Geirr Tveitt

Geirr Tveitt

Geirr Tveitt, (October 19, 1908- February 1, 1981),was a Norwegian composer born in Bergen. He studied in Leipzig and Paris, and returned to live in Oslo and Norheimsund. Tveitt was a dedicated collector of the folk music along the Hardanger Fjord in western Norway, much of which he arranged/adapted for piano as well as orchestra.

Disaster was not a stranger to Tveitt. His hand-built studio overlooking the Hardanger was destroyed by snow in 1960. His house burned to the ground in 1970, incinerating most of his notes and scores, but perhaps a fifth still remains. He died in Norheimsund in 1981.

An unusual feature of his musical output is that much of it is not in classical major and minor tonalities, but expressed in terms of modess, such as lydian, dorian. For example, his piece Prillar is in G lydian.

Some of his music was saved from the fire, and some has been reconstructed from available material such as radio recordings. Prillar was an unusual case in that Tveitt tore up and threw away the score himself in the 1930s. After his death, it was found by his son among Tveitt's mother's effects and reassembled.

His remaining music includes:

Prillar in G lydian (1931)

Suites 1,2,4,5 of A Hundred Hardanger Tunes, Op 151 (many of these are arrangements from the 50 Hardanger Tunes for piano, Op. 150)

Piano concertos 1-5

Nykken, Symphonic Poem

Jeppe, Opera

Violin concerto 1 (Hardanger fiddle)

Violin concerto 2 (Hardanger fiddle), Three Fiords

Baldur, ballet drama (later abridged version for orchestra alone retitled the Sun God Symphony.)

Halldor Meland

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