from Barnlige Sange Op.61 (1894)

Havet

Sang til Juletraeet

Lok

Fiskevise

Kveld-Sang for Blakken

Grieg’s own favourite among his seven Barnlige Sange was the first of them, Havet, the raw Lydian harmonies of which, he said, “should sound like the salt of the sea.” As in all these songs - which were written initially for the Leseborg, an anthology of children’s verse collected by Nordhal Rolfsen - the means are simple while, particularly in this case, the effect is disproportionately evocative. The one Christmas item in the set, Sang til juletraeet, is disarming in its naively expressed religious sentiment, as is Lok in its tuneful playfulness. If Fiskervise, which abandons strophic form for a miniature ternary construction, is the most artful song in this group, Kveld-sang for Blakken, with an accompaniment figure that suggests both the rocking of a lullaby and the trudging step of the old horse, is surely the most affectionately conceived.