melody. Often used in many fairy tales, cartoons, theatrical productions, advertising.

E. Grieg. Elf dance

Once, before going to bed, E. Grieg read Andersen's fairy tale "Thumbelina". He fell asleep, and in his head it sounded: “A little girl was sitting in a flower, and little butterflies were flying around her” ... This is how the work “Dance of the Elves” appeared

Music by E. Grieg for Ibsen's drama "Peer Gynt"

But the most significant work, a true masterpiece, was E. Grieg's music for G. Ibsen's drama Peer Gynt. The premiere of the chamber-symphony work took place in 1876 and was a huge success. Moreover, this historical performance became the beginning of the world fame of the composer and playwright.

Per - the main character went to travel the world in search of happiness. He visited many countries. Along the way, he had to endure many trials. Per achieves fabulous wealth, but loses everything. Forty years later, tired and exhausted, he returns to his homeland. He is seized with deep despair - life is wasted in vain. When he arrived, he found out that Solveig had been faithfully waiting for him all these years:

“Winter will pass, and spring will flash, flowers will wither, they will be covered with snow. But you will come back to me, my heart tells me, I will stay faithful to you, I will only live with you ... "

E. Grieg. Song Solveig

This piercing, exciting melody has become a symbol of love and fidelity. It contains aching sadness, resignation to fate, and enlightenment. But the main thing is faith!

Much wonder falls to the lot of Per. Here he was in the realm of trolls, fantastic evil creatures, subjects of the Mountain King.

E. Grieg. In the cave of the mountain king

The Fantastic Procession is one of Grieg's most recognizable melodies. It is also often used in children's programs, commercials, sounds in films such as "Demons", "Sensation", "Dead Snow", "Interns".

E. Grieg. Anitra's dance

Traveling through the Arabian desert, Peer Gynt comes to the leader of the Bedouin tribe. The chief's daughter tries to charm Per with her beauty.

Grieg's work was formed under the influence of folk culture, its beautiful song motifs and dance melodies.

E. Grieg. Norwegian dance from the ballet "Peer Gynt"

Dreams Come True

Grieg really dreamed of a house on the seashore, of a calm and creative environment. And only in the forty-second year of his life, his dream came true. High in the Norwegian mountains, in a place with the fabulous name of Trollhaugen (troll hill, or “Magic Hill”), this beautiful house stands in which the Grig family settled. The location of the estate served as a source of inspiration, here new musical images were born.

E. Grieg. Wedding day in Trollhaugen

“Wedding Day in Trollhaungen” is an image of folk life, one of the most joyful, jubilant works of Grieg.

Edvard Grieg and his wife Nina Hageup spent the warm season in this house. They often walked together, admired the scenery, and in the evenings discussed new ideas.

Grieg was very fond of both this house and this surrounding divine beauty of nature: “I saw such beauties of nature ... a huge chain of snowy mountains with fantastic shapes rose directly from the sea, while the dawn in the mountains was four in the morning, a bright summer night and the whole landscape was as if stained with blood. It was unique!”

No other picturesque places could replace the harsh beauty of his homeland. And this "wild" land with pristine beauty attracts millions of composer's admirers.

Today, a museum has been created in the estate, where admirers can not only see the unique nature, but also hear the unique magical sounds of Edvard Grieg's music.

According to the composer's will, Grieg was buried in a grave carved into a sheer rock. In the same place, after 28 years, Nina, the only woman of Grieg and his muse, found her peace.

This is Edvard Grieg - a bright, powerful composer, revealing the secrets of Scandinavian legends in his music and remaining in world musical culture forever. The music of E. Grieg will sound as long as the Norwegian rocks stand, while the sea surf beats on the shore.

I thank Lily for the information. As I wrote at the very beginning of the article, Grieg's music rarely leaves anyone indifferent. She likes both children and adults. And I also remembered a concert when I worked at a pedagogical school in the Far East. At the reporting concert, my friend and I played Grieg's concerto in A minor on two pianos. Just Lilia spoke about him in the article. What amazing music, how we were received then .... And how interesting it was for us to work together. Got the same experience.

I wish you all a wonderful mood, the simple joys of life, all the warmest and kindest.

Water with lemon - a simple remedy for healing the body

Edvard Grieg is a Norwegian composer, pianist, conductor, and folk music critic.

The creative heritage of Edvard Grieg includes more than 600 songs and romances, 20 plays, symphonies, sonatas and suites for piano, violin, cello.

Grieg in his works managed to convey the mystery of Swedish and Norwegian fairy tales, where a dwarf hides behind every stone, a troll can crawl out of any hole. The feeling of a fairy tale, labyrinths can be caught in his music.

Grieg's most famous and recognizable works are "Morning" and "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from the Peer Gynt suite. We invite you to listen to these works.

Listen to "Morning" from the Peer Gynt Suite

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Listen to "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from the Peer Gynt Suite

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Biography of Grieg

Full name: Edvard Hagerup Grieg. Years of life: 1843 - 1907 Height: 152 cm.

Homeland: the city of Bergen in Norway. The rainiest city in Europe. Today it is the 2nd largest city in Norway.

Bergen - the birthplace of Grieg

Grieg's father, Alexander Grieg, was from Scotland. In Bergen, he acted as British Vice-Consul. Mother - Gesina Hagerup was a pianist - the best in Bergen. She graduated from the conservatory in Hamburg, despite the fact that only young men were admitted to this educational institution. Grieg had two brothers and 3 sisters who studied music since childhood.

Walking one day near Bergen in the mountains, little Edward stopped at a pine tree peeping out of the gorge, looked at it for a long time. Then he asked his father: “where do trolls live?” And although his father told him that trolls only live in fairy tales, Edward did not believe him. He was firmly convinced that trolls lived among the rocks, in the forests, in the roots of old pines. As a child, Grieg was a dreamer and loved to tell amazing stories to his loved ones. Edward considered his mother a fairy, because only a fairy can play the piano like that.

Reading the diaries of little Grieg, one can emphasize that phenomenal ideas are born in childhood. Grieg, approaching the piano, immediately noticed that two adjacent notes sounded bad. But if through one, then it turns out beautifully. He wrote about this in his diary. Once, when he grew up, he pressed 4 notes. And a little later, when the hand grew up - 5 notes through one. And it turned out to be a nonaccord or dimaccord! And then in his diary he wrote that he had become a composer!

At the age of 6, his mother began to teach Grieg how to play the piano. Playing scales and arpeggios, Grieg imagined how a platoon of soldiers was marching.
Throughout his childhood, he lived in a fantasy world. He made boring exercises interesting, gray weather, a bright, long road to school - a change of magical pictures. When Grieg grew up, he was allowed to attend musical evenings. On one of these evenings, he listened to Mozart play.

When Grieg was 8 years old, Ole Bull, a virtuoso violinist who gained recognition throughout Europe, visited his house as a guest.
At the age of 10, Grig began to attend school, but studying was not interesting for him.

At the age of 12, Grieg wrote his first composition: "Visiting the Kobolds."
Edward took the notebook with his first essay to school. The teacher, who disliked the boy for his inattentive attitude to study, ridiculed these notes. Grieg did not bring his compositions to school anymore, but he did not stop composing.

The Grieg family moves to Landos, a suburb of Bergen. There, together with his older brother, Edvord often went to a neighboring farm to listen to the songs of the peasants and their playing on the folk fiddles.

The Norwegian motif - the national pattern of Norway - is dance, haligen, tunes - with all this, Grieg grew up. And he "hid" these melodies in his works.

When Edward was 15 years old, Ole Bull heard his game and uttered prophetic words: "This boy will glorify Norway." It was Bull who advised Grieg to go to Germany to study at the Leipzig Conservatory.

In 1958, Edward became a student at the conservatory.
During his studies, Grieg suffered from pleurisy and lost one lung. For this reason, he stopped growing and remained tall - 152 cm. While the average height of men in Norway was more than 180 cm.

One way or another, Grieg graduated from the conservatory with excellent grades and admiring recommendations.

During the years of study, Edward attended many concerts, enjoying the works of great musicians - Wagner, Mozart, Beethoven.
Grieg himself had an interesting ritual. During each of his performances, a clay frog lay in the pocket of Grieg's jacket. Before the start of each concert, he always took it out and stroked its back. The talisman worked: at the concerts every time there was an unimaginable success.

In the 1860s, Grieg wrote the first works for piano - pieces and sonatas.
In 1863 he trained in Copenhagen with the Danish composer N. Gade.

During the same period of his life in Copenhagen, Grieg met and became friends with Hans Christian Andersen. The author of well-known fairy tales: the Ugly Duckling, the Steadfast Tin Soldier, Flint, Ole Lukoye, the Shepherd and the Chimney Sweep, the Princess and the Pea, the Little Mermaid, the Swineherd, the Snow Queen, etc. The composer wrote music for several of his poems.

Nina Hagerup

All in the same Copenhagen, Edvard Grieg meets the woman of his life - Nina Hagerup. The young successful singer reciprocated Grieg's passionate confession. On the way to their boundless happiness, there was only one obstacle - family ties. Nina was Edward's maternal cousin. Their union caused a storm of indignation of relatives, and for all subsequent years they became outcasts in their own families.

In 1864, Edward proposed to Nina Hagerup on Christmas Eve, in the company of young cultural figures, presenting her with a collection of his love sonnets called Melodies of the Heart, which were written by his friend Hans Christian Andersen.

In 1865, together with another composer from Norway, Nurdrok, Grieg founded the Euterpe Society, which was supposed to popularize the works of young composers.

In 1867 he marries Nina Hagerup. Due to the disapproval of relatives, the couple had to move to Oslo, the capital of Norway.

From 1867 to 1874 Grieg worked as a conductor at the Philharmonic Society in Oslo.

In 1868, Liszt (the idol of all Europe) got acquainted with the work of Grieg. He is amazed. Having sent him a letter of support, in 1870 they met in person.

Grieg, in turn, writes to Liszt that he has composed a concerto and wants to perform it for Liszt in Weimor (a city in Germany).

Liszt is waiting for him, waiting for the tall Norwegian. Instead, he sees a "dwarf" one and a half meters tall. However, when Liszt heard Grieg's piano concerto, a truly huge Liszt with huge hands exclaimed to the little man Grieg: "Giant!"

In 1871, Grieg founded a musical society that promoted symphonic music.
In 1874, for services to Norway, the government of the country issued Grieg a lifetime scholarship.

In 1880 he returned to his native Bergen and was the head of the musical society Harmony. During the 1880s, he wrote works, mainly intended for playing the piano in 4 hands.

In 1888 he met Tchaikovsky, the acquaintance grew into friendship.

Later, Tchaikovsky said about Grieg: "... a man of very small stature and a frail complexion, with shoulders of uneven height, whipped curls on his head, but with the bewitching blue eyes of an innocent lovely child ..." Tchaikovsky even dedicated his overture "Hamlet" to Edward.

In 1889 he received membership in the French Academy of Fine Arts, in 1872 - in the Royal Swedish Academy, and in 1883 - Leiden University.
In 1893 he received a doctorate in music from the University of Cambridge. At the same time, he combines his studies with tours of Europe with his wife Nina.

Between tours of the largest European cities, he returned to Norway and retired to his estate, called "Troll Hill".

Taking advantage of his fame, in 1898 he organized a music festival of Norwegian music in his native Bergen, where the best musicians and musical figures of the world gathered, and thus finally included Norway in the active musical life of Europe. This festival is still held today. Grieg performs a lot, organizes concerts and
festivals, where he performs as a conductor, pianist, educator. Often they perform together with his wife, the gifted chamber singer Nina Hagerup, who inspired him to write a large number of
romances (naturally, on the texts of Scandinavian poets).
From 1891 to 1901, Grieg created without rest - he wrote plays and a collection of songs, in 1903 he released an arrangement of folk dances for piano performance.

Continuing to tour with his wife in Norway, Denmark and Germany, he catches a cold, and on September 4, 1907, he dies of pleurisy.

Grieg's works

Suite Peer Gynt

One of the most significant works of Grieg is the Peer Gynt suite, based on the drama of the Norwegian writer Heinrich Ibsen. One day, a parcel came to Grieg from the playwright Heinrich Ibsen. It was a new play for which he asked Grieg to compose music.
Peer Gynt is the name of a guy who grew up in a small village. Here is his home, his mother and the girl who loves him - Salveig. But the homeland was not sweet for him - and he went in search of happiness to distant countries. After many years, not finding his happiness, he returned to his homeland.

After reading the play, Grieg sent a reply with gratitude for the proposal and his consent.

After the premiere of the performance in 1876, Grieg's music fell in love with the public so much that he composed two suites from it for concert performance. Of the 23 numbers of music for the performance, 8 pieces were included in the suites. Both the music for the performance and the suites were written for a symphony orchestra. Then the composer made an arrangement of both suites for piano.

The first suite consists of four parts:

• "Morning",
• "Death to Oze"
• Anitra dance,
• "In the Hall of the Mountain King."

The second suite also consists of four parts:

• "Ingrid's Complaint"
• arabic dance,
• "The Return of Peer Gynt"
• Solveig song.

In fact, Grieg became the first Norwegian composer to gain worldwide fame, moreover, he advanced Scandinavian folk motifs to a new level. Consider Solveig from Peer Gynt. There we hear the Norwegian motive, and in the theme of the dancing Anitra, the same motive, but already hidden. In the same place we hear our favorite chord of 5 notes - the discovery of childhood. In the cave of the mountain king - again this folk Norwegian motif, but already hidden - in the opposite direction.

Grieg gave a big concert in the city of Oslo, the program of which consisted exclusively of the composer's works. But at the last minute, Grieg unexpectedly replaced the very last number of the program with a work by Beethoven. The next day, a very venomous review by a well-known Norwegian critic, who did not like Grieg's music, appeared in the largest metropolitan newspaper. The critic was especially stern about the last number of the concerto, noting that this "composition is simply ridiculous and completely unacceptable." Grieg telephoned this critic and said:

You are disturbed by the spirit of Beethoven. I must tell you that I composed the last work performed in Grieg's concerto! From such embarrassment, the unfortunate disgraced critic had a heart attack.

Grieg and his friend, the conductor Franz Beyer, often went fishing in Nurdo-svannet. Once, while fishing, Grieg suddenly came up with a musical phrase. He took out a piece of paper from his bag, wrote it down, and calmly placed the paper next to him. A sudden gust of wind blew the leaf into the water. Grieg did not notice that the paper had disappeared, and Beyer quietly fished it out of the water. He read the recorded melody and, hiding the paper, began to hum it. Grieg turned around with lightning speed and asked:

What is this? .. Beyer answered completely calmly:

Just an idea that just popped into my head.

- "Well, everyone says that miracles do not happen! Grieg said in great amazement. —

Imagine, because I, too, a few minutes ago came up with exactly the same idea!

In the story “Basket with Fir Cones”, Konstantin Paustovsky creates a portrait of Grieg with a few bright strokes. The writer hardly talks about the appearance of the composer. But by the way the hero of the short story listens to the voice of the forest, how he looks at the life of the earth with kind, laughing eyes, we recognize in him the great Norwegian composer. We believe that Grieg could only be like this: an infinitely sensitive and talented person for good.

They are the peaks of music of the second half of the 19th century. The creative maturation of the composer took place in an atmosphere of rapid flowering of the spiritual life of Norway, an increased interest in its historical past, folklore, and cultural heritage. This time brought a whole "constellation" of talented, nationally distinctive artists - A. Tidemann in painting, G. Ibsen, B. Bjornson, G. Wergeland and O. Vigne in literature. “Over the past twenty years, Norway has experienced such an upsurge in the field of literature that no country except Russia can boast of,” F. Engels wrote in 1890. "...Norwegians create much more than others, and impose their stamp also on the literature of other peoples, and not least on German."

Grieg was born in Bergen, where his father served as British consul. His mother, a gifted pianist, directed Edward's musical studies, she instilled in him a love for Mozart. Following the advice of the famous Norwegian violinist U. Bull, Grieg in 1858 entered the Leipzig Conservatory. Although the teaching system did not fully satisfy the young man, who gravitated towards the romantic music of R. Schumann, F. Chopin and R. Wagner, the years of study did not pass without a trace: he joined European culture, expanded his musical horizons, and mastered professional technique. At the conservatory, Grieg found sensitive mentors who respected his talent (K. Reinecke in composition, E. Wenzel and I. Moscheles in piano, M. Hauptmann in theory). Since 1863, Grieg has been living in Copenhagen, improving his composing skills under the guidance of the famous Danish composer N. Gade. Together with his friend, composer R. Nurdrok, Grieg created the Euterpa musical society in Copenhagen, the purpose of which was to disseminate and promote the work of young Scandinavian composers. While traveling around Norway with Bull, Grieg learned to better understand and feel the national folklore. The romantically rebellious Piano Sonata in E Minor, the First Violin Sonata, Humoresques for Piano - these are the promising results of the early period of the composer's work.

With the move to Christiania (now Oslo) in 1866, a new, exceptionally fruitful stage in the composer's life began. Strengthening the traditions of national music, uniting the efforts of Norwegian musicians, educating the public - these are the main activities of Grieg in the capital. On his initiative, the Academy of Music was opened in Christiania (1867). In 1871, Grieg founded the Musical Society in the capital, in whose concerts he conducted the works of Mozart, Schumann, Liszt and Wagner, as well as modern Scandinavian composers - J. Svensen, Nurdrok, Gade and others. Grieg also acts as a pianist - a performer of his piano works , as well as in an ensemble with his wife, a gifted chamber singer, Nina Hagerup. The works of this period - the Piano Concerto (1868), the first notebook of "Lyric Pieces" (1867), the Second Violin Sonata (1867) - testify to the composer's entry into the age of maturity. However, the huge creative and educational activities of Grieg in the capital came across a hypocritical, inert attitude towards art. Living in an atmosphere of envy and misunderstanding, he needed the support of like-minded people. Therefore, a particularly memorable event in his life was the meeting with Liszt, which took place in 1870 in Rome. The parting words of the great musician, his enthusiastic assessment of the Piano Concerto restored Grieg's self-confidence: “Keep going in the same spirit, I tell you this. You have the data for this, and do not let yourself be intimidated! - these words sounded like a blessing for Grieg. The lifelong state scholarship, which Grieg received from 1874, made it possible to limit his concert and teaching activities in the capital, and travel to Europe more often. In 1877 Grieg left Christiania. Rejecting the offer of friends to settle in Copenhagen and Leipzig, he preferred a solitary and creative life in Hardanger, one of the interior regions of Norway.

Since 1880, Grieg settled in Bergen and its environs at the villa "Trollhaugen" ("Troll Hill"). Returning to his homeland had a beneficial effect on the creative state of the composer. The crisis of the late 70s. passed, Grieg again experienced a surge of energy. In the silence of Trollhaugen, two orchestral suites "Peer Gynt", the string quartet in G minor, the suite "From the time of Holberg", new notebooks of "Lyric Pieces", romances and vocal cycles were created. Until the last years of his life, Grieg's educational activities continued (leading the concerts of the Bergen musical society Harmony, organizing the first festival of Norwegian music in 1898). The concentrated composer's work was replaced by tours (Germany, Austria, England, France); they contributed to the spread of Norwegian music in Europe, brought new connections, acquaintances with the largest contemporary composers - I. Brahms, K. Saint-Saens, M. Reger, F. Busoni, and others.

In 1888 Grieg met P. Tchaikovsky in Leipzig. Their long-lasting friendship was based, in the words of Tchaikovsky, "on the undoubted inner kinship of two musical natures." Together with Tchaikovsky, Grieg was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge (1893). Tchaikovsky's overture "Hamlet" is dedicated to Grieg. The composer's career was completed by Four Psalms to Old Norwegian Melodies for baritone and mixed choir a cappella (1906). The image of the homeland in the unity of nature, spiritual traditions, folklore, past and present was at the center of Grieg's work, directing all his searches. “I often mentally embrace the whole of Norway, and this for me is something of the highest. No great spirit can be loved with the same force as nature! The most profound and artistically perfect generalization of the epic image of the motherland was the 2 orchestral suites "Peer Gynt", in which Grieg gave his interpretation of Ibsen's plot. Leaving outside the description of Per - an adventurer, an individualist and a rebel - Grieg created a lyric-epic poem about Norway, sang the beauty of its nature ("Morning"), painted bizarre fairy-tale images ("In the cave of the mountain king"). The meaning of the eternal symbols of the homeland was acquired by the lyrical images of Per's mother - the old Oze - and his bride Solveig ("Death to Oze" and "Lullaby Solveig").

The suites manifested the originality of the Grigovian language, which generalized the intonations of Norwegian folklore, the mastery of a concentrated and capacious musical characteristic, in which a multifaceted epic image appears in the comparison of short orchestral miniature paintings. The traditions of Schumann's program miniatures are developed by "Lyric Pieces" for piano. Sketches of northern landscapes (“In the Spring”, “Nocturne”, “At Home”, “The Bells”), genre and character plays (“Lullaby”, “Waltz”, “Butterfly”, “Brook”), Norwegian peasant dances (“Halling ”, “Springdance”, “Gangar”), fantastic characters of folk tales (“Procession of the Dwarves”, “Kobold”) and lyrical plays themselves (“Arietta”, “Melody”, “Elegy”) - a huge world of images is captured in these lyrical composer's diaries.

Piano miniature, romance and song form the basis of the composer's work. Genuine pearls of Grigov's lyrics, stretching from light contemplation, philosophical reflection to an enthusiastic impulse, hymn, were the romances "The Swan" (Art. Ibsen), "Dream" (Art. F. Bogenshtedt), "I Love You" (Art. G. X Andersen). Like many romantic composers, Grieg combines vocal miniatures into cycles - "On the Rocks and Fjords", "Norway", "Girl from the Mountains", etc. Most of the romances use the texts of Scandinavian poets. Connections with national literature, the heroic Scandinavian epic were also manifested in vocal and instrumental works for soloists, choir and orchestra based on the texts of B. Bjornson: “At the gates of the monastery”, “Return to the homeland”, “Olaf Trygvason” (op. 50).

Instrumental works of large cyclic forms mark the most important milestones in the composer's evolution. The piano concerto, which opened the period of creative flourishing, was one of the significant phenomena in the history of the genre on the way from L. Beethoven's concertos to P. Tchaikovsky and S. Rachmaninov. The symphonic breadth of development, the orchestral scale of sound characterize the String Quartet in G minor.

A deep sense of the nature of the violin, an instrument exceptionally popular in Norwegian folk and professional music, is found in three sonatas for violin and piano - in the light-idyllic First; dynamic, brightly nationally colored Second and Third, standing among the composer's dramatic works, along with the piano Ballade in the form of variations on Norwegian folk melodies, the Sonata for Cello and Piano. In all these cycles, the principles of sonata dramaturgy interact with the principles of a suite, a cycle of miniatures (based on free alternation, a “chain” of contrasting episodes that capture sudden changes in impressions, states that form a “stream of surprises”, in the words of B. Asafiev).

The suite genre dominates Grieg's symphonic work. In addition to the suites "Peer Gynt", the composer wrote a suite for string orchestra "From the Time of Holberg" (in the manner of the old suites of Bach and Handel); "Symphonic dances" on Norwegian themes, a suite from music to B. Bjornson's drama "Sigurd Jorsalfar", etc.

Grieg's work quickly found its way to listeners from different countries, already in the 70s. of the last century, it became a favorite and deeply entered the musical life of Russia. “Grieg managed to immediately and forever win Russian hearts for himself,” Tchaikovsky wrote. - “In his music, imbued with enchanting melancholy, reflecting the beauty of Norwegian nature, sometimes majestically wide and grandiose, sometimes gray, modest, wretched, but always incredibly charming for the soul of a northerner, there is something close to us, dear, immediately finding in our hearts a warm, sympathetic response.

I. Okhalova

• Features of Norwegian folk music and its influence on Grieg's style →

Life and creative path

Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born on June 15, 1843. His ancestors are Scots (by the name of Greig). But my grandfather also settled in Norway, served as the British consul in the city of Bergen; the same position was held by the composer's father. The family was musical. Mother - a good pianist - taught children music herself. Later, in addition to Edward, his older brother John received a professional musical education (he graduated from the Leipzig Conservatory in the cello class with Friedrich Grützmacher and Karl Davydov).

Bergen, where Grieg was born and spent his young years, was famous for its national artistic traditions, especially in the field of theater: Henrik Ibsen and Bjornstjerne Bjornson began their activities here; Ole Bull was born in Bergen and lived for a long time. It was he who first drew attention to Edward's outstanding musical talent (a boy composed from the age of twelve) and advised his parents to assign him to the Leipzig Conservatory, which took place in 1858. With short breaks, Grieg stayed in Leipzig until 1862. (In 1860, Grieg suffered a serious illness that undermined his health: he lost one lung.).

Grieg, without pleasure, later recalled the years of conservatory education, scholastic teaching methods, the conservatism of his teachers, their isolation from life. In tones of good-natured humor, he described these years, as well as his childhood, in an autobiographical essay entitled "My First Success". The young composer found the strength to “throw off the yoke of all the unnecessary rubbish that his meager upbringing at home and abroad endowed him with,” which threatened to send him down the wrong path. “This power was my salvation, my happiness,” Grieg wrote. “And when I understood this power, as soon as I recognized myself, I realized what I would like to call my own. the only success..." However, his stay in Leipzig gave him a lot: the level of musical life in this city was high. And if not within the walls of the conservatory, then outside of it, Grieg joined the music of contemporary composers, among whom he most appreciated Schumann and Chopin.

Grieg continued to improve as a composer in the musical center of the then Scandinavia - Copenhagen. The well-known Danish composer, an admirer of Mendelssohn, Niels Gade (1817-1890) became its leader. But even these studies did not satisfy Grieg: he was looking for new ways in art. Meeting with Rikard Nurdrok helped to discover them - "as if a veil fell from my eyes," he said. The young composers vowed to give their all to the development of a national Norwegian beginning in music, they declared a merciless struggle against the romantically softened "Scandinavism", which leveled the possibility of revealing this beginning. Grieg's creative searches were warmly supported by Ole Bull - during their joint travels in Norway, he initiated his young friend into the secrets of folk art.

New ideological aspirations were not slow to affect the composer's work. In the piano "Humoresques" op. 6 and sonata op. 7, as well as in the violin sonata op. 8 and Overture "In Autumn" op. 11, the individual features of Grieg's style are already clearly manifested. He improved them more and more in the next period of his life associated with Christiania (now Oslo).

From 1866 to 1874, this most intense period of musical, performing and composing work continued.

Back in Copenhagen, together with Nurdrok, Grieg organized the Euterpe society, which set itself the goal of promoting the works of young musicians. Returning to his homeland, in the capital of Norway, Christiania, Grieg gave his musical and social activities a wider scope. As head of the Philharmonic Society, he sought, along with the classics, to instill in the audience an interest and love for the works of Schumann, Liszt, Wagner, whose names were not yet known in Norway, as well as for the music of Norwegian authors. Grieg also performed as a pianist performing his own works, often in collaboration with his wife, chamber singer Nina Hagerup. His musical and educational activities went hand in hand with intensive work as a composer. It was during these years that he wrote the famous piano concerto op. 16, Second Violin Sonata, op. 13 (one of his most beloved compositions) and begins to publish a series of notebooks of vocal pieces, as well as piano miniatures, both intimately lyrical and folk dance.

The great and fruitful activity of Grieg in Christiania, however, did not receive due public recognition. He had wonderful allies in his fiery patriotic struggle for democratic national art - first of all, the composer Swensen and the writer Bjornson (he was associated with the latter for many years of friendship), but also many enemies - inert zealots of the old, who darkened his years of stay in Christiania with their intrigues. Therefore, the friendly help that Liszt gave him was especially imprinted in Grieg's memory.

Liszt, having taken the rank of abbot, lived during these years in Rome. He did not personally know Grieg, but at the end of 1868, having familiarized himself with his First Violin Sonata, struck by the freshness of the music, he sent an enthusiastic letter to the author. This letter played a big role in Grieg's biography: Liszt's moral support strengthened his ideological and artistic position. In 1870, they met in person. A noble and generous friend of everything talented in modern music, who especially warmly supported those who identified national beginning in creativity, Liszt warmly accepted Grieg's recently completed piano concerto. He told him: "Keep going, you have all the data for this, and - do not let yourself be intimidated! ..".

Telling his family about the meeting with Liszt, Grieg added: “These words are of infinite importance to me. It's kind of like a blessing. And more than once, in moments of disappointment and bitterness, I will remember his words, and the memories of this hour will support me with magical power in the days of trials.

Grieg went to Italy on the state scholarship he received. A few years later, together with Swensen, he received a lifetime pension from the state, which freed him from the need to have a permanent job. In 1873, Grieg left Christiania, and the following year settled in his native Bergen. The next, last, long period of his life begins, marked by great creative successes, public recognition at home and abroad. This period opens with the creation of music for Ibsen's play "Peer Gynt" (1874-1875). It was this music that made the name of Grieg famous in Europe. Along with the music for Peer Gynt, a sharply dramatic piano ballad op. 24, string quartet op. 27, suite "From the time of Holberg" op. 40, a series of notebooks of piano pieces and vocal lyrics, where the composer increasingly turns to the texts of Norwegian poets, and other works. Grieg's music is gaining great popularity, penetrating the concert stage and home life; his works are published by one of the most reputable German publishing houses, the number of concert trips is multiplying. In recognition of his artistic merits, Grieg was elected a member of a number of academies: Swedish in 1872, Leiden (in Holland) in 1883, French in 1890, and together with Tchaikovsky in 1893 - a doctor of Cambridge University.

Over time, Grieg increasingly eschews the noisy life of the capital. In connection with the tour, he has to visit Berlin, Vienna, Paris, London, Prague, Warsaw, while in Norway he lives in solitude, mainly outside the city (first in Lufthus, then near Bergen on his estate, called Troldhaugen, that is, "Hill of the Trolls"); devotes most of his time to creativity. And yet, Grieg does not give up musical and social work. So, during the years 1880-1882, he led the Harmony concert society in Bergen, and in 1898 he also held the first Norwegian music festival (of six concerts) there. But over the years, this had to be abandoned: his health deteriorated, pulmonary diseases became more frequent. Grieg died on September 4, 1907. His death was commemorated in Norway as national mourning.

A feeling of deep sympathy evokes the appearance of Edvard Grieg - an artist and a person. Responsive and gentle in dealing with people, in his work he was distinguished by honesty and integrity, and, not taking a direct part in the political life of the country, he always acted as a convinced democrat. The interests of his native people were above all for him. That is why, in the years when tendencies appeared abroad, touched by decadent influence, Grieg acted as one of the largest realistic artists. “I am opposed to all kinds of “isms,” he said, arguing with the Wagnerians.

In his few articles, Grieg expresses many well-aimed aesthetic judgments. He bows before the genius of Mozart, but at the same time believes that when he met Wagner, “this universal genius, whose soul has always remained alien to any philistinism, would have been delighted as a child at all new conquests in the field of drama and orchestra.” J.S. Bach for him is the "cornerstone" of contemporary art. In Schumann, he appreciates above all the "warm, deeply heartfelt tone" of the music. And Grieg considers himself to be a member of the Schumannian school. A penchant for melancholy and daydreaming makes him related to German music. “However, we love clarity and brevity more,” says Grieg, “even our colloquial speech is clear and precise. We strive to achieve this clarity and precision in our art." He finds many warm words for Brahms, and begins his article in memory of Verdi with the words: "The last great one has left ...".

Exceptionally cordial relations connected Grieg with Tchaikovsky. Their personal acquaintance took place in 1888 and turned into a feeling of deep affection, explained, in the words of Tchaikovsky, "by the undoubted inner relationship of two musical natures." “I am proud that I have earned your friendship,” he wrote to Grieg. And he, in turn, dreamed of another meeting "wherever it was: in Russia, Norway or somewhere else!" Tchaikovsky expressed his feelings of respect for Grieg by dedicating the overture-fantasy Hamlet to him. He gave a remarkable description of Grieg's work in his Autobiographical Description of a Journey Abroad in 1888.

“In his music, imbued with enchanting melancholy, reflecting the beauties of Norwegian nature, sometimes majestically wide and grandiose, sometimes gray, modest, wretched, but always incredibly charming for the soul of a northerner, there is something close to us, dear, immediately found in our the heart is a hot, sympathetic response ... How much warmth and passion in his melodious phrases, - Tchaikovsky wrote further, - how much the key of beating life in his harmony, how much originality and charming originality in his witty, piquant modulations and in rhythm, like everything else , always interesting, new, original! If we add to all these rare qualities complete simplicity, alien to any sophistication and pretensions ... then it is not surprising that everyone loves Grieg, that he is popular everywhere! ..».

M. Druskin

Compositions:

Piano works
only about 150
Many Little Pieces (op. 1, published 1862); 70 is contained in 10 Lyric Notebooks (published from the 1870s to 1901)
Major works include:
Sonata e-moll op. 7 (1865)
Ballad in the form of variations op. 24 (1875)

For piano four hands
Symphonic Pieces op. 14
Norwegian dances op. 35
Waltzes-Caprices (2 pieces) op. 37
Old Norse Romance with Variations op. 50 (there is an orchestral edition)
4 Mozart sonatas for 2 pianos 4 hands (F-dur, c-moll, C-dur, G-dur)

Songs and romances
total - with posthumously published - over 140

Chamber instrumental works
First Violin Sonata in F-dur op. 8 (1866)
Second Violin Sonata G-dur op. 13 (1871)
Third violin sonata in c-moll, op. 45 (1886)
Cello sonata a-moll op. 36 (1883)
String quartet g-moll op. 27 (1877-1878)

Symphonic works
"In Autumn", overture op. 11 (1865-1866)
Piano Concerto a-moll op. 16 (1868)
2 elegiac melodies (based on own songs) for string orchestra, op. 34
"From the time of Holberg", suite (5 pieces) for string orchestra, op. 40 (1884)
2 suites (total 9 pieces) from music to G. Ibsen's play "Peer Gynt" op. 46 and 55 (late 80s)
2 melodies (based on own songs) for string orchestra, op. 53
3 orchestral pieces from "Sigurd Iorsalfar" op. 56 (1892)
2 Norwegian melodies for string orchestra, op. 63
Symphonic dances to Norwegian motifs, op. 64

Vocal and symphonic works
theater music
"At the gates of the monastery" for female voices - solo and choir - and orchestra, op. 20 (1870)
"Homecoming" for male voices - solo and choir - and orchestra, op. 31 (1872, 2nd edition - 1881)
Lonely for baritone, string orchestra and two horns op. 32 (1878)
Music for Ibsen's Peer Gynt, op. 23 (1874-1875) Recordings