Five songs to words by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

Den hvide røde Rose (1873)

Fire Digte fra “Fiskerjenten” Op.21 (1870-72)

Det forste Mode

God Morgen!

Jeg giver mit digt til våren

Tak for dit Råd

Edvard Grieg and Norway’s national poet Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson had a good relationship until the composer committed himself to working with Ibsen on Peer Gynt in 1874. He had made at least ten song-settings of Bjørnson poems; Bjørnson had put words to one of Grieg’s piano pieces; they had collaborated on cantatas, a melodrama and the historical play Sigurd Jorsalfar; and they were just getting to work on an opera, Olav Trygvason, when the rift occurred. Their differences were eventually settled and a few more songs were written in the 1890s but the opera never got beyond the first three scenes - which, bearing in mind the quality of the incidental music for Sigurd Jorsalfar, is a pity.

Den hvide røde Rose is an amusing illustration of Bjørnson-Grieg compatibility. While it represents neither the poet nor the composer at his best, words and music are perfectly matched in their ever so slightly disingenuous imitation of the folk-song manner. The four songs of Op.21 are among the earliest of Grieg’s Bjørnson settings, following Den blonde Pige and the highly successful Fra Monte Pincio. Based on poems in Bjørnson’s Fiskerjenten (The Fisher Maiden), they are clearly inspired by the romantic atmosphere of the novel, beginning with the lovers’ first meeting in Det første Møde, where the composer develops the understated wonder of that event into a kind of ecstasy. The delightfully fresh God Morgen! is the scherzo of the set, the spontaneously expressive Jeg giver mit digt til våren the lyric piece, the passionately impulsive Tak for dit Råd its dramatic conclusion.