Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the revised edition
- Abbreviations
- 1 Folk-song to Art-song
- 2 Translation and Interpretation
- 3 ‘Lillegrieg’
- 4 ‘Melodies of the Heart’
- 5 ‘A balanced mind, a spiritual vitality …’
- 6 ‘The claim of the ideal’
- 7 ‘… Awakened from a long, long trance’
- 8 ‘The Mountain Thrall’
- 9 ‘The Goal’
- 10 Travels and ‘Travel Memories’
- 11 ‘Homecoming’
- 12 Haugtussa
- 13 ‘Music's torch, which ever burns …’
- Appendix A Songs by opus number or EG number
- Appendix B Songs in chronological order of composition
- Appendix C Personalia
- Appendix D Norwegian folk-song: musical forms and instruments
- Select bibliography
- General index
- Index of songs
13 - ‘Music's torch, which ever burns …’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 March 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the revised edition
- Abbreviations
- 1 Folk-song to Art-song
- 2 Translation and Interpretation
- 3 ‘Lillegrieg’
- 4 ‘Melodies of the Heart’
- 5 ‘A balanced mind, a spiritual vitality …’
- 6 ‘The claim of the ideal’
- 7 ‘… Awakened from a long, long trance’
- 8 ‘The Mountain Thrall’
- 9 ‘The Goal’
- 10 Travels and ‘Travel Memories’
- 11 ‘Homecoming’
- 12 Haugtussa
- 13 ‘Music's torch, which ever burns …’
- Appendix A Songs by opus number or EG number
- Appendix B Songs in chronological order of composition
- Appendix C Personalia
- Appendix D Norwegian folk-song: musical forms and instruments
- Select bibliography
- General index
- Index of songs
Summary
Whether it was because he realized the true worth of the cycle or because after Garborg it was difficult to find any comparable verse in Norway, Grieg set only one more Norwegian poem after Haugtussa, and his last two sets of songs are to Danish texts. Between 1895, when the Haugtussa songs were begun, and 1900, when the next albums appeared, almost all his original music was for piano. There is a setting of Jonas Lie's Nu Pinsens klokker ringer (Now Whitsun's Bells are Ringing), written in March 1896 under the title Kristianiensernes Sangerhilsen (The Christiania People's Choral Greeting), for male-voice choir with a baritone solo, conceived for ‘a not unknown Norwegian Norseman who calls himself Thorvald Lammers’.
The one Norwegian song Grieg did write is Blåbæret (The Blueberry), EG 145, the manuscript headed ‘Troldhaugen 23/8/96’. It sets a short poem intended as a children's song by the Bergen writer and composer Didrik Gronvold (1855–1928). From Satersdal he wrote to Grieg, enclosing the verses: ‘On seeing the millions of blueberries … along the paths, I came to put [the poem] together. If there should be any musical-lyrical moments in it … then it might perhaps serve to bring a little love of the blueberry to our children across the country, especially if you will put one of your wonderful melodies to it.’Grieg, however, was not inspired to any great melodic heights. The poem is about a small boy who, his heart full of resentment, is walking in the farmyard, until his mood is lightened by the blueberry, which promises him solace and refreshment. It is a little reminiscent of Tytebæret (op. 33/4), although lacking Vinje's style, and of Vesle Gut, while the folksong-like strophic setting also reminds one of Langelandsk Folkemelodi (op. 15/3), not least in the monotonous rhythm of the accompaniment. There are occasional glimpses of interest, however, in the sequential phrases towards the end of each strophe.
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- The Songs of Edvard Grieg , pp. 209 - 224Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2007