Grade 3, Unit 4, Lesson 5
If you had to compose music that sounded like the United
States, what music would you include? Would you make it
sound like the "Star-Spangled Banner"? Or, would it sound
like pop music from the radio? It wouldn't be very easy,
would it?
This is exactly what Edvard Grieg tried to do for his
own country: Norway. Grieg was born in Bergen, Norway
in 1843 and died in 1907. As a young child, he took piano
lessons from his mother. He began composing when he was
nine years old. Because he loved music so much, he went
to school to study music all the time when he was fifteen.
For a while, Grieg composed music that sounded like music
from other countries in Europe. Then Grieg decided to
start composing music that sounded like his own country.
He listened to the folk songs people sang and played.
He traveled around Norway and talked to musicians. Once
he knew many folk songs, he put folk melodies into his
compositions. The "Norwegian Dance" is one example of
this.
Grieg was a composer during the Romantic time. Sometimes
Romantic composers tried to make their music sound like
a picture. His piece called "The Hall of the Mountain
King" is about a journey a person named Peer Gynt takes
to an underground kingdom where trolls live and work for
an evil king. In this piece, you can hear the hammers
of the workers as they pound away. The tempo even speeds
up when Peer Gynt tries to escape!
To learn more about Edvard Grieg and to hear examples
of his music, click
here.
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