Georg Michael Dødelein Reiss (August 12, 1861 – January 25, 1914) was a Norwegian lawyer, composer, and musicologist. In 1913 he became the first Norwegian to receive a doctorate on a music theory subject.

Career

Reiss was trained as a lawyer; he received his

candidate of law Candidate ( or ) is the name of various academic degrees, which are today mainly awarded in Scandinavia. The degree title was phased out in much of Europe through the 1999 Bologna Process, which has re-formatted academic degrees in Europe. The de ...

degree in 1886, and he started working as a secretary in the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs in 1899. He was a pupil of

Ludvig Mathias Lindeman Ludvig Mathias Lindeman (28 November 1812 – 11 March 1887) was a Norwegian composer and organist. He is most noted for compiling Norwegian folk music in his work ''Ældre og nyere norske Fjeldmelodier''. Background Ludvig Mathias Lindeman was ...

Otto Winter-Hjelm Otto Winter-Hjelm (8 October 1837 – 3 May 1931) was a Norwegian musician, conductor, writer, composer and music critic. Life and career Otto Winther-Hjelm was born in Christiana (Oslo), and studied in Leipzig and Berlin. During his career, he ...

, and Christian Cappelen. Later he also studied at the Academy of Music in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. He was organist at Saint Peter's Church (since 1962 Sofienberg Church) in

Kristiania Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022, an ...

from 1893 to 1914, and he was a music reviewer for ''

Dagbladet () is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally it was considered the main liberal newspaper of Norway, with a ...

'' from 1893 to 1896, for ''Nordisk Musikrevue'' from 1903 to 1906, and for ''

Verdens Gang (), generally known under the abbreviation ''VG'', is a Norway, Norwegian Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper. In 2016, circulation numbers stood at 93,883, declining from a peak circulation of 390,510 in 2002. Nevertheless, ''VG'' is ...

'' from 1904 onward. Reiss himself wrote a church cantata in 1902, and other compositions for voice and choir, including an eight-part

kyrie ', a transliteration of Greek , vocative case of ('' Kyrios''), is a common name of an important prayer of Christian liturgy, also called the ( ; ). In the Bible The prayer, , "Lord, have mercy" derives from a Biblical phrase. Greek , ...

. With support from the Nansen Foundation and as a

government scholar Government scholar () is a position awarded by the Parliament of Norway upon the recommendation of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education and Research and funded directly over the state budget of Norway. The position can be "for li ...

starting in 1908, Reiss studied

neume A neume (; sometimes spelled neum) is the basic element of Western and some Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff (music), staff notation. The earliest neumes were inflective marks that indicated the gener ...

notation, paleography, and medieval music theory, published manuscripts from the

National Archives National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention. Conceptual development From the Middle Ages i ...

, worked on two sequences for

Saint Olav Saint Olaf ( – 29 July 1030), also called Olaf the Holy, Olaf II, Olaf Haraldsson, and Olaf the Stout or "Large", was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. Son of Harald Grenske, a petty king in Vestfold, Norway, he was posthumously given the ...

, and received a PhD in 1913 with his dissertation ''Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden'' (Music in the Medieval Olav Cult in the Nordic Countries), which was Norway's first doctorate in music history.

Family

Georg Reiss was the son of the music teacher Hans Peter Reiss (1824–1908) and Petronelle Cornelia Hansen (1832–1879). Georg Reiss married Elisabeth Dymling (1861–1920), a merchant's daughter, in

Vänersborg Vänersborg () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Vänersborg Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 23,882 inhabitants (out of a municipal total of 39,904) Until 1997 it was the capital of Älvsborg County, which mer ...

in 1893. They were the parents of the actor Thorleif Reiss and the pianist and cabaret performer

Elisabeth Reiss Aasta Elisabeth Reiss (June 14, 1902 – March 8, 1970) was a Norwegian pianist and cabaret performer. She was the daughter of the lawyer, composer, and musicologist Georg Reiss and the sister of the actor Thorleif Reiss. Classical pianist El ...

. Georg Reiss was the grandfather of the actor

Helge Reiss Helge Reiss (27 February 1928 – 11 November 2009) was a Norwegian actor. He was the son of the actor Thorleif Reiss. Early life Reiss was born 27 February 1928. Career He began his career in 1948 with a minor role in a low budget crime fi ...

Works

*1900: ''Drei Lieder in altern Stile für gemischten Chor a capella: Op. 3''. Christiania: Haakon Zapffe. *1908: ''Det norske rigsarkivs middelalderlige musikhaandskrifter: en oversigt''. Christiania: Dybwad. *1912: ''Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden''. Kristiania: I kommission hos J. Dybwad. (Dissertation)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reiss, Georg 1861 births 1914 deaths Norwegian jurists 19th-century Norwegian composers 20th-century Norwegian composers Norwegian male composers Norwegian musicologists Music historians Norwegian government scholars