Rikard Nordraak (12 June 1842 – 20 March 1866) was a
Norwegian composer. He is best known as the composer of the Norwegian
national anthem
A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and European ...
, "
Ja, vi elsker dette landet
"" (; ) is the national anthem of Norway. Originally a patriotic song, it became commonly regarded as the ''de facto'' national anthem of Norway in the early 20th century after being used alongside "" since the 1860s. It was officially adopted in ...
".
Biography
Rikard Nordraak was born and grew up in
Oslo
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 ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
. His family came from the Nordråk farm in the district
Land
Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of Earth not submerged by the ocean or another body of water. It makes up 29.2% of Earth's surface and includes all continents and islands. Earth's land sur ...
in the county of
Oppland
Oppland is a former county in Norway which existed from 1781 until its dissolution on 1 January 2020. The old Oppland county bordered the counties of Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The ...
. His father was a brother of Inger Elise Nordraach, the mother of the Norwegian writer and poet,
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson ( , ; 8 December 1832 – 26 April 1910) was a Norwegian writer who received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished ...
.
Nordraak's musical gifts became evident at an early age, but as for many other artists at that time, a different career was already planned. He was going to pursue a career within business, and when he was fifteen he was sent to business school in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
. Nonetheless his musical interests prevailed and instead of studying business he ended up studying music, and in 1859 he went to
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 ...
for advanced studies. After six months he had to return home and he continued studies in
Oslo
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 ...
, and his first compositions came during the winter of 1859–60. In 1861 he went back to Berlin to continue his studies, and he stayed there for two more years.
The compositions that he himself marked opus 1 were published in 1863, and contained six songs with texts by his cousin Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, amongst others. At this time Nordraak also composed ''
Ja, vi elsker'', which became the Norwegian national anthem. It was first performed publicly on 17 May 1864 in connection with the 50th anniversary of the
Norwegian Constitution
The 'Constitution of Norway'' (complete name: The Constitution of the Kingdom of Norway; Danish: ; Norwegian Bokmål: ; Norwegian Nynorsk: ) was adopted on 16 May and signed on 17 May 1814 by the Norwegian Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll. ...
. The lyrics were written by Bjørnson between 1859 and 1868.
In 1864, he met
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 ...
in Copenhagen and inspired him with the idea of devoting his genius to Norwegian melody and the cultivation of a specifically national art. Nordraak later wrote incidental music for Bjørnson's plays ''Maria Stuart i Skotland'' and ''Sigurd Slembe''. He published his ''Fem norske Digte: Op. 2'', consisting of songs and poems by Bjørnson and
Jonas Lie. This was the last of his compositions that would be published during his lifetime.

In May 1865, he returned to Berlin to continue his education, but he was stricken with
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
in October and died in Paris the following March, only 23 years old. He was buried in Kirchhof Jerusalem in the Berlin neighborhood of
Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Berlin-Mitte, Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in ...
(''Friedhof IV der Gemeinde Jerusalem – und Neue Kirche''). In 1925, Nordraak's coffin was brought home to Norway and buried in the Honor Grove at
VÃ¥r Frelsers gravlund in Oslo.
Nordraak did not live long enough to produce much music. About forty compositions, mostly smaller works like songs, pieces for male choir and a few piano compositions, have been preserved. The biggest of these compositions, is the ''Scherzo Capriccio'' for piano solo, given the opus number 3, published posthumously by Edvard Grieg. This is a kind of
rondo
The rondo or rondeau is a musical form that contains a principal theme (music), theme (sometimes called the "refrain") which alternates with one or more contrasting themes (generally called "episodes", but also referred to as "digressions" or "c ...
, using several features from Norwegian folk music; rhythms typical in
slåtter, and dissonances typical for the
hardingfele. However, the thematic material does not have this connection with folk music. ''Rikard Nordraak. Samlede verker'', a critical edition of Nordraak overall compositions were published by
Øyvind Anker and
Olav Gurvin (1942).
With his passionate patriotism and great love for folk music, Nordraak's main contribution to Norwegian music history was to be an inspiration for contemporary composers, such as Grieg. When Grieg heard of Nordraak's death, he composed the ''
Funeral March in Memory of Rikard Nordraak'' (''Sørgemarsj over Rikard Nordraak''). Part of his life story was dramatised in the musical ''
Song of Norway''.
''Rikard Nordraak''
Classical Composers Database
Quotation
Nordraak himself explained his musical faith in this way:
References
Other sources
*Grinde, Nils ''A History of Norwegian Music'' (University of Nebraska Press. 1991)
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nordraak, Rikard
1842 births
1866 deaths
19th-century Norwegian classical composers
19th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Burials at the Cemetery of Our Saviour
Tuberculosis deaths in France
National anthem writers
Norwegian Romantic composers
Pupils of Theodor Kullak