Wedding Day at Troldhaugen

Composition by Edvard Grieg

Grieg plays the last part of "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen"

Recorded 1903

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"Wedding Day at Troldhaugen" (Norwegian: "Bryllupsdag på Troldhaugen", literally "Wedding Anniversary at Troldhaugen") is a composition for piano by Edvard Grieg.^[1] It is the sixth piano piece in the eighth book of his Lyric Pieces, bearing the opus number 65.^[2]

Description

Originally called "Gratulanterne kommer" (The well-wishers are coming),^[3]^[4] it was written in 1896 as a memorial of the 25th wedding anniversary of Grieg and his wife Nina.^[5] The anniversary celebration had been held in the Fossli Hotel near the Vøringfossen waterfall in June 1896. Grieg and his wife celebrated their wedding anniversary with Børre and Nancy Giertsen. Nancy was the sister of Marie Beyer, then married to Frants Beyer, Grieg's best friend. She belonged to their closest circle of friends at Troldhaugen. During the occasion a guest book was ready to take contributions from all the guests.

Grieg gave the work its final title in 1897 when he compiled Book VIII, Op. 65, of his Lyric Pieces. The work's festive march-like first section, describes congratulations and best wishes that are given by the guests to the couple; the second section is reflective and subdued. Most performances of this piece take about 5 to 6 minutes.

References

^ Denis Arnold, The New Oxford Companion to Music, Volume 2, 1983, p. 1972: "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen" (Bryllupsdag pa Troldhaugen). Piano piece by Grieg, No. 6 of his Lyric Pieces (Book 8), Op. 65 (1897).
^ Krellmann, Hanspeter (2008); Griegs Lyrische Klavierstücke – Ein musikalischer Werkführer. München, C. H. Beck, ISBN 978-3-406-44815-7, pp. 91–93
^ Beryl Foster, The Songs of Edvard Grieg (2007), p. 166: "Memories of the day were later encapsulated in the piano piece "Gratulanterne kommer" (The Well-Wishers are Coming), now better known as "Bryllupsdag ved Troldhaugen" (Wedding Day at Troldhaugen), Op. 65/6."
^ Taruskin, Richard (2009). Music in the Nineteenth Century. Oxford University Press. p. 820. ISBN 978-019-538-483-3. "One especially apt example, because it conjures up an actual domestic scene, is "Bryllupsdag på Troldhaugen" (Wedding Day at Troldhaugen), the concluding item in the sixth book of Lyric Pieces, Op. 65 (1896)."
^ Grimley, Daniel M. (2006). Grieg: Music, Landscape and Norwegian Identity. Boydell Press. p. 68. ISBN 184-383-210-0. "Wedding marches also appear among the Lyric Pieces, not least "Bryllupsdag pa Troldhaugen" (Wedding Day at Troldhaugen), Op. 65/6 (written to celebrate Grieg's own silver wedding anniversary)."

Attribution

This article is based on the translation of the corresponding article of the Norwegian Wikipedia. A list of contributors can be found there at the History section.