Ask a Norwegian about Norwegian music, and without a doubt Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) will be the first composer mentioned.
Grieg’s music retains a strong hold in our culture, because he tends to write simple, 4-measure melodies that are easy to remember and fun to sing. It’s likely that you’ve heard his most-well-known piece “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” in which there is really only one melodic idea, repeated over and over again (hence, the reason you probably know it.) Today’s piece comes from the same set of pieces. “Morning Mood” follows a similarly simple form – one melody, presented a number of ways – nothing fancy, just lovely morning mood music.
If you think emo is a recent musical development, think again. Chopin was emo way before it was cool: the cold, dark eyes, the gentle scowl. Just comb that hair a little more over one eye, and he’d pass for any modern heartthrob.
Seriously though, his music is so beautiful it hurts; his nocturnes for solo piano completely embody the romantic spirit: a lonely artist, a dark night, a single candle resting on the piano, a glass of wine, the light of a pale moon, a cool breeze, a silent world, except for a sensual, delicate, introspective melody that simply floats through the midnight air. You begin to cry without explanation; your soul mourns for something it never knew it lost!
Ok, so I got a little carried away. All joking aside, this is some of the finest stuff ever written. And I do find it’s a perfect soundtrack to the lonely midnight hours.
The death of a child is a difficult thing to experience. I have not lost any of my children, but I have had nightmares where I have. A dream like that is enough to keep me awake for the rest of the night.
19th century German poet Friedrich Rückert lost two of his children to scarlet fever. He dealt with his grief by writing a set of 428 poems on the death of children. Composer Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) selected five of these to set for voice and orchestra. This is the fifth of the set, titled “In diesem Wetter” (In this Weather). Mahler’s genius of composition lets you feel the blowing winds, the stinging raindrops, the anxiety of a parent whose child is lost forever, and, at the end, a sense of peace and acceptance.
In this weather, in this windy storm, I would never have sent the children out.
They have been carried off, I wasn’t able to warn them!
In this weather, in this gale, I would never have let the children out.
I feared they sickened: those thoughts are now in vain.
In this weather, in this storm, I would never have let the children out, I was anxious they might die the next day: now anxiety is pointless.
In this weather, in this windy storm, I would never have sent the children out. They have been carried off, I wasn’t able to warn them!
In this weather, in this gale, in this windy storm, they rest as if in their mother’s house:
frightened by no storm, sheltered by the Hand of God.
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