Presented at the Grieg Conference in Bergen June 2, 2007
Reidar Bakke, Norway
Associate professor, Department of Music
Norwegian University for Science and Technology
Trondheim
GRIEG AND BARTÓK – SOME ASPECTS ON THEIR CHORAL COMPOSITIONS FOR CHILDREN
The two composers Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) and Béla Bartók (1881-1945) both had a reputation as outstanding teachers. From 1866 and for several years, Grieg taught piano and music theory in Kristiania. In 1867 he was one of the founders of the ‘Kristiania Musikakademi’, which unfortunately only existed for a few years. His reputation even went as far as Finland, and in 1881 and 1882 he was offered a job as the first director, conductor and piano teacher at the newly established ‘Helsingfors Musikinstitut’ – the beginning of Finland’s famous ‘Sibelius Academy’. However, Grieg did not go to Finland, because his primary passion was to be a composer. In the years 1907-1934, Bartók held a professorship in piano at the Budapest Academy of Music. He was a reluctant, but gifted teacher to a number of excellent musicians, and we know he also worked as composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist.
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Reidar Bakke paper 2007