## The Project Gutenberg eBook of Edvard Grieg : The Story of the Boy Who Made Music in the Land of the Midnight Sun

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Title: Edvard Grieg : The Story of the Boy Who Made Music in the Land of the Midnight Sun

Author: Thomas Tapper

Release date: January 28, 2011 [eBook #35097]
Most recently updated: January 7, 2021

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35097

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDVARD GRIEG : THE STORY OF THE BOY WHO MADE MUSIC IN THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN ***

Directions for Binding

Enclosed in this envelope is the cord and the needle with which to bind this book. Start in from the outside as shown on the diagram here. Pass the needle and thread through the center of the book, leaving an end extend outside, then through to the outside, about 2 inches from the center; then from the outside to inside 2 inches from the center at the other end of the book, bringing the thread finally again through the center, and tie the two ends in a knot, one each side of the cord on the outside.

THEO. PRESSER CO., Pub's., Phila., Pa.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

This book is one of a series known as the CHILD'S OWN BOOK OF GREAT MUSICIANS, written by Thomas Tapper, author of "Pictures from the Lives of the Great Composers for Children," "Music Talks with Children," "First Studies in Music Biography," and others.

The sheet of illustrations included herewith is to be cut apart by the child, and each illustration is to be inserted in its proper place throughout the book, pasted in the space containing the same number as will be found under each picture on the sheet. It is not necessary to cover the entire back of a picture with paste. Put it only on the corners and place neatly within the lines you will find printed around each space. Use photographic paste, if possible.

After this play-work is completed there will be found at the back of the book blank pages upon which the child is to write his own story of the great musician, based upon the facts and questions found on the previous pages.

The book is then to be sewed by the child through the center with the cord found in the enclosed envelope. The book thus becomes the child's own book.

This series will be found not only to furnish a pleasing and interesting task for the children, but will teach them the main facts with regard to the life of each of the great musicians—an educational feature worth while.

This series of the Child's Own Book of Great Musicians includes at present a book on each of the following:

Bach | Grieg | Mozart
Beethoven | Handel | Nevin
Brahms | Haydn | Schubert
Chopin | Liszt | Schumann
Dvořák | MacDowell | Tschaikowsky
Foster | Mendelssohn | Verdi
|  | Wagner

EDVARD GRIEG

The Story of the Boy Who
Made Music in the Land
of the Midnight Sun

This Book was made by

Philadelphia
Theodore Presser Co.
1712 Chestnut Str.

Copyright, 1921, by Theo. Presser Co.
British Copyright Secured
Printed in U. S. A.

NAME

BORN

DIED

The Story of the Boy Who Made Music
in the Land of the Midnight Sun

This is the picture of a boy who was born in the north of the world. He loved his mother country and the music which the people sang.

But he had music, all his own, that sang and sang in his heart. It was happy music and sad; solemn and joyous. You will hear it some day and love it all.

Even when this little boy was in the primary school the music knocked at his heart's door as if it would say:

"Let me out into the world so that people may hear me."

GRIEG AS A BOY

When he was twelve years old he started out one morning as usual, but instead of taking his school books he took with him his music writing book which contained what he termed "Variation on a German Melody Op. 1."

FROM THE NORWEGIAN BRIDAL PROCESSION Listen

Can you not imagine how proud he must have been of his Op. 1?

GRIEG'S SIGNATURE

His schoolmates were very proud to see the music of their companion Edvard. But alas! While they were looking at it and talking about it, whom do you think came creeping up behind them?

Why, the schoolmaster, to be sure.

He gave little Edvard a rough shaking up and told him how severely he would be punished if ever again he brought such nonsense to school.

Poor old schoolmaster! He did not know what Edvard Grieg would one day mean to the land and people of Norway. For Edvard loved not only the music that kept singing in him, but he loved Norway and all its people. Do you think any one could help loving such mountains as these?

NORWEGIAN MOUNTAIN SCENE

But all the grown up folks of Edvard's world did not call his music rubbish. His mother loved music and played beautifully. It was from her that Edvard had his first lessons, just as Mendelssohn was first taught by his mother.

Then one day something wonderful happened. A great violinist, Ole Bull by name, visited the Grieg family in the country. He was so kind to the little composer that the boy just loved him.

OLE BULL

Ole Bull had traveled the world over playing the violin. He looked over Edvard's compositions and made the boy play them to him. You can see him nodding his head in pleasure as he listens. His fine eyes are lighted up. He tells the boy composer that his music is quite good, but that there is a lot for him to learn yet. So he must study earnestly and make many sacrifices.

Then Ole Bull sits down and talks with Father and Mother Grieg. It is a serious talk, as one can see. Finally, when the talk is finished, Ole Bull takes the wondering boy by the hand and says to him:

"You are going to Leipzig to study and become a fine musician."

So Edvard Grieg left his home city, Bergen, its mountains, its fjords, its people, his father and mother, and traveled south through Norway, across the water and into Germany. No doubt he was a lonesome boy. Life had become serious all at once and there was much to be done.

BERGEN FJORD

It was all strange and new. Instead of hills and the waters of the fjords, there were tall, dark houses, gloomy streets, and such a lot of hurrying people.

SCENE IN LEIPZIG

But he soon grew used to it all and was busy as could be with lessons in piano and harmony. Just as in the earlier days in school, so in Leipzig, Edvard wrote music as it sounded in his heart. In the harmony lessons he could not make himself write plain chords to the bass which was given him as an exercise. He wrote the light, airy, lovely, fanciful tunes and rhythms that were singing within him. And just like the schoolmaster at home, the harmony teacher shouted at him, saying:

"No, that is all wrong!"

His harmony teacher was E. F. Richter.

E. F. RICHTER

But you remember that Ole Bull understood the boy's music. While here in Leipzig there were many who understood it too.

Bit by bit Edvard made friends who loved to listen to his pieces. One of them was Niels Gade, a fine musician in Denmark, who was a friend of Schumann's, who one time, wrote a Northern Song on the letters on Gade's name. It begins like this:

GADE'S MUSICAL NAME Listen

And Edvard too once wrote a fugue on the letters G-A-D-E.

So inspiring was his music study that Edvard worked very hard. He composed a great deal of music which slowly made friends for him. Robert Schumann was one who spoke kindly of the young Norwegian and his music. And so he grew and improved. Because he was true to his talent, he made many friends not only in Leipzig but throughout Europe, as we shall see.

R. SCHUMANN

You will learn some day the names of many of the people who became friends of Grieg. There were Rikard Nordraak, and later on Franz Liszt. Grieg became one of the group of great Norwegian artists in which Henrik Ibsen and Bjornstjerne Bjornson were prominent. Indeed, Grieg wrote the music to Ibsen's Peer Gynt. One of the great pleasures of Grieg's life was Bjornson's Patriotic Poem to his own music.

NORDRAAK
LISZT
IBSEN
BJORNSON

One day Grieg showed Gade a composition called In Autumn which Gade did not like. "It is too Norwegian," he said. This pleased Grieg, although Gade told him to go home and write something better. He was nearly as rough as Grieg's schoolmaster.

But one day later a prize was offered in Sweden for an orchestral composition. Grieg's In Autumn won the prize. And Gade was one of the judges. We wonder if he forgot about it!

GADE

Grieg married his cousin Mina Hagerup, to whom he dedicated his famous song: I Love Thee. But the mother of his bride did not think highly of him.

"He is a nobody," she said, "who writes music that no one cares to listen to."

GRIEG AND HIS WIFE

But people were beginning to listen. After a concert in Christiania, entirely of Norwegian music, the Government gave Grieg a small pension and he went to Rome.

Here he had a fine meeting with Liszt who asked Grieg to play. Then Liszt took Grieg's manuscript and played it at sight, to his great delight.

When Grieg bade good-bye to Liszt the famous pianist said to him:

"Keep on, you have talent and ability. Do not let any one discourage or frighten you."

So sensitive was Grieg about music writing that he never allowed any one to watch him. So he had a little house built in the mountains where he could work at his leisure. This he called his "tune house." There was only one room and it was for all the world like a little play house that children have. In it was his piano and often when he was playing, the Norwegian peasants used to group themselves outside the door, sometimes joining in the singing, and then again dancing to their delightful folktunes and dances.

TUNE HOUSE

Here are some pictures of Grieg as he looked in later years.

GRIEG IN LATER YEARS
GRIEG IN LATER YEARS

As a boy in Leipzig he worked too hard and sickness made it necessary for him to return home. From this sickness he never fully recovered. All his life he was frail and unable to endure severe tasks.

In appearance Grieg was short and rather bent in figure. His hands were thin, but fine and strong for the piano, although one of them had been crushed in an accident. His eyes were deep blue. They looked straight at you and were full of life and kindness.

Grieg was merry of nature; a lovely companion, full of fun and company. Sometimes, however, he was sad and melancholy like his own music.

GRIEG PERCY GRAINGER MRS. GRIEG RONTGEN

Some day you will learn the names of many of his compositions. And among them you will love such pieces as The Birds, In Spring Time, Arietta, the Peer Gynt Music, the Piano Sonata, the Piano and Violin Sonata, and lots of lively Norwegian dances and tunes. Indeed, he has composed many compositions which you will number among your favorite pieces.

Three great names stand out more than all others in the musical history of Scandinavia. You have learned two, Edvard Grieg and Ole Bull. The other is Jenny Lind, known as "the Swedish nightingale," who was loved not only for her wonderful voice but for her kindness and noble nature. She was born at Stockholm in 1820 and died in England in 1887. In Sweden to this day Jennie Lind is a great national personage. The people look upon her as we would on Washington, Irving, Lincoln or Longfellow. She was very beautiful.

Here is her picture.

JENNIE LIND

SOME FACTS ABOUT EDVARD GRIEG

When you have read this page and the next make a story about Grieg's life. Write it in your own words. When you are quite sure you cannot improve it, copy it on pages 15 and 16.

1. Grieg was born June 15, 1843, near Bergen, Norway.

2. His father's ancestors were Scotch folk who went to Norway after the Battle of Culloden, in 1745.

3. It was Grieg's mother who gave him his first lessons.

4. One of his best friends—and one who did much for him—was Ole Bull, the great violinist.

5. Grieg studied at the Leipzig Conservatory.

6. His teachers were Moscheles, Hauptmann (who liked his music), Richter, and Papperitz.

7. Sir Arthur Sullivan, who composed the opera, Pinafore, was one of Grieg's fellow students at Leipzig. Dudley Buck, the American composer, was there at the same time.

8. Among Grieg's friends were Gade, Nordraak, Ibsen, Bjornson and Svendsen.

9. He married his cousin, Mina Hagerup, who was a fine singer.

10. Grieg composed for the piano, voice, violin, and for the orchestra.

11. Grieg wrote music to Ibsen's Peer Gynt, at the poet's request.

12. The Norwegian Government granted Grieg a pension, so that he could be free to devote himself to composition.

13. He died September 3, 1907.

SOME QUESTIONS TO ANSWER

1. When and where was Grieg born?

2. Name some famous men of his country.

3. Who was his first teacher?

4. Through whose advice did he go to the Conservatory at Leipzig?

5. What Danish composer gave Grieg good advice about his compositions?

6. Who were some of Grieg's teachers?

7. What composition by Grieg was given first prize in the contest in Sweden?

8. What famous song did Grieg dedicate to Mina Hagerup?

9. Tell about Grieg's visit to Liszt in Rome.

10. Name as many of his compositions as you can. How many have you heard?

11. Tell what you know about Grieg's personal appearance.

12. When did Grieg die? How old was he?

13. Who was Jenny Lind?

THE STORY OF EDVARD GRIEG

Written by.............................

On (date).............................

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