Lyric Pieces, Op. 65, No. 6: “Wedding Day at Troldhaugen”

Composer: GRIEG, Edvard
  • Composed in 1896, “Wedding Day at Troldhaugen” is the sixth and final movement from Grieg’s Lyric Pieces, Op. 65.
    • Grieg wrote ten books of Lyric Pieces throughout his career. Op. 65 is Book 8.1
  • Troldhaugen [pronunciation] is the name of the house Edvard and his wife, singer Nina Grieg, built in Bergen, Norway. They moved there in 1885.2
    • The house and estate are now a museum and concert hall, and you can visit!
    • Troldhaugen means “Troll Hill.”3 Nina Grieg came up with the name because the locals called the nearby ravine “Troll Valley.”4
  • Grieg composed this piece to commemorate his and Nina’s silver wedding anniversary party at Troldhaugen. The piece’s original title was “The Well-Wishers Are Coming.”5
  • Grieg’s ashes are inurned in a memorial hewn in rock in view of the fjord at Troldhaugen.6
  • Fun fact: When Grieg was away from Troldhaugen (or just from his composing space in Troldhaugen’s garden hut), he left the following note on his desk, often addressed “Dear Thieves …”7
    • “If anyone should break in here, please leave the musical scores, since they have no value to anyone except Edvard Grieg.”8

Sources

  1. John Horton and Nils Grinde, “Grieg, Edvard,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed October 16, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000011757.
  2. “Edvard Grieg,” Encyclopædia Brittanica (August 21, 2019), accessed October 16, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edvard-Grieg.
  3. Daniel M. Grimley, Grieg: Music, Landscape and Norwegian Identity (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 2006), 1.
  4. Robert E. Dallos, “Finding a Window into the Home of Norway’s Beloved Edvard Grieg,” Los Angeles Times Feb. 11, 1990, accessed October 16, 2019, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-02-11-tr-672-story.html.
  5. Beryl Foster, The Songs of Edvard Grieg (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 2007), 166.
  6. Horton and Grinde, “Grieg, Edvard,” Grove Music Online.
  7. Dallos, “Finding a Window into the Home of Norway’s Beloved Edvard Grieg,” Los Angeles Times.
  8. “Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen,” Kode Art Museums and Composer Homes, accessed October 16, 2019, http://griegmuseum.no/en/about-troldhaugen.

Cut IDs

43609 48915 18626 21201 25097