Edvard Grieg's 180 songs mirror his artistic and personal development more intimately than any of his other music, yet are still the least known part of his output. This definitive appraisal, now revised and updated, discusses every song, including those left only in manuscript and sketches at the composer's death, set against the background of his life and times. It also deals with the poetry set, often chosen to reflect his current situation, and the poets, several of whom, including great figures of the day such as Ibsen and Bjornson, were his friends and colleagues. Grieg frequently...

Edvard Grieg s choral music has remained little known outside Scandinavia. One of the chief aims of this book is to bring this body of work to the notice of a wider audience, in the hope that it may receive greater prominence in concert programmes. Choral pieces form a relatively small proportion of Grieg s total output, although works such as the Album for Male Voices and the Four Psalms represent significant developments in his compositional career. In this study Beryl Foster not only provides an in-depth examination of this music, but also presents a picture of Norwegian musical life in...