Look no further than the Lyric Pieces to discover the inner ‘composing hut’ of Edvard Grieg. Matthew Mills explores their history and offers practice tips for the three scores featured inside this issue
REPERTOIRE
Starting with a modest collection, originally written in the 1860s as teaching pieces for his own use, Grieg’s Lyric Pieces eventually grew to ten sets. After an initial 18-year gap between Op 12 and Op 38, Grieg completed a volume every two or three years until 1901; then deliberately closed the cycle with a final piece (‘Remembrances’ Op 71 No 7) based on the very first (‘Arietta’ Op 12 No 1).
Some of the Lyric Pieces capture a mood, while others paint a picture, as the movements featured in this issue exemplify. ‘Little Bird’ Op 43 No 4 is a vivid and characterful depiction of its eponymous feathered hero going about his business, while ‘To Spring’ Op 43 No 6, is a warm, radiant evocation of the freshness and optimism brought on by the natural world reawakening after a long, cold winter. It’s easy to imagine Grieg in his little composing hut in his newly-built Troldhaugen home, watching the changing of the seasons, and drawing comfort and inspiration, as we all do, from the cycles of the natural world all around him. Given how closely we associate Grieg with images of the dramatic beauty of the Norwegian landscape, it is surprising that only seven of the 66 Lyric Pieces have nature inspired titles – and three of these are found in Opus 43, which Grieg originally titled Frühlingslieder (Songs of Spring).
In 1887, the year Opus 43 was published, the Norwegian government awarded Grieg the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olav, usually reserved for royalty and foreign heads of state, in recognition of his promotion of Norwegian music internationally. Perhaps Grieg contributes as much to our image of Norwegianness as Norwegian culture contributed to his musical thought and vocabulary. But in any case, he unquestionably assimilated aspects of Norwegian folk music so thoroughly – just as Béla Bartók did with Eastern European music – that it is impossible to extricate the country from the man, or vice versa. Nine Lyric Pieces are explicitly named after folk songs or dances, a further four after creatures from folklore, and six explore the arch-Romantic idea of homeland, travel, and homesickness. It is ironic, then, that in the 1860s the Danish composer Niels Gade encouraged Grieg to make his music ‘less Norwegian’!
1 Halling Op 47 No 4
A halling is a fast, duple-time dance usuall
