Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 1868

Year 1868 (MDCCCLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar and a leap year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar.

Events[link]

January–March[link]

January 3: Meiji Emperor.

• January 3 – Meiji Emperor declares the "Meiji Restoration", his own restoration to full power, against the supporters of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
• January 5 – Paraguayan War: Brazilian Army commander Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias enters Asunción, Paraguay's capital. Some days later he declares the war is over. Nevertheless, Francisco Solano López, Paraguay's president, prepares guerrillas to fight in the countryside.
• January 7 – Arkansas constitutional convention meets in Little Rock.
• January 10 – Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu declares the emperor's declaration "illegal" and attacks Kyoto. Pro-Emperor forces drive his troops away. The Shogun surrenders in May.
• February 13 – The British War Office sanctions the formation of what becomes the Army Post Office Corps.
• February 16 – In New York City the Jolly Corks organization is renamed the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE).
• February 24 – The first parade to have floats occurs at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana.
• February 24 – After Andrew Johnson tries to dismiss United States Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, he becomes the first President of the United States to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives. Johnson is later acquitted by the United States Senate.
• March – French geologist Louis Lartet discovers the first identified skeletons of Cro-Magnon, the first early modern humans (early Homo sapiens sapiens), at Abri de Crô-Magnon, a rock shelter at Les Eyzies, Dordogne, France.
• March 1 – The Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity is founded at the University of Virginia.
• March 23 – The University of California is founded in Oakland, California when the Organic Act is signed into California law.
• March 24 – The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company is formed.
• March 27 – The Lake Ontario Shore Railroad Company is organized in Oswego, New York.

April–June[link]

• April 1 – The Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute is established in Hampton, Virginia.
• April 9 – Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia massacres at least 197, perhaps more, of his own people at Magdala. These were prisoners who had been, for the most part, incarcerated for very trivial offenses, and were killed for asking for bread and water.
• April 10 – Battle of Magdala: A British-Indian task force inflicts 700 deaths and a crushing defeat on the army of Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia; the British and Indians suffer 30 wounded, 2 of whom die subsequently.
• April 13 – The Napier Expedition ends with the suicide of Tewodros and the capture of Magdala by the British-Indian task force.
• May 16 – President Andrew Johnson is acquitted during his impeachment trial, by one vote in the United States Senate.
• May 26 – Fenian bomber Michael Barrett becomes the last person publicly hanged in Britain.
• May 30 – Memorial Day is observed in the United States for the first time (it was proclaimed on May 5 by General John A. Logan).
• May 31 – Thomas Spence declares himself president of the Republic of Manitoba; he soon alienates the locals.
• May 31 – The first popular bicycle race is held at Parc de Saint-Cloud, Paris.
• June 2 – The first Trades Union Congress is held in Manchester, England.
• June – Titokowaru's War breaks out in the South Taranaki District of New Zealand's North Island between the Ngāti Ruanui Māori tribe and the New Zealand Government.
• June 20 – Ft. Fred Steele is established near the present day location of Sinclair, Wyoming to protect what was then the western terminis of the Union Pacific Railway.

July–September[link]

July 25: Wyoming territory.

• July 5 – Preacher William Booth establishes the Christian Mission, predecessor of the Salvation Army, in the East End of London.
• July 9 – The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, is ratified.
• July 18 – The Navajo begin their long march home.
• July 25 – Wyoming becomes a United States territory.
• July 28 – The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is adopted, legally, if not actually, guaranteeing African Americans full citizenship and equal protection and all persons in the United States due process of law.
• August 18 – Helium is discovered by French astronomer Pierre Janssen (and independently by Joseph Norman Lockyer on October 20).
• August 20 – Abergele Train Disaster in Wales: An Irish Mail passenger train collides with 4 cargo trucks loaded with paraffin: 33 are killed (the first major train disaster in Britain).
• August 22 – The Yangzhou riot in China targets a station of the China Inland Mission, and nearly leads to war between Britain and China.
• September – Queen Isabella II of Spain is effectively deposed and sent into exile; she formally abdicates on June 25, 1870.
• September 7 – Titokowaru's War: Māori leader Titokowaru defeats a New Zealand military force at Te Ngutu o Te Manu, North Island.
• September 18 – The University of the South holds its first convocation in Sewanee, Tennessee.
• September 23 – Rebels (some 400–600) in the town of Lares declare Puerto Rico independent; the local militia easily defeats them a week later.

October–December[link]

• October 1 – Chulalongkorn starts to rule in Siam.
• October 6 – The City of New York grants Mount Sinai Hospital a 99-year lease for a property on Lexington Avenue and 66th Street, for the sum of $1.00.
• October 10 – Carlos Manuel de Céspedes declares a revolt against Spanish rule in Cuba in an event known as El Grito de Yara, initiating a war that lasts ten years (Cuba ultimately loses the war at a cost of 400,000 lives and widespread destruction).
• October 28 – Thomas Edison applies for his first patent, the electric vote recorder.
• November 3 – U.S. presidential election, 1868: Ulysses S. Grant defeats Horatio Seymour in the election.

November 27: Battle of Washita River.

• November 2 – New Zealand officially adopts nationally observed standard time, and is perhaps the first country to do so.
• November 27 – Indian Wars – Battle of Washita River: In the early morning, United States Army Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an attack on a band of Cheyenne living on reservation land with Chief Black Kettle, killing 103 Cheyenne.
• December 6 – Paraguayan War – Battle of Itororó or Ytororó: Field-Marshal Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias leads 13,000 Brazilian troops against a Paraguayan fortified position of 5,000 troops.
• December 9 – The world's first traffic signal lights were installed at the junction of Great George Street and Bridge Street in the London borough of Westminster.^[1]
• December 25 – U.S. President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all Civil War rebels.

Date unknown[link]

• Louis Arthur Ducos du Hauron patents methods of color photography.^[2]
• Thomas Henry Huxley discovers what he thinks is primordial matter and names it bathybius haecklii (he admits his mistake in 1871).
• The Académie Julian, a major art school in Paris, France that admits women, is established.
• The Dortmunder Actien Brauerei is founded in Germany.
• Brisbane Grammar School is founded, providing the opportunity for secondary education for the first time in the colony of Brisbane in Australia.
• Herrenhauser Brewery is established in Hanover, Germany.
• Maryland School for the Deaf is established.
• The Roman Catholic See of Tucson is established as the Apostolic Vicariate of Arizona in 1868, taking its territory from the former Diocese of Santa Fe. The Diocese of Tucson is canonically erected on May 8, 1897.
• General William Tecumseh Sherman brokers the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) with the Plain Indians.
• Political leaders behind the Japanese emperor issue in his name a 5-point charter that promises representative government.
• The population of Japan reaches c. 30 million.
• Croatian–Hungarian Settlement (Croatian: Hrvatsko-ugarska nagodba, Hungarian: Horvát–magyar kiegyezés, German: Kroatisch-Ungarischer Ausgleich) was a pact signed in 1868, that governed Croatia's political status in the Hungarian-ruled part of Austria-Hungary. It lasted until 1918.

Births[link]

January–June[link]

• January 6 – Vittorio Monti, Italian Composer (d. 1922)
• January 9 – S.P.L. Sørensen, Danish chemist (d. 1939)
• January 11 – Cai Yuanpei, Chinese educator (d. 1940)
• January 31 – Theodore William Richards, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1928)
• February 5, – Maxine Elliott, actress, (d. 1940)
• February 10 – William Allen White, American journalist (d. 1944)
• February 20 – John Nathan Cobb, American author, naturalist, conservationist, fisheries researcher, and educator (d. 1930)
• February 23 – W. E. B. Du Bois, American civil rights leader (d. 1963)
• February 26 – Venceslau Brás, Brazilian president (d. 1966)
• March 14 – Emily Murphy, Canadian woman's rights activist (d. 1933)
• March 22 – Robert Millikan, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1953)
• March 25 – William Lockwood, English cricketer (d. 1932)
• March 28 – Maxim Gorky, Russian author (d. 1936)
• April 8 – Herbert Jennings, American zoologist (d. 1947)
• April 10 – George Arliss, English actor (d. 1946)
• April 25 – John Bevins Moisant, American aviator, (d. 1910)
• April 25 – Willie Maley, Scottish football player and manager (d. 1958)
• April 28 – Lucy Booth, the fifth daughter of William and Catherine Booth (d. 1953)
• May 6 – Nicholas II of Russia (d. 1918)
• May 6 – Gaston Leroux, French writer (d. 1927)
• May 29 – Abdul Mejid II, last Caliph of the Ottoman Empire (d. 1944)
• June 5 – James Connolly, Irish-Scots socialist (d. 1916)
• June 6 – Robert Falcon Scott, Antarctic Explorer (d. 1912)
• June 7 – Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Scottish architect (d. 1928)
• June 14 – Karl Landsteiner, Austrian biologist and physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1943)
• June 18 – Georges Lacombe, French artist (d. 1916)

July–December[link]

• July 12 – Stefan George, German poet (d. 1933)
• July 14 – Gertrude Bell, English archaeologist, writer, spy, and administrator (d. 1926)
• July 17 – Henri Nathansen, Danish writer and stage director (d. 1944)
• August 23 – Edgar Lee Masters, American poet, biographer and dramatist. (d. 1950)
• August 26 – Charles Stewart, Premier of Alberta (d. 1946)
• September 1 – Henri Bourassa, Canadian politician and publisher (d. 1952)
• September 6 – Heinrich Häberlin, Swiss politician, member of the Federal Council (d. 1947)
• September 9 – Mary Hunter Austin, American writer of fiction and non-fiction (d. 1934)
• September 17 – James Alexander Calder, Canadian politician (d. 1956)
• September 22 – John T. Raulston, American state judge (Scopes Monkey Trial) (d. 1956)
• October 18 – Ernst Didring, Swedish writer (d. 1931)
• November 7 – Delfim Moreira, Brazilian president (d. 1920)
• November 8 – Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician (d. 1942)
• November 9 – Marie Dressler, Canadian actress (d. 1934)
• November 14 – Arthur Hoey Davis, Australian author (d. 1935)
• November 22 – John Nance Garner, U.S. Vice President (d. 1967)
• December 9 – Fritz Haber, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1934)
• December 9 – Ivan Regen, Slovenian biologist (d. 1947)
• December 19 – Eleanor Hodgman Porter, American novelist (d. 1920)
• December 25 – Eugenie Besserer, Silent film actress (d. 1934)

Deaths[link]

January–June[link]

• February 8 – Lai Wenguang, Chinese leader of the Taiping Rebellion and Nien Rebellion (b. 1827)
• February 11 – Léon Foucault, French astronomer (b. 1819)
• February 29 – King Ludwig I of Bavaria (b. 1786)
• March 4 – Jesse Chisholm, American pioneer (b. 1805)
• March 6 – Julia Dean Hayne, actress, (b. 1830)
• March 28 – James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, British military leader (b. 1797)
• April 3 – Franz Berwald, Swedish composer (b. 1796)
• April 7 – Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Canadian father of confederation (assassinated) (b. 1825)
• April 13 – Emperor Theodore or Tewodros II of Ethiopia (Abyssinia), by suicide (b. 1818)
• May 7 – Henry Peter Brougham, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1778)
• May 10 – Henry Bennett, American politician (b. 1808)
• May 17 – Isami Kondo, Commander of the Shinsengumi (b. 1834)
• May 23 – Kit Carson, American trapper, scout, and Indian agent (b. 1809)
• June 1 – James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States (b. 1791)
• June 22 – Heber C. Kimball, Latter Day Saint leader (b. 1801)

July–December[link]

• July 6 – Sanosuke Harada, Shinsengumi Captain (b. 1840)
• July 19 – Soji Okita, Shinsengumi Captain (b. 1842 or 1844)
• August 3 – Edward Welch, Welsh architect (b. 1806)
• August 10 – Adah Isaacs Menken, American actress (b. 1835)
• September 19 – William Sprague, American minister and politician from Michigan (b. 1809)
• September 26 – August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1790)
• October 17 – Laura Secord, Canadian patriot (b. 1775)
• October 18 – Mongkut, Rama IV, King of Thailand (b. 1804)
• October 27 – Charles Thomas Longley, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1794)
• November 13 – Gioacchino Rossini, Italian composer (b. 1792)
• November 15 – James Mayer Rothschild, German-born banker (b. 1792)
• November 27 – Chief Black Kettle, Southern Cheyenne Peace Chief, Survivor of Sand Creek massacre (b. 1803)
• December 6 – August Schleicher, German linguist (b. 1821)

References[link]

• American Annual Cyclopedia...1868 (1873), online, highly detailed compendium of facts and primary sources
• Expatriation Act - July 27, 1868 [1]

Edvard Grieg (1876)

Edvard Grieg (1891)
portrait by Eilif Peterssen

Edvard Grieg and Nina Hagerup. (1899)

Edvard Hagerup Grieg /ˈɛdʋɑɖ ˈhɑːgəɾʉːp gɾiːg/ (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt (which includes Morning Mood and In the Hall of the Mountain King), and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.^[1]

Biography[link]

Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in Bergen, Norway on 15 June 1843. His parents were Alexander Grieg (1806–1875), a merchant and vice consul in Bergen, and Gesine Judithe Hagerup (1814–1875), a music teacher and daughter of Edvard Hagerup.^[2][3] The family name, originally spelled Greig, has Scottish origins. After the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Grieg's great-grandfather traveled widely, settling in Norway about 1770, and establishing business interests in Bergen.

Edvard Grieg was raised in a musical area. His mother was his first piano teacher and taught him to play at the age of 6. Grieg studied in several schools,^{[clarification needed]} including Tank's School.^[4] He often brought in samples of his music to class.^{[citation needed]}

In the summer of 1858, Grieg met the eminent Norwegian violinist Ole Bull,^[5] who was a family friend; Bull's brother was married to Grieg's aunt.^[6] Bull recognized the 15-year-old boy's talent and persuaded his parents to send him to the Leipzig Conservatory,^[5] then directed by Ignaz Moscheles.^{[citation needed]}

Grieg enrolled in the conservatory, concentrating on the piano, and enjoyed the many concerts and recitals given in Leipzig. He disliked the discipline of the conservatory course of study, but he achieved very good grades in most areas. An exception was the organ, which was mandatory for piano students. In the spring of 1860, he survived a life-threatening lung disease. The following year he made his debut as a concert pianist, in Karlshamn, Sweden. In 1862, he finished his studies in Leipzig and held his first concert in his home town, where his programme included Beethoven's Pathétique sonata. (Grieg's own recording of his Piano Sonata, made late in his life, confirms that he was an excellent pianist).

In 1863, Grieg went to Copenhagen, Denmark, and stayed there for three years. He met the Danish composers J. P. E. Hartmann and Niels Gade. He also met his fellow Norwegian composer Rikard Nordraak (composer of the Norwegian national anthem), who became a good friend and source of great inspiration. Nordraak died in 1866, and Grieg composed a funeral march in his honor.

On 11 June 1867, Grieg married his first cousin, Nina Hagerup. The next year, their only child, Alexandra, was born. She died in 1869 from meningitis. In the summer of 1868, Grieg wrote his Piano Concerto in A minor while on holiday in Denmark. Edmund Neupert gave the concerto its premiere performance on 3 April 1869 in the Casino Theater in Copenhagen. Grieg himself was unable to be there due to conducting commitments in Christiania (as Oslo was then named). ^[7]

In 1868, Franz Liszt, who had not yet met Grieg, wrote a testimonial for him to the Norwegian Ministry of Education, which led to Grieg's obtaining a travel grant. The two men met in Rome in 1870. On Grieg's first visit, they went over Grieg's Violin Sonata No. 1, which pleased Liszt greatly. On his second visit, in April, Grieg brought with him the manuscript of his Piano Concerto, which Liszt proceeded to sightread (including the orchestral arrangement). Liszt's rendition greatly impressed his audience, although Grieg gently pointed out to him that he played the first movement too quickly. Liszt also gave Grieg some advice on orchestration, (for example, to give the melody of the second theme in the first movement to a solo trumpet).

In 1874–76, Grieg composed incidental music for the premiere of Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, at the request of the author. Many of the pieces from this work became very popular in the orchestral suites or piano and piano-duet arrangements.

Grieg had close ties with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (Harmonien), and later became Music Director of the orchestra from 1880–1882. In 1888, Grieg met Tchaikovsky in Leipzig. Grieg was struck by the sadness in Tchaikovsky.^[8] Tchaikovsky thought very highly of Grieg's music, praising its beauty, originality and warmth.^[9]

Later years[link]

Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen

Grieg's later life brought him fame. The Norwegian government awarded him a pension. In the spring 1903, Grieg made nine 78-rpm gramophone recordings of his piano music in Paris; all of these historic discs have been reissued on both LPs and CDs and, despite limited fidelity, show his artistry as a pianist. Grieg also made live-recording player piano music rolls for the Welte-Mignon reproducing system, all of which survive today and can be heard.

In 1906, he met the composer and pianist Percy Grainger in London. Grainger was a great admirer of Grieg's music and a strong empathy was quickly established. In a 1907 interview, Grieg stated: “I have written Norwegian Peasant Dances that no one in my country can play, and here comes this Australian who plays them as they ought to be played! He is a genius that we Scandinavians cannot do other than love.”^[10]

Edvard Grieg died in the autumn of 1907, aged 64, after a long period of illness. His final words were "Well, if it must be so." The funeral drew between 30,000 and 40,000 people out on the streets of his home town to honor him. Following his wish, his own Funeral March in Memory of Rikard Nordraak was played in an orchestration by his friend Johan Halvorsen, who had married Grieg's niece. In addition, the Funeral March movement from Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 was played. His and his wife's ashes are entombed in a mountain crypt near his house, Troldhaugen.

Music[link]

Grieg is renowned as a nationalist composer, drawing inspiration from Norwegian folk music. Early works include a symphony (which he later suppressed) and a piano sonata. He also wrote three sonatas for violin and piano and a cello sonata.^[2] His many short pieces for piano – often based on Norwegian folk tunes and dances – led some to call him the "Chopin of the North".^{[who?][citation needed]}

Concerto in A minor: 1. Allegro molto moderato Performed by the University of Washington Symphony, conducted by Peter Erős (Neal O'Doan, piano) Concerto in A minor: 1. Allegro molto moderato Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra (courtesy of Musopen) Concerto in A minor: 2. Adagio Performed by the University of Washington Symphony, conducted by Peter Erős (Neal O'Doan, piano) Concerto in A minor: 2. Adagio Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra (courtesy of Musopen) Concerto in A minor: 3. Allegro moderato molto e marcato Performed by the University of Washington Symphony, conducted by Peter Erős (Neal O'Doan, piano) Concerto in A minor: 3. Allegro moderato molto e marcato Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra (courtesy of Musopen) Notturno, Op. 54, No. 4 Performed live by Mark Gasser Grieg plays his butterfly. Recorded 1906 Grieg plays his Wedding day. Recorded 1903

Problems listening to these files? See media help.

The Piano Concerto is his most popular work. Its champions have included the pianist and composer Percy Grainger, a personal friend of Grieg who played the concerto frequently during his long career. An arrangement of part of the work made an iconic television comedy appearance in the Christmas 1971 Morecambe and Wise Show, conducted by André Previn.

Some of the Lyric Pieces (for piano) are also well-known, as is the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, a play that Grieg found to be an arduous work to score properly. In a 1874 letter to his friend Frants Beyer, Grieg expressed his unhappiness with what is now considered one of his most popular compositions from Peer Gynt, In the Hall of the Mountain King: "I have also written something for the scene in the hall of the mountain King – something that I literally can't bear listening to because it absolutely reeks of cow-pies, exaggerated Norwegian nationalism, and trollish self-satisfaction! But I have a hunch that the irony will be discernible."^[11]

Grieg's popular Holberg Suite was originally written for the piano, and later arranged by the composer for string orchestra. Grieg wrote songs, in which he set lyrics by poets Heinrich Heine, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Henrik Ibsen, Hans Christian Andersen, Rudyard Kipling and others. Russian composer Nikolai Myaskovsky used a theme by Grieg for the variations with which he closed his Third String Quartet. Norwegian pianist Eva Knardahl recorded the composer's complete piano music during 1978 and 1980. The recordings were reissued in 2006 on 12 compact discs by BIS Records.

List of selected works[link]

• Piano Sonata in E minor, Op. 7
• Violin Sonata No. 1 in F major, Op. 8
• Concert Overture In Autumn, Op. 11
• Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major, Op. 13
• Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16
• Incidental music to Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson's play Sigurd Jorsalfar, Op. 22
• Incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, Op. 23
• Ballade in the Form of Variations on a Norwegian Folk Song in G minor, Op. 24
• String Quartet in G minor, Op. 27
• Album for Male Chorus, Op. 30
• Two Elegiac Melodies for Strings, Op. 34
• Four Norwegian Dances for piano four hands, Op. 35 (later orchestrated)
• Cello Sonata in A minor, Op. 36
• Holberg Suite for piano, later arr. for string orchestra, Op. 40
• Violin Sonata No. 3 in C minor, Op. 45
• Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46
• Lyric Suite for orchestra, Op. 54 (orchestration of four Lyric Pieces)
• Peer Gynt Suite No. 2, Op. 55
• Suite from Sigurd Jorsalfar, Op. 56
• Four Symphonic Dances for piano, later arr. for orchestra, Op. 64
• Haugtussa Song Cycle after Arne Garborg, Op. 67
• Slåtter (Peasant Dances) for piano, Op. 72
• Sixty-six Lyric Pieces for piano in ten books, Opp. 12, 38, 43, 47, 54, 57, 62, 65, 68 and 71, including: Arietta, To the Spring, Little Bird, Butterfly, Notturno, Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, At Your Feet, Longing For Home, March of the Dwarfs, Poème érotique and Gone.

See also[link]

Biography portal

• Grieg's music in popular culture
• Song of Norway the operetta.

References[link]

Notes

Bibliography

• Benestad, Finn; Schjelderup-Ebbe, Dag (1990) [1980] (in Norwegian). Edvard Grieg – mennesket og kunstneren (2 ed.). Oslo: Aschehoug. ISBN 82-03-16373-4. 

Further reading[link]

English[link]

• Grieg The Writer ed. by Bjarne Kortsen. Vol I: Essays and Articles, vol II: Letters to Frants Beyer (editio norvegica, Bergen/Norway 1972)
• Edvard Grieg in England by Lionel Carley (The Boydell Press 2006) ISBN 1-84383-207-0
• Grieg: Music, Landscape and Norwegian Cultural Identity by Daniel Grimley (The Boydell Press 2006) ISBN 1-84383-210-0
• Songs of Edvard Grieg by Beryl Foster (The Boydell Press new edition 2007) ISBN 1-84383-343-3
• Edvard Grieg by Henry Theophilius Finck (Bastian Books new edition 2008) ISBN 978-0-554-96326-6
• Grieg by John Horton (London 1950)

Norwegian[link]

• Benestad, Finn/Schjelderup-Ebbe, Dag (2007): Edvard Grieg – mennesket og kunstneren. H. Aschehoug & Co. (W. Nygaard), Oslo. ISBN 978-82-03-23459-0
• Bredal, Dag/Strøm-Olsen, Terje (1992): Edvard Grieg – Musikken er en kampplass. Aventura Forlag A/S, Oslo. ISBN 82-588-0890-7
• Johansen, David Monrad (1956): Edvard Grieg. Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Oslo.
• Bøe, Finn (1949): Trekk av Edvard Griegs personlighet. Oslo.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Edvard Grieg

• Grieg 2007. Official Site for 100th year commemoration of Edvard Grieg
• The Grieg archives at Bergen Public Library
• Troldhaugen Museum, Grieg's home
• Biography of Grieg by prof. Harald Herresthal
• Works by Edvard Grieg on Open Library at the Internet Archive
• Edvard Grieg statue by Sigvald Asbjornsen Prospect Park (Brooklyn)
• Films about Grieg's life: What Price Immortality? (1999), Song of Norway (1970)
• Edvard Grieg picture collection at flickr commons

Recordings by Edvard Grieg[link]

• Papillon – Lyric Piece, Op. 43, no. 1 as recorded by Grieg on piano roll, 17 April 1906, Leipzig (Info)
• Legendary Piano Recordings: The Complete Grieg, Saint-Saëns, Pugno, and Diémer (Marston Records)
• Edvard Grieg: The Piano Music In Historic Interpretations (SIMAX Classics – PSC1809)
• Grieg and his Circle (Pearl, GEMM 9933 CD)
• Grieg spiller Grieg (Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen)
• Piano Rolls (The Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation)

Music scores[link]

• Free scores by Edvard Grieg at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Edvard Grieg in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Free scores by Edvard Grieg in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Free scores at the Mutopia Project

polski:Edvard Grieg

Alice Sara Ott in March 2011

Alice Sara Ott (born 1988) is a German-Japanese classical pianist.^[1]

Biography[link]

Ott was born in Munich, Germany, in 1988; her Japanese mother had studied piano in Tokyo, and her father was a German civil engineer.^[2] At the age of three, after being taken to a concert, she decided she wanted to become a pianist; as she says, she realised that "music was the language that goes much beyond any words" and that she wanted to communicate and express herself through music.^[3] She started piano lessons when she was four, and reached the final stage of the youth competition in Munich at the age of five, playing to a full house in the Hercules Hall.^[3]

From the age of twelve, she studied at the Salzburg Mozarteum with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling ^[1] while continuing her school education in Munich. Ott has won awards at a number of piano competitions, including first prize at the 2004 Pianello Val Tidone Competition. She has made recordings of Franz Liszt's Transcendental Etudes and Frédéric Chopin's waltzes for Deutsche Grammophon, and is currently performing concert tours in Europe, Japan, and the United States.

Awards[link]

Ott has won many international competitions since winning the Jugend musiziert competition in Germany when she was seven years old.^[4] In 2002 she was the youngest finalist at the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan where she won the Most Promising Artist award.^[1] She won first prize in the 2003 Bach Competition in Köthen, Germany, the 2004 Pianello Val Tidone Competition in Italy,^[4] and the 4th EPTA (European Piano Teachers Association) International Competition in 2005.

Recordings[link]

Ott has an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon^[4] and her recordings include:^[1]

• 2009 – Liszt: 12 Etudes d'exécution transcendante
• 2010 – Chopin: Complete Waltzes
• 2010 – Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1 and Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1
• 2011 – Beethoven: Piano sonatas No.3 in C, Op.2 No.3 and No.21 in C, Op.53 ("Waldstein")

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ott's official website
• Deutsche Grammophon bio

Detail from the Statue of William Tell and his son in Altdorf, Switzerland (Richard Kissling, 1895)

William Tell (in the four languages of Switzerland: German: Wilhelm Tell; French: Guillaume Tell; Italian: Guglielmo Tell; Romansh: Guglielm Tell) is a folk hero of Switzerland. His legend is recorded in a late 15th-century Swiss chronicle.

It is set in the period of the original foundation of the Old Swiss Confederacy in the early 14th century. According to the legend, Tell — an expert marksman with the crossbow — assassinated Gessler, a tyrannical reeve of Habsburg Austria positioned in Altdorf, Uri.

Along with Arnold Winkelried, Tell is a central figure in Swiss patriotism as it was constructed during the Restoration of the Confederacy after the Napoleonic era.

The legend[link]

Tell's leap (Tellensprung) from the boat of his captors at the Axen cliffs 46°55′57″N 8°36′42″E / 46.9326°N 8.6118°E / 46.9326; 8.6118. Study by Ernst Stückelberg (1879) for his fresco at the Tellskapelle.

There are several accounts of the Tell legend. The earliest sources give an account of the apple-shot, Tell's escape and the ensuing rebellion. The assassination of Gessler is not mentioned in the Tellenlied, but is already present in the White Book of Sarnen account.

The legend as told by Tschudi (ca. 1570) goes as follows: William Tell, who originally came from Bürglen, was known as a strong man and an expert shot with the crossbow. In his time, the Habsburg emperors of Austria were seeking to dominate Uri. Albrecht (or Hermann) Gessler, the newly appointed Austrian Vogt of Altdorf, raised a pole in the village's central square, hung his hat on top of it, and demanded that all the townsfolk bow before the hat. On 18 November 1307, Tell visited Altdorf with his young son and passed by the hat, publicly refusing to bow to it, and so was arrested. Gessler — intrigued by Tell's famed marksmanship, yet resentful of his defiance — devised a cruel punishment: Tell and his son would be executed, but he could redeem his life by shooting an apple off the head of his son, Walter, in a single attempt. Tell split the apple with a bolt from his crossbow.^[1]

But Gessler noticed that Tell had removed two crossbow bolts from his quiver, not one. Before releasing Tell, he asked why. Tell replied that if he had killed his son, he would have used the second bolt on Gessler himself. Gessler was angered, and had Tell bound. He was brought to Gessler's ship to be taken to his castle at Küssnacht to spend his newly won life in a dungeon. But, as a storm broke on Lake Lucerne, the soldiers were afraid that their boat would founder, and unbound Tell to steer with all his famed strength. Tell made use of the opportunity to escape, leaping from the boat at the rocky site now known as the Tellsplatte ("Tell's slab") and memorialized by the Tellskapelle.

The Hohle Gasse between Immensee and Küssnacht

Tell ran cross-country to Küssnacht. As Gessler arrived, Tell assassinated him with the second crossbow bolt along a stretch of the road cut through the rock between Immensee and Küssnacht, now known as the Hohle Gasse.^[2] Tell's blow for liberty sparked a rebellion, in which he played a leading part. That fed the impetus for the nascent Swiss Confederation. He fought again against Austria in the 1315 Battle of Morgarten. Tschudi also has an account of Tell's death in 1354, according to which he was killed trying to save a child from drowning in the Schächenbach river in Uri.^[3]

Earliest mentions (15th century)[link]

The first reference to William Tell appears in the White Book of Sarnen (German: Weisses Buch von Sarnen). This volume was written in 1475 by a country scribe named Hans Schreiber. It makes mention of the Rütli oath (German: Rütlischwur) of 1291, the Burgenbruch and Tell's heroic deeds.^[4]

A roughly equally early account of Tell is found in the Tellenlied, a song composed during the 1470s, its oldest extant manuscript copy dating to 1501. This song begins with the Tell legend, which it presents as the origin of the Confederacy, calling Tell the "first confederate". The narrative presented includes Tell's apple-shot, his preparation of a second arrow to shoot Gessler in the event of his killing his son, and his escape, but it omits the assassination of Gessler. The text then goes on to enumerate the cantons of the Confederacy, and it was expanded with "current events" in the course of the Burgundy Wars, ending with the death of Charles the Bold in 1477.^[5]

Early Modern period[link]

Chronicles[link]

Depiction of the apple-shot scene in Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia (1554 edition).

Der Apfelschuss. Fresco by Ernst Stückelberg (1831–1903) in the Tellskapelle, Switzerland

Further reference to William Tell is found in Petermann Etterlin's Chronicle of the Swiss Confederation (German: Kronika von der loblichen Eydtgenossenschaft). Etterlin's 1507 chronicle is the earliest printed version of the Tell story.^[6]

An account of William Tell's deeds is also given in the chronicle of Melchior Russ from Lucerne. This book, which its author dates to 1482, is an incoherent compilation of older writings, including the Song of the Founding of the Confederation, Conrad Justinger's Bernese Chronicle, and the Chronicle of the State of Bern (in German, Chronik der Stadt Bern).^[7]

The version of the legend compiled by Aegidius Tschudi from Glarus in his monumental Chronicon Helveticum (ca. 1570) became the major model for later writers dealing with William Tell.^[8] Not only did Tschudi's chronicle become the main source for Johannes von Müller's History of the Swiss Confederation (German: Geschichte Schweizerischer Eidgenossenschaft, 1780), it also served as a model for Friedrich Schiller's play William Tell (1804).^[8] Tschudi is known to have manipulated documents.^[9]

Veneration[link]

A widespread veneration of Tell, including sight-seeing excursions to the scenes of his deeds, can be ascertained for the early 16th century. Heinrich Brennwald in the early 16th century mentions the chapel (Tellskapelle) on the site of Tell's leap from his captors' boat. Tschudi mentions a "holy cottage" (heilig hüslin) built on the site of Gessler's assassination. The church of Bürglen had a bell dedicated to Tell from 1581, and a nearby chapel has a fresco dated to 1582 showing Tell's death in the Schächenbach.^[10]

William Tell can be found in a Tell play (Tellspiel), whose first performance was probably in the winter of either 1512 or 1513 in Altdorf.^[7] The oldest existing written version of a Tell play is known as the Urner Tellspiel (The "Tell Play of Uri").^[11]

The Three Tells[link]

The Three Tells (die Drei Tellen, also die Drei Telle) were symbolic figures of the Swiss Peasant War of 1653. They expressed the hope of the subject population to repeat the success story of the rebellion against Habsburg in the early 14th century.

By the 18th century, the Drei Tellen had become associated with a sleeping hero legend. They were said to be asleep in a cave at the Rigi. The return of Tell in times of need was already foretold in the Tellenlied of 1653 and symbolically fulfilled in the impersonation of the Three Tells by costumed individuals, in one instance culminating in an actual assassination executed by these impersonators in historical costume.

Tell during the 16th century had become closely associated and eventually merged with the Rütlischwur legend, and the "Three Tells" represented the three conspirators or Eidgenossen Walter Fürst, Arnold von Melchtal and Werner Stauffacher.

In 1653, three men dressed in historical costume representing the Three Tells appeared in Schüpfheim. Other impersonations of the Three Tells also appeared in the Freie Ämter and in the Emmental.

The first impersonators of the Three Tells were Hans Zemp, Kaspar Unternährer of Schüpfheim and Ueli Dahinden of Hasle. They appeared at a number of important peasant conferences during the war, symbolizing the continuity of the present rebellion with the resistance movement against the Habsburg overlords at the origin of the Swiss Confederacy. Unternährer and Dahinden fled to the Entlebuch alps before the arrival of the troops of general Sebastian Peregrin Zwyers; Zemp escaped to the Alsace. After the suppression of the rebellion, the peasants voted for a tyrannicide, directly inspired by the Tell legend, attempting to kill the Lucerne Schultheiss Ulrich Dulliker. Dahinden and Unternährer returned in their roles of Tells, joined by Hans Stadelmann replacing Zemp. In an ambush, they managed to injure Dulliker and killed a member of the Lucerne parliament, Caspar Studer. The assassination attempt — an exceptional act in the culture of the Old Swiss Confederacy — was widely recognized and welcomed among the peasant population, but its impact was not sufficient to rekindle the rebellion. Even though it did not have any direct political effect, its symbolic value was considerable, placing the Lucerne authorities in the role of the tyrant (Habsburg and Gessler) and the peasant population in that of the freedom fighters (Tell). The Three Tells after the deed went to mass, still wearing their costumes, without being molested. Dahinden and Unternährer were eventually killed in October 1653 by Lucerne troops under Colonel Alphons von Sonnenberg. In July 1654, Zemp betrayed his successor Stadelmann in exchange for pardon and Stadelmann was executed on 15 July 1654.^[12]

The Three Tells appear in a 1672 comedy by Johann Caspar Weissenbach. The "sleeping hero" version of the Three Tells legend was published in Deutsche Sagen by the Brothers Grimm in 1816 (no. 298).

Reception 1789–1945[link]

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An allegorical Tell defeating the chimera of the French Revolution (1798)

Sketches of Gessler and Tell by Ernst Stückelberg (1880)

Official seal of the Helvetic Republic

Throughout the long nineteenth century, and into the World War II period, Tell was perceived as a symbol of rebellion against tyranny both in Switzerland and in Europe.

Antoine-Marin Lemierre wrote a play inspired by Tell in 1766 and revived it in 1786. The success of this work established the association of Tell as a fighter against tyranny with the history of the French revolution.

The French revolutionary fascination with Tell was reflected in Switzerland with the establishment of the Helvetic Republic. Tell became, as it were, the mascot of the short-lived republic, his figure being featured on its official seal. The French Navy also had a Tonnant class ship of the line named Guillaume Tell, which was captured by the British Royal Navy in 1800.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe learned of the Tell saga during his travels through Switzerland between 1775 and 1795. He obtained a copy of Tschudi's chronicles and considered writing a play about Tell, but ultimately gave the idea to his friend Friedrich von Schiller, who in 1803–04 wrote the play Wilhelm Tell, first performed on March 17, 1804, in Weimar. Schiller's Tell is heavily inspired by the political events of the late 18th century, the French and American revolutions, in particular. Schiller's play was performed at Interlaken (the Tellspiele) in the summers of 1912 to 1914, 1931 to 1939 and every year since 1947. In 2004 it was first performed in Altdorf itself.

Gioachino Rossini used Schiller's play as the basis for his 1829 opera William Tell. The William Tell Overture is one of his best-known and most frequently imitated pieces of music; in the 20th Century, the "coda" of the Overture became the theme for the radio, television, and motion picture incarnations of The Lone Ranger, a fictional Western hero.

John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, was inspired by Tell. Lamenting the negative reaction to his action, Booth wrote in his journal on April 21, 1865 "with every man's hand against me, I am here in despair. And why; For doing what Brutus was honored for and what made Tell a Hero. And yet I for striking down a greater tyrant than they ever knew am looked upon as a common cutthroat."

Following a national competition, won by Richard Kissling, Altdorf in 1895 erected a monument to its hero. Kissling casts Tell as a peasant and man of the mountains, with strong features and muscular limbs. His powerful hand rests lovingly on the shoulder of little Walter, but the apple is not shown. The depiction is in marked contrast with that used by the Helvetic Republic, where Tell is shown as a landsknecht rather than a peasant, with a sword at his belt and a feathered hat, bending down to pick up his son who is still holding the apple.

The first film about Tell was made by French director Charles Pathé in 1900; only a short fragment survives.^{[citation needed]} A version of the legend was retold in P.G. Wodehouse's William Tell Told Again (1904), written in prose and verse with characteristic Wodehousian flair.

The design of the Federal 5 francs coin issued from 1922 features the bust of a generic "mountain shepherd" designed by Paul Burkard, but due to a similarity of the bust with Kissling's statue, in spite of the missing beard, it was immediately widely identified as Tell.

Adolf Hitler was enthusiastic about Schiller's play, quoting it in his Mein Kampf, and approving of a German/Swiss co-production of the play in which Hermann Göring's mistress Emmy Sonnemann appeared as Tell's wife. But on June 3, 1941, Hitler had the play banned. The reason for the ban is not known, but may been related to the failed assassination attempt in 1938 by young Swiss Maurice Bavaud^[13] (executed on May 14, 1941, and later dubbed "a new William Tell" by Rolf Hochhuth), or the subversive nature of the play.^[14][15] Hitler is reported to have exclaimed at a banquet in 1942: "Why did Schiller have to immortalize that Swiss sniper!"^[14]

Salvador Dalí painted The Old Age of William Tell and William Tell and Gradiva in 1931, and The Enigma of William Tell in 1933.

Charlie Chaplin parodies William Tell in his famous 1928 silent movie The Circus (film).

Reception after 1945[link]

Max Frisch in his "William Tell for Schools" deconstructed the legend, portraying the bailiff as a well-meaning administrator suffering from being placed in a barbaric back-corner of the empire, while Tell is a simpleton who stumbles into his adventure by a series of misunderstandings.^{[citation needed]}

Spanish playwright Alfonso Sastre re-worked the legend in 1955 in his "Guillermo Tell tiene los ojos tristes" (William Tell has sad eyes); it was not performed until the Franco regime in Spain ended.^{[citation needed]}

William Tell lives on as a hero in popular culture. He is still a powerful identification figure, and according to a 2004 survey, 60% of the Swiss believe that he existed.^[16]

Historicity debate[link]

François Guillimann, a statesman of Fribourg and later historian and advisor of the Habsburg Emperor Rudolph II, wrote to Melchior Goldast in 1607: "I followed popular belief by reporting certain details in my Swiss antiquities [published in 1598], but when I examine them closely the whole story seems to me to be pure fable."

In 1760, Simeon Uriel Freudenberger from Luzern anonymously published a tract arguing that the legend of Tell in all likelihood was based on the Danish saga of Palnatoki. A French edition of his book, written by Gottlieb Emmanuel von Haller (Guillaume Tell, Fable danoise), was burnt in Altdorf.^[17]

The skeptical view of Tell's existence remained very unpopular. Friedrich von Schiller used Tschudi's version as the basis for his play Wilhelm Tell in 1804, interpreting Tell as a glorified patriot assassin. This interpretation became very popular, especially in Switzerland, where the Tell figure was used in the early 19th century as a "national hero" and identification figure in the Helvetic Republic, and later in the beginnings of the Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft, the modern democratic federal state that developed. When historian Joseph Eutych Kopp dared to question the legend in the 1830s, his effigy was burnt on the Rütli, a meadow above Lake Lucerne where — according to the legend — the oath was sworn that concluded the alliance between the founding cantons of the Swiss confederacy.

Historians continued to argue over the saga until well into the 20th century. In 1891 Wilhelm Öchsli published a scientific account of the founding of the confederacy (commissioned by the government for the celebration of the first National holiday of Switzerland on August 1, 1891), dismissing the story as fiction. Still, 50 years later in 1941, when Tell had again become a national identification figure, historian Karl Meyer tried to tie the saga's events to known places and events. Modern historians generally regard the saga to be fiction, since neither Tell's nor Gessler's existence can be proven. The legend also tells of a Burgenbruch, a coordinated uprising including the slighting of many forts; however, archeological evidence shows that many of these forts were abandoned and destroyed long before 1307–1308.

A possible historical basis of the legend was suggested by Arnold Schärer in 1986. He identified a Wilhelm Gorkeit of Tellikon (modern Dällikon in the Canton of Zurich) as the real William Tell. "Gorkeit", he claimed, was a version of the surname Armbruster (crossbow maker). Historians were not convinced, but the theory was once referred to by Rudolf Keller, at the time president of the nationalistic right Swiss Democrats, on 1 August 2004 in Basel.^[18]

Comparative mythology[link]

The Tell legend has been compared to a number of other myths or legends, specifically in Norse mythology, involving a magical marksman coming to the aid of a suppressed people under the sway of a tyrant. The story of a great hero successfully shooting an apple from his child's head is an archetype present in the story of Egil in the Thidreks saga (associated with the god Ullr in Eddaic tradition) as well as in the stories of Adam Bell from England, Palnatoki from Denmark and a story from Holstein.

Such parallels were pointed out as early as 1760 by Gottlieb Emmanuel von Haller and the pastor Simeon Uriel Freudenberger in a short leaflet with the title William Tell, a Danish Fable (German: Der Wilhelm Tell, ein dänisches Mährgen).^[19]

Rochholz (1877) connects the similarity of the Tell legend to the stories of Egil and Palnatoki with the legends of a migration from Sweden to Switzerland during the Middle Ages. He also adduces parallels in folktales among the Finns and the Lapps (Sami). From pre-Christian Norse mythology, Rochholz compares Ullr, who bears the epithet of Boga-As ("bow-god"), Heimdall and also Odin himself, who according to the Gesta Danorum (Book 1, chapter 8.16) assisted Haddingus by shooting ten bolts from a crossbow in one shot, killing as many foes. Rochholz further compares Indo-European and oriental traditions and concludes (pp. 35–41) that the legend of the master marksman shooting an apple (or similar small target) was known outside the Germanic sphere (Germany, Scandinavia, England) and the adjacent regions (Finland and the Baltic) in India, Arabia, Persia and the Balkans (Serbia).

The Danish legend of Palnatoki, first attested in the twelfth-century Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus.^[20] is the earliest known parallel to the Tell legend. As with William Tell, Palnatoki is forced by the ruler, (in this case King Harald Bluetooth), to shoot an apple off his son's head as proof of his marksmanship.^[21] A striking similarity between William Tell and Palnatoki is that both heroes take more than one arrow out of their quiver.^[20] When asked why he pulled several arrows out of his quiver, Palnatoki, too, replies that if he had struck his son with the first arrow, he would have shot King Harald with the remaining two arrows.^[20]

See also[link]

• Historiography of Switzerland
• Robin Hood
• William Wallace
• Arnold Winkelried

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Bergier, Jean-François. Wilhelm Tell: Realität und Mythos. München: Paul List Verlag, 1990.
• Fiske, John. Myths and Myth-Makers: Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology, 1877. Ch. 1: (On-line) Quotes Saxo Grammaticus, the ballad of William of Cloudeslee, and instances other independent occurrences.
• Head, Randolph C. "William Tell and His Comrades: Association and Fraternity in the Propaganda of Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Switzerland." in The Journal of Modern History 67.3 (1995): 527–557.
• Keightley, Thomas. Tales and Popular Fictions: Their Resemblance and Transmission from Country to Country. London: Whittaker, 1834.
• Öchsli, W. Die Anfänge der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft. Zürich, 1891.
• Rochholz, Ernst Ludwig, Tell und Gessler in Sage und Geschichte. Nach urkundlichen Quellen, Heilbronn, 1877 (online copy).
• Salis, J.-R. v.: Ursprung, Gestalt, und Wirkung des schweizerischen Mythos von Tell; Bern, 1973.
• Schärer, Arnold Claudio, Und es gab Tell doch, Lucerne, 1986, ISBN 3-85725-106-9, OCLC 19264018.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: William Tell

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Tell, William.

• Wilhelm Tell Festival, New Glarus
• William Tell, Swissinfo special
• The Legend of William Tell by Markus Jud.
• The birth of the Swiss Confederation.
• William Tell is a lie; "Coopzeitung" 28/2004, interview with historian Sablonier, Zurich, translated
• Translation of Grimm's Saga No. 298 "The Three Tells"