GRIEG, EDVARD Norwegian composer, was born on June 15, 1843, in Bergen, where his father, Alexander Grieg, was English consul. The Grieg (formerly Greig) family were of Scottish origin, the composer's grandfather having emigrated after Culloden. His mother, Gesine Hagerup, belonged however to a pure Norwegian peasant family; and it is from her that Grieg appears to have derived his musical talent. She began to give her son lessons on the pianoforte when he was six and his first composition, "Variations on a German melody," was written at the age of nine. In the autumn of 1858, at the recommendation of Ole Bull (q.v.), young Grieg entered the Leipzig Conservato rium, where he came under the influence of the Mendelssohn and Schumann romantic school. From Leipzig he went, in 1863, to Copenhagen where he studied for a short time with Niels Gade and Emil Hartmann, both composers representing a sentimental strain of Scandinavian temperament, from which Grieg emanci pated himself in favour of the harder inspiration of Richard Nord raak. "The scales fell from my eyes," said Grieg afterward of his acquaintance with Nordraak. "For the first time I learned through him to know the northern folk tunes and my own nature. We made a pact to combat the effeminate Gade-Mendelssohn mix ture of Scandinavianism, and boldly entered upon the new path along which the northern school at present pursues its course." A kind of crusade in favour of Norwegian national music resulted, and in the winter of 1864-1865 Grieg founded the Copenhagen concert-society Euterpe for the production of the works of young Norwegian composers. During the winters of 1865-1866 and 1869-1870 Grieg was in Rome where he met Liszt, who played his piano concerto at sight from the ms. and gave it his enthusiastic approbation. In the autumn of 1866 he settled in Christiania. In 1872 the Royal Musical Academy of Sweden made him a member; in 1874 the Norwegian Storthing granted him an annual stipend of 1,600 kronen. In 1888 he played his pianoforte concerto and con ducted his "two melodies for strings" at a Philharmonic concert in London, and visited England again in 1891, 1894 and 1896. He died at Bergen on Sept. 4, 1907.
As a composer Grieg's strength lies in his strong nationalistic colouring, in his exquisite lyrical feeling and in his command of the picturesque and romantic, as exemplified in his lovely and world famous music to Ibsen's Peer Gynt, or in the suite for stringed orchestra, Aus Holbergs Zeit, and hardly less so in the equally beautiful and well-known piano concerto. As regards his songs they may be said to be generally the more spontaneous the more closely they conform to the simple model of the Volkslied. Yet the much sung Ic/i liebe dich is a song of a different kind, which has hardly ever been surpassed for the perfection with which it depicts a strong momentary emotion ; while such other familiar examples as Solvejg's Lied and Ein Schwann are equally beautiful and char acteristic. Billow called Grieg the "Chopin of the North," and the phrase may pass though the range of appeal and the quality of the inspiration in Chopin are of course far greater; nor has the national movement inaugurated by Grieg shown promise of great development. He may be regarded rather as the pioneer of a musical mission which was perfectly carried out by himself alone.
See La Mara, Edvard Grieg (Leipzig, 1898) ; Henry T. Finck, Edvard Grieg (1906) and Grieg and his Music (19i 9) ; R. H. Stein, Grieg (1921).