Directions for Binding

Enclosed in this envelope is the cord and the
needle with which to bind this book. Start in from
the outside as shown on the diagram here. Pass the
needle and thread through the center of the book,
leaving an end extend outside, then through to the
outside, about 2 inches from the center; then from
the outside to inside 2 inches from the center at the
other end of the book, bringing the thread finally
again through the center, and tie the two ends in a
knot, one each side of the cord on the outside.

THEO. PRESSER CO., Pub’s., Phila., Pa.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

This book is one of a series known as the CHILD’S OWN
BOOK OF GREAT MUSICIANS, written by Thomas
Tapper, author of “Pictures from the Lives of the Great Composers
for Children,” “Music Talks with Children,” “First
Studies in Music Biography,” and others.

The sheet of illustrations included herewith is to be cut
apart by the child, and each illustration is to be inserted in its
proper place throughout the book, pasted in the space containing
the same number as will be found under each picture on the
sheet. It is not necessary to cover the entire back of a picture
with paste. Put it only on the corners and place neatly within
the lines you will find printed around each space. Use photographic
paste, if possible.

After this play-work is completed there will be found at
the back of the book blank pages upon which the child is to
write his own story of the great musician, based upon the facts
and questions found on the previous pages.

The book is then to be sewed by the child through the
center with the cord found in the enclosed envelope. The book
thus becomes the child’s own book.

This series will be found not only to furnish a pleasing and
interesting task for the children, but will teach them the main
facts with regard to the life of each of the great musicians—an
educational feature worth while.

This series of the Child’s Own Book of Great Musicians
includes at present a book on each of the following:

Copyright, 1921, by Theo. Presser Co.
British Copyright Secured
Printed in U. S. A.

NAME

BORN

DIED

The Story of the Boy Who Made Music
in the Land of the Midnight Sun

This is the picture of a boy who was born in the
north of the world. He loved his mother country and
the music which the people sang.

But he had music, all his own, that sang and sang in
his heart. It was happy music and sad; solemn and
joyous. You will hear it some day and love it all.

Even when this little boy was in the primary school
the music knocked at his heart’s door as if it would say:

“Let me out into the world so that people may
hear me.”

GRIEG AS A BOY

When he was twelve years old he started out one
morning as usual, but instead of taking his school
books he took with him his music writing book which
contained what he termed “Variation on a German
Melody Op. 1.”

FROM THE NORWEGIAN BRIDAL PROCESSION Listen

Can you not imagine how proud he must have been
of his Op. 1?

GRIEG’S SIGNATURE

His schoolmates were very proud to see the music
of their companion Edvard. But alas! While they
were looking at it and talking about it, whom do you
think came creeping up behind them?

Why, the schoolmaster, to be sure.

He gave little Edvard a rough shaking up and told
him how severely he would be punished if ever again
he brought such nonsense to school.

Poor old schoolmaster! He did not know what
Edvard Grieg would one day mean to the land and
people of Norway. For Edvard loved not only the
music that kept singing in him, but he loved Norway
and all its people. Do you think any one could help
loving such mountains as these?

NORWEGIAN MOUNTAIN SCENE

But all the grown up folks of Edvard’s world did
not call his music rubbish. His mother loved music
and played beautifully. It was
from her that Edvard had his
first lessons, just as Mendelssohn
was first taught by his mother.

Then one day something
wonderful happened. A great
violinist, Ole Bull by name, visited
the Grieg family in the country.
He was so kind to the little
composer that the boy just loved
him.

OLE BULL

Ole Bull had traveled the world over playing the
violin. He looked over Edvard’s compositions and
made the boy play them to him. You can see him
nodding his head in pleasure as he listens. His fine
eyes are lighted up. He tells the boy composer that
his music is quite good, but that there is a lot for him
to learn yet. So he must study earnestly and make
many sacrifices.

Then Ole Bull sits down and talks with Father
and Mother Grieg. It is a serious talk, as one can
see. Finally, when the talk is finished, Ole Bull takes
the wondering boy by the hand and says to him:

“You are going to Leipzig to study and become a
fine musician.”

So Edvard Grieg left his home city, Bergen, its
mountains, its fjords, its people, his father and mother,
and traveled south through Norway, across the
water and into Germany. No doubt he was a lonesome
boy. Life had become serious all at once and
there was much to be done.

BERGEN FJORD

It was all strange and new. Instead of hills and
the waters of the fjords, there were tall, dark houses,
gloomy streets, and such a lot of hurrying people.

SCENE IN LEIPZIG

But he soon grew used to it all and was busy as
could be with lessons in piano and harmony. Just as
in the earlier days in school, so in Leipzig, Edvard
wrote music as it sounded in his heart. In the harmony
lessons he could not make himself write plain
chords to the bass which was given him as an exercise.
He wrote the light, airy, lovely, fanciful tunes and
rhythms that were singing
within him. And just like
the schoolmaster at home,
the harmony teacher
shouted at him, saying:

“No, that is all wrong!”

His harmony teacher
was E. F. Richter.

E. F. RICHTER

But you remember that
Ole Bull understood the
boy’s music. While here
in Leipzig there were many
who understood it too.

Bit by bit Edvard made friends who loved to listen
to his pieces. One of them was Niels Gade, a fine
musician in Denmark, who was a friend of Schumann’s,
who one time, wrote a Northern Song on the
letters on Gade’s name. It begins like this:

GADE’S MUSICAL NAME Listen

And Edvard too once wrote a fugue on the letters
G-A-D-E.

So inspiring was his music study that Edvard
worked very hard. He composed a great deal of
music which slowly made friends for him. Robert
Schumann was one who spoke kindly of the young
Norwegian and his music. And so he grew and improved.
Because he was true to his talent, he made
many friends not only in Leipzig but throughout
Europe, as we shall see.

R. SCHUMANN

You will learn some day the names of many of
the people who became friends of Grieg. There
were Rikard Nordraak, and later on Franz Liszt.
Grieg became one of the group of great Norwegian
artists in which Henrik Ibsen and Bjornstjerne Bjornson
were prominent. Indeed, Grieg wrote the music
to Ibsen’s Peer Gynt. One of the great pleasures of
Grieg’s life was Bjornson’s Patriotic Poem to his
own music.

NORDRAAK

LISZT

IBSEN

BJORNSON

One day Grieg showed Gade a composition called
In Autumn which Gade did not like. “It is too Norwegian,”
he said. This pleased Grieg, although Gade
told him to go home and write something better. He
was nearly as rough as Grieg’s schoolmaster.

But one day later a prize was offered in Sweden
for an orchestral composition. Grieg’s In Autumn
won the prize. And Gade was one of the judges. We
wonder if he forgot about it!

GADE

Grieg married his cousin Mina Hagerup, to whom
he dedicated his famous song: I Love Thee. But the
mother of his bride did not think highly of him.

“He is a nobody,” she said, “who writes music that
no one cares to listen to.”

GRIEG AND HIS WIFE

But people were beginning to listen. After a concert
in Christiania, entirely of Norwegian music, the
Government gave Grieg a small pension and he went
to Rome.

Here he had a fine meeting with Liszt who asked
Grieg to play. Then Liszt took Grieg’s manuscript
and played it at sight, to his great delight.

When Grieg bade good-bye to Liszt the famous
pianist said to him:

“Keep on, you have talent and ability. Do not let
any one discourage or frighten you.”

So sensitive was Grieg about music writing that
he never allowed any one to watch him. So he had a
little house built in the mountains where he could
work at his leisure. This he called his “tune house.”
There was only one room and it was for all the world
like a little play house that children have. In it was
his piano and often when he was playing, the Norwegian
peasants used to group themselves outside the
door, sometimes joining in the singing, and then again
dancing to their delightful folktunes and dances.

TUNE HOUSE

Here are some pictures of Grieg as he looked in
later years.

GRIEG IN LATER YEARS

GRIEG IN LATER YEARS

As a boy in Leipzig he worked too hard and sickness
made it necessary for him to return home. From
this sickness he never fully recovered. All his life he
was frail and unable to endure severe tasks.

In appearance Grieg was short and rather bent in
figure. His hands were thin, but fine and strong for
the piano, although one of them had been crushed in
an accident. His eyes were deep blue. They looked
straight at you and were full of life and kindness.

Grieg was merry of nature; a lovely companion,
full of fun and company. Sometimes, however, he
was sad and melancholy like his own music.

GRIEG  PERCY GRAINGER  MRS. GRIEG  RONTGEN

Some day you will learn the names of many of his
compositions. And among them you will love such
pieces as The Birds, In Spring Time, Arietta, the Peer
Gynt Music, the Piano Sonata, the Piano and Violin
Sonata, and lots of lively Norwegian dances and
tunes. Indeed, he has composed many compositions
which you will number among your favorite pieces.

Three great names stand out more than all others
in the musical history of Scandinavia. You have
learned two, Edvard Grieg and Ole Bull. The other
is Jenny Lind, known as “the Swedish nightingale,”
who was loved not only for her wonderful voice but
for her kindness and noble nature. She was born at
Stockholm in 1820 and died in England in 1887. In
Sweden to this day Jennie Lind is a great national
personage. The people look upon her as we would
on Washington, Irving, Lincoln or Longfellow. She
was very beautiful.

Here is her picture.

JENNIE LIND

SOME FACTS ABOUT EDVARD GRIEG

When you have read this page and the next make
a story about Grieg’s life. Write it in your own
words. When you are quite sure you cannot improve
it, copy it on pages 15 and 16.

1. Grieg was born June 15, 1843, near Bergen,
Norway.

2. His father’s ancestors were Scotch folk who
went to Norway after the Battle of Culloden, in 1745.

3. It was Grieg’s mother who gave him his first
lessons.

4. One of his best friends—and one who did much
for him—was Ole Bull, the great violinist.

5. Grieg studied at the Leipzig Conservatory.

6. His teachers were Moscheles, Hauptmann (who
liked his music), Richter, and Papperitz.

7. Sir Arthur Sullivan, who composed the opera,
Pinafore, was one of Grieg’s fellow students at Leipzig.
Dudley Buck, the American composer, was there
at the same time.

8. Among Grieg’s friends were Gade, Nordraak,
Ibsen, Bjornson and Svendsen.

9. He married his cousin, Mina Hagerup, who was
a fine singer.

10. Grieg composed for the piano, voice, violin,
and for the orchestra.

11. Grieg wrote music to Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, at the
poet’s request.

12. The Norwegian Government granted Grieg a
pension, so that he could be free to devote himself to
composition.

13. He died September 3, 1907.

SOME QUESTIONS TO ANSWER

1. When and where was Grieg born?

2. Name some famous men of his country.

3. Who was his first teacher?

4. Through whose advice did he go to the Conservatory
at Leipzig?

5. What Danish composer gave Grieg good advice
about his compositions?

6. Who were some of Grieg’s teachers?

7. What composition by Grieg was given first
prize in the contest in Sweden?

8. What famous song did Grieg dedicate to Mina
Hagerup?

9. Tell about Grieg’s visit to Liszt in Rome.

10. Name as many of his compositions as you can.
How many have you heard?

11. Tell what you know about Grieg’s personal
appearance.

12. When did Grieg die? How old was he?

13. Who was Jenny Lind?

THE STORY OF EDVARD GRIEG

Written by………………………..

On (date)………………………..