Geirr Tveitt (October 19, 1908–February 1, 1981) was a Norwegian composer and pianist.

Life

Tveitt was born in Bergen, where his father worked as a teacher. He studied in Leipzig, under Grabner , Weinreich and Wenniger , and in Paris under Villa-Lobos, 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. After World War II, Tveitt toured Europe as a concert pianist.

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, 72 years old.

Music

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 modes, 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.

Some of his remaining music

• 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
• Telemarkin

External links

• Short biography