I am headed to Norway in just a few weeks for an artist residency at The Arctic Hideaway with a focus on Grieg, his music, and his letters. I’ve been mostly focused on the lyric pieces over his larger works because I think the lyrical pieces give a broader taste of how Grieg changed over his life, and indeed my recital begins with Arietta and ends with Remembrances with the bookends of the Lyrical Pieces. The lyrical pieces are often overlooked because they are both a large body of work and not complex.
However, these pieces were hugely influential in Paris, where both Grieg and his best friend, Frederick Delius (an English Composer) spent most of their time. The French Impressionists had mixed reactions to Grieg, as only the French could.
Grieg’s first foray out of the Norwegian music scene was the favorite socialite Liszt, who at the time was living in an old monastery in Rome. For Grieg, whose music was mostly contained to Norway, and its national identity, this was his chance to expand into the national stage. Liszt listened to his violin sonata, but then asked him to perform some piano music, which Grieg reluctantly acquiesced to playing Humoresques Op. 6.
Grieg writes: "When I had played the first eight measures and repeated them, he sang the melody with a certain heroic expression of power in his gesture, which I readily understood. I noted, of course, that it was the national peculiarities that appealed to him”
This being its close resemblance to Norwegian Folk Music.
The ending of this meeting (and letter) is quite famous as Grieg writes: “he handed me the manuscript and said in a cordial tone, ‘Fahren Sie fort; ich sage Ihnen, Sie haben das Zeug dazu, und—lassen Sie nicht abschrecken’ (Keep steadily on; I tell you, you have the capability, or the capacity, for it, and—do not let them intimidate you) .”
Perhaps Liszt knew the French much better than Grieg because he got into a few spats with other famous composers of his era. The most notable one was Debussy, whose music was incredibly close (perhaps too close) to Grieg’s and must have been directly influenced by it.
You can see this in these two famous pieces side by side:
With Grieg’s work being published in 1891 and Debussy’s work being published in 1910.
The most famous Debussy/Grieg relationship being between the String Quartets
Dr. Gerald Abraham writes: “There is no obvious Griegishness in the Debussy Quartet, but the most casual study of the parallels....shows that the one was modeled to some extent on the other, or at least that it was written with the other in the composer's conscious or subconscious mind......Not only are both quartets evolved almost entirely from a motto theme: but both motto themes begin with the same four notes”
However, Debussy famously wrote incredibly French hit pieces against Grieg during both of their lifetimes. The most quoted one is regarding his Elegiac Melodies: "One has in the mouth the bizarre and delightful taste of a pink bonbon that could be filled with snow.” In the particularly French way of something that is too entirely sweet and of no substance.
Debussy was a born hater, because later on he also wrote about Op 60
‘From in front he looks like a genial photographer; from behind his way of doing his hair makes him look like the plants called sunflowers, dear to parrots and the gardens that decorate small country stations. Grieg may be an exquisite composer when he interprets the folk music of his country, but apart from this he is no more than a clever musician, only concerned with effects rather than with genuine art.’
‘It is a pity that Grieg’s visit to Paris has taught us nothing new about his art; but he is an exquisite musician when he interprets folk music of his country, although far from equally Balakirev and Rimsky-Korasakov in the use they made of Russian folk music. Apart from this, he is no more than a clever musician more concerned with effects and general art”
Grieg was most wounded by Debussy’s criticisms of him and writes: “The main point is and must be the vitriolic and disrespectful tone he employs. A true artist should always aspire to a high intellectual level and show respect for the standpoints of other serious artists and people."
Most French composers at the time, save for Faure, had turned on Grieg due to the Dreyfus affair (where he sided with a wrongfully accused Jewish Military Captain who was the victim of an anti-semite smear campaign). Despite Captain Alfred Dreyfus receiving a presidential pardon, the stain remained and the works that were celebrated in 1899, were booed in 1903. (Debussy also writes about this as if it was his music that was causing the drama, not the residual hurt national pride from the Dreyfus affair).
Debussy also was not a big fan of Faure and wrote that he was: “a music-stand of a group of snobs and fools” and also, despite being often grouped with Ravel, he hated him, writing: “like a charmer fakir having flowers to grow around a seat.”
Debussy was also a proud hater, and many other French composers would write that all Debussy did was rag on Grieg. Charles Koechlin writes that his first recollection of Debussy at nineteen was at a dinner during which “I listened to him pronouncing severe judgment on Grieg, then at the height of his celebrity”
Grieg did not return to Paris after that but instead stayed in London or Norway with Grainger and Delius. (Delius being his best friend and biggest fan, claiming that French Impressionist music was “simply Grieg, plus the third act of Tristan”)
Grieg still admired Debussy’s work from afar, and even directly after the hit piece Debussy published on Grieg, still wished to perform his works. “But of course there again I acknowledge the earnestness, and genuineness of his outlook. And it is this earnestness, which he denies, wrongly, to my musical outlook, that attracts me towards him, because it is my own ideal”
I find it ironic that national identity is at the core of the feud between Debussy and Grieg, with both composers owing so much to their respective countries. Grieg’s strong ideals actually aligned and celebrated the French Revolution, which echoed in Norwegian politics at the time. It was these nationalistic ideals that were translated into their respective music, and what eventually drew Debussy back to perform Grieg’s music a decade later.
“There were children’s songs - most amusing - and Norwegian dances in which one noticed something of the striking melancholy of Edvard Grieg. Then by Grieg himself, “Voyez Jean”, perhaps rather more instrumental than vocal, but all the same it won us over by its use of the men’s voice alone. This music has the icy coldness of the Norwegian lakes, the transient ardor of her sharp and hurried spring”
This was the last review that Debussy wrote, which is ironic, because the last words Grieg heard from Debussy were virtolic, and the last words that Debussy published were on Grieg himself.
Despite Debussy’s 180 on Grieg, we still carry Debussy’s words into our analysis of Grieg today as being “trite” and “too sweet” and he often does not make it into the Classical Music Canon. Despite this, we see that Debussy and Grieg had a close musical relationship regardless of their national identity, and one must wonder if Debussy’s pen and Debussy’s heart were in two different places because there is such a clear admiration for Grieg in all of his music, I can’t help but think that speaks more than his reviews.
Many music critics say Debussy protested too much, and his music confirms it.
Works Cited
"The Gift of Liszt to Grieg." Etude Magazine, Nov. 1936, https://etudemagazine.com/etude/1936/11/the-gift-of-liszt-to-grieg.html.
Nectoux, Jean-Michel. "Paper on Grieg and Debussy." Grieg Society, 2000, https://griegsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Jean-Michel-Nectoux-paper-2000.pdf.
Kelly, Barbara L. Music and Ultra-Modernism in France: A Fragile Consensus, 1913-1939. Cambridge University Press, 2015, p. 123. https://books.google.com/books?id=X098CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT123.
MacMillan, Malcolm. "Edvard Grieg: Nationalism and Music." McMaster University, https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream/11375/11548/1/fulltext.pdf.
"Nationalism in Edvard Grieg’s Harmonic Language." Pianist Musings, 2 July 2022, https://pianistmusings.com/2022/07/02/nationalism-edvard-grieg-harmonic-language/.