18 April 2023
We introduce you to the members of the Network of Houses and Museums of European Musicians (HMEM). These places, organisations and institutions link the past, present and future. They honour a tangible and intangible heritage and play an essential cultural role in Europe. We head to Oslo to discover the House of the Norwegian composer, organist and ethnomusicologist Eivind Groven.
With the recent accession of the Eivind Groven House to the network of Houses and Museums of European Musicians, 23 countries have now come together under this European cultural banner. At the end of his life, Eivind Groven built a house to house his perfectly tuned organs. It was completed on his 70th birthday and the great musician worked there until his death in 1977. In the same year the house was opened as a museum and concert hall.
This place is an opportunity to discover the rich life and musical heritage of this self-taught man. Eivind Groven was both a composer and an ethnomusicologist who spent many years working on the question of "pure tuning". He did this in order to master what he considered to be the shortcomings of equal-tempered instruments (or tempered scale). He therefore built several organs with a special mechanism designed to allow 'right' playing. His first instrument, built in 1936, used a keyboard capable of offering three different pitches for each note. In addition to his work as an instrument maker (several of which are preserved in the Eivind Groven House in Oslo), Groven left an important legacy of theoretical works, including a book on equal temperament and tuning (1948) and on his tuning mechanism (1968) as discussed by the Norwegian musicologist Anne Jorunn Kydland Lysdahl in a 2004 article ''Eivind Groven's pure-tuned organ: Past and future''.
Born in the rural village of Lårdal in Telemark, Norway, Eivind Groven comes from a family of great musicians and is steeped in traditional music. In his youth, the man who almost died of pulmonary gangrene at the age of 16 studied music and played the violin.
From autumn 1925 he studied music theory and composition at the Oslo Conservatory, mainly Berlioz and Beethoven. He held Beethoven in high esteem until the end of his life, and in fact wished that the 9th Symphony be played at his funeral. Unlike many other young Norwegian composers of the time, he refused to go abroad, but stayed at home to compose his works. In 1931 Norwegian Radio NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Company) began broadcasting a weekly folk music programme under the direction of Eivind Groven. He was a strong advocate and promoter of this type of music, which was very popular in the countryside. During the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, Groven resigned from his radio position after a meeting in his studio with the Nazi Goebbels.
Eivind Groven and Albert Schweitzer (organ)
From 1938 until the Second World War, Groven began to work on the right intonation. This work led to the design of his special organ, completed in 1952. The Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer wrote to the organist to ask him to try out this organ, and they met in 1954 when he received his prize. After the Second World War, he participated with two other Norwegian folk musicians in the editing and publication of Hardanger (Norwegian fiddle variant) melodies, collected in seven volumes. His catalogue of compositions includes a piano concerto, two symphonies and vocal music (including melodies for voice and piano and pieces for a cappella choir). He died in the winter of 1977 and is buried next to his first wife Ragna Hagen, younger sister of the novelist and poet Ingeborg Refling-Hagen (who inspired some of his compositions). This great artist is still greatly admired for his style, his immense contribution to music and his use of the orchestra.
18 April 2023
We introduce you to the members of the Network of Houses and Museums of European Musicians (HMEM). These places, organisations and institutions link the past, present and future. They honour a tangible and intangible heritage and play an essential cultural role in Europe. We head to Oslo to discover the House of the Norwegian composer, organist and ethnomusicologist Eivind Groven.
With the recent accession of the Eivind Groven House to the network of Houses and Museums of European Musicians, 23 countries have now come together under this European cultural banner. At the end of his life, Eivind Groven built a house to house his perfectly tuned organs. It was completed on his 70th birthday and the great musician worked there until his death in 1977. In the same year the house was opened as a museum and concert hall.
This place is an opportunity to discover the rich life and musical heritage of this self-taught man. Eivind Groven was both a composer and an ethnomusicologist who spent many years working on the question of "pure tuning". He did this in order to master what he considered to be the shortcomings of equal-tempered instruments (or tempered scale). He therefore built several organs with a special mechanism designed to allow 'right' playing. His first instrument, built in 1936, used a keyboard capable of offering three different pitches for each note. In addition to his work as an instrument maker (several of which are preserved in the Eivind Groven House in Oslo), Groven left an important legacy of theoretical works, including a book on equal temperament and tuning (1948) and on his tuning mechanism (1968) as discussed by the Norwegian musicologist Anne Jorunn Kydland Lysdahl in a 2004 article ''Eivind Groven's pure-tuned organ: Past and future''.
Born in the rural village of Lårdal in Telemark, Norway, Eivind Groven comes from a family of great musicians and is steeped in traditional music. In his youth, the man who almost died of pulmonary gangrene at the age of 16 studied music and played the violin.
From autumn 1925 he studied music theory and composition at the Oslo Conservatory, mainly Berlioz and Beethoven. He held Beethoven in high esteem until the end of his life, and in fact wished that the 9th Symphony be played at his funeral. Unlike many other young Norwegian composers of the time, he refused to go abroad, but stayed at home to compose his works. In 1931 Norwegian Radio NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Company) began broadcasting a weekly folk music programme under the direction of Eivind Groven. He was a strong advocate and promoter of this type of music, which was very popular in the countryside. During the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, Groven resigned from his radio position after a meeting in his studio with the Nazi Goebbels.
Eivind Groven and Albert Schweitzer (organ)
From 1938 until the Second World War, Groven began to work on the right intonation. This work led to the design of his special organ, completed in 1952. The Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer wrote to the organist to ask him to try out this organ, and they met in 1954 when he received his prize. After the Second World War, he participated with two other Norwegian folk musicians in the editing and publication of Hardanger (Norwegian fiddle variant) melodies, collected in seven volumes. His catalogue of compositions includes a piano concerto, two symphonies and vocal music (including melodies for voice and piano and pieces for a cappella choir). He died in the winter of 1977 and is buried next to his first wife Ragna Hagen, younger sister of the novelist and poet Ingeborg Refling-Hagen (who inspired some of his compositions). This great artist is still greatly admired for his style, his immense contribution to music and his use of the orchestra.
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