“Veslemøy’s Song,” for Violin and String Orchestra

Composer: HALVORSEN, Johan
  • Pronunciation of Veslemøy
  • Halvorsen composed this piece in 1898,1 and it premiered in 1899 at a farewell concert for Halvorsen by the symphony orchestra he directed in Bergen.2 (He was moving to direct music at Norway’s new national theatre in Christiania.)3
  • The piece was inspired by Haugtussa, a cycle of poems by Norwegian novelist, poet and playwright Arne Garborg (1851-1924).4
    • One English title for Haugtussa (1895) is “Woman of the Underground People.”5 The character Veslemøy is a young girl who can communicate with the supernatural world.6
    • Edvard Grieg also set portions of Garborg’s Haugtussa cycle in his song cycle Haugtussa Op.67, “The Mountain Maid.”7

Sources

  1. Øyvin Dybsand, “Halvorsen, Johan,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed October 17, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000012262.
  2. Øyvin Dybsand, liner notes to Johan Halvorsen: Orchestral Works Vol. 2, Marianne Thorsen, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Neeme Järvi, Chandos 10614, CD, 2010.
  3. Dybsand, “Halvorsen, Johan,” Grove Music Online.
  4. Dybsand, liner notes to Johan Halvorsen: Orchestral Works Vol. 2.
  5. “Arne Evensen Garborg,” Encyclopædia Brittanica (January 21, 2019), accessed October 17, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arne-Evensen-Garborg.
  6. Cheryl Christensen, “Grieg in the ‘World of Unborn Music:’ Edvard Grieg’s Creative Journey Through Language in Haugtussa, Op. 67,” The Grieg Society (August 2015), accessed October 17, 2019, http://griegsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Paper-Cheryl-Christensen-2015_text1.pdf.
  7. “Haugtussa, Op.67 (Grieg, Edvard),” IMSLP, accessed October 17, 2019, https://imslp.org/wiki/Haugtussa%2C_Op.67_(Grieg%2C_Edvard).

Cut IDs

14841