Does Norway have a 4th of July? Yes, but they call it “May 17th.”

Fun Fact #1: Scandinavia has way more heavy metal bands per capita than anywhere else in the world.

Edvard Grieg is unquestionably Norway’s most iconic composer. When he was born, Norway was a very poor country – in the eyes of mainland Europeans, it was the sticks, full of country bumpkins and fishermen (and burnt-out Vikings). Grieg helped forge a national identity through his marvelous music, which often incorporated Norwegian folk songs and legends. He only wrote one concerto, but it was and is so popular that quite frankly he didn’t need to write another one. The Piano Concerto in A minor incorporates some traditional Norwegian dances, as well as some less-traditional Nordic heavy metal. Just listen to the opening – is that not totally metal?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VctuKi7QwcM

Fun Fact #2: Grieg’s melodic phrases are almost invariably four-measures long. (hmm, I suppose that’s not as fun as fact #1 …)

Oh man, there are soooooo many good Viola jokes. How many, you ask? So many, that Wikipedia has a an entry for “Viola Jokes“.

The viola is definitely the black sheep of the string family. Essentially, it’s an oversized violin – but it’s out of proportion to the violin and the cello – the body is larger than the violin, but the neck isn’t proportionally longer, and so the strings aren’t as tense as the violin or cello, giving it a sound distinct from its family members (a subtle difference, but it’s there.) Historically, violinists who couldn’t cut it on the violin were “demoted” to viola, which tended to have boring, easier parts to play.

But that was soooooo 1700. Nowadays, violists might still be the black sheep, but they can play just as well as their violin/cello counterparts, and have even managed to score a handful of pieces specifically for their instrument. Carl Maria von Weber was attracted to the dark, muted timbre of the instrument, and churned out this little two-movement Hungarian dance for the instrument.

Ugh, the stress, the confusion, the emotional rollercoaster of paying taxes. Well, it’s over now – how about something uplifting to get us out of the grave?

On one hand, I feel bad for Johann Nepomuk Hummel, because he is only remembered for one piece – his Trumpet Concerto. On the other hand, it’s not so bad to have your name forever engraved in the annals of history, even if it’s for a single composition. Anyway, despite a large output of music, he is a classical one-hit wonder.

Perhaps what makes this concerto so popular is its place in history. Before Hummel’s time, trumpets didn’t have keys, and tended to play either extremely difficult, sky-high parts, or dull notes that merely added “punctuation” to orchestral music. The 19th century saw an outpouring of new and improved instruments, one of which was the keyed trumpet (holes in the trumpet, like a clarinet or flute – very different from valves, which is what we consider normal for a trumpet these days.) Hummel’s concerto could not have been played on an instrument without valves or keys, so in a sense, it’s the earliest piece of its kind, and the closest thing to Beethoven or Mozart that trumpet players can play. Eventually the keyed trumpet disappeared because the valved trumpet was far superior. The concerto is brilliant and virtuosic, and began a new chapter in the history of the instrument (and the whole brass family, for that matter).