Walter Meyer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Stuart Sinclair wrote:
>
>>I discovered these 2 beautiful concertos recently.  I have to say what
>>stunning Music and what a tragedy that so much of his music was destroyed
>>in the way that it was.
>
>I knew nothing about this composer until reading this post and, checking
>him out in the New Grove, discovered nothing about the way so much of his
>music was destroyed to which you allude.  Could you tell us more?

Tveitt loved to edit his works in eternities and make new versions of old
works.  Therefore he insisted to keep his scores in his own house, which
was made of wood and burnt down around 1970.  4/5 of Tveitts production,
or ca 300 works were lost in that fire, to great part larger works too.
You can see he was a very productive composer.  When he put pen to paper,
the music just flooded out of him.  But I strongly recommend you to listen
to his music.  It is wonderful, blooming of life, and very Norwegian in
sound.  I consider him by all means Norwegias greatest muscial talent, and
the last years, after a biography came out, there has been a just growing
interest in the man and his music, which reveals itself to really be worth
studying.  Except for that Tveitt loves to incorporate rythms of Norwegian
folkdances, like the Halling or the Springar, much of the Norwegian
atmosphere is catched through the use of the Lydian modality, which a great
part of Norwegian folkfiddleringmusic is based upon.  By the way; the
opening of the 5th pianoconcerto will make you think you are listening
to another work which you know....

Mats Norrman
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