Funeral March In Memory Of Rikard Nordraak
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Edvard Grieg Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic music, Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwid ...
composed his ''
Funeral March A funeral march (' in French, ' in Italian, ' in German, ' in Polish), as a musical genre, is a march (music), march, usually in a minor key, in a slow Meter (music), "simple duple" metre, imitating the solemn pace of a funeral procession. Some suc ...
in Memory of Rikard Nordraak'' in 1866, in honour of his friend and fellow Norwegian
composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...
Rikard Nordraak Rikard Nordraak (12 June 1842 – 20 March 1866) was a Norway, Norwegian composer. He is best known as the composer of the Norwegian national anthem, "Ja, vi elsker dette landet". Biography Rikard Nordraak was born and grew up in Oslo, Norway. Hi ...
, who had died in March of that year at the age of 23. Grieg deeply respected his fellow musician and took no delay in producing the work. The march was originally written as a
piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
piece in
A minor A minor is a minor scale based on A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative major is C major and its parallel major is A major. The A natural minor scale is: Changes needed for the melodic ...
; Grieg also produced transcriptions of it for
brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...
choir and
wind band A concert band, also called a wind band, wind ensemble, wind symphony, wind orchestra, symphonic band, the symphonic winds, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of members of the woodwind, brass, and percussion famil ...
, in
B minor B minor is a minor scale based on B, consisting of the pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has two sharps. Its relative major is D major and its parallel major is B major. The B natural minor scale is: Changes need ...
. Grieg valued the work greatly, bringing it along on all of his travels. In one letter he made it clear that he wished the piece to be played at his own funeral, "as best as possible." It was played, in an orchestration by Grieg's friend and colleague Johan Halvorsen. The work has a few arrangements by later musicians, including one by Geoffrey Emerson. It lasts six to eight minutes, depending on the arrangement and tempo.


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* * Compositions by Edvard Grieg 1866 compositions March music Funerary and memorial compositions Solo piano compositions by Edvard Grieg Compositions for brass band Concert band pieces {{classical-composition-stub