Voces Intimae

Agathe Backer-Grøndahl

The musical talent of the norwegian composer Agathe Backer-Grøndahl (1847 – 1907) was early discovered. Aged 17 she left for Berlin against the will of her parents to study the piano. Three years later she made her début in Christiania (now Oslo) with Beethoven’s 5th piano concerto under the baton of an unknown conductor named Edward Grieg. After this, she went on studying with the very best of the times: Franz Liszt and Hans von Bülow personally.

One glance at her music and you can tell she must have been an excellent pianist, and indeed she was hailed, even by G.B. Shaw, to be the “true heiress of Clara Schumann”. In 1875 Backer-Grøndahl was elected member of the Royal Academy of Music in Sweden. She was of great influence to the nordic music scene, and in my opinion would probably have been better known to us today than Grieg, had she only been a man. She was part of the norwegian suffrage movement, bur kept a low profile in this not to jeopardize her music sales.

Agathe Backer Grøndahl Til mit Hjertes Dronning / To the queen of my heart | The Art Song Project Jenni Pinnock / Bells in the Rain Vogler & Lindqvist Living composers, Songs, Songs by Female composers November 22, 2012

Today we call them art songs, but when this specific genre first appeared in the late 18th century, they were simply “songs,” nearly always scored for what is now a classic combination: piano and voice. At the time, the Industrial Revolution was helping to create a new class of music lovers. The new Middle Class was wealthy enough to want access to musical entertainment at home, but not wealthy enough to hire live-in court musicians like the aristocratic classes. What they could afford was the perfect new domestic instrument: the piano.

The ability to play the piano and sing became a status symbol for middle and upper middle class families, especially among women (as you might know from the novels of Jane Austen or the Brontë sisters). This made home music a lucrative market for composers. The earliest Lieder [pronounced “leader”], or German art songs, were written for voice and simple piano accompaniment, so that home musicians could accompany themselves or their friends at the piano.

Throughout the 19th century, the genre of art song developed into a sophisticated art form for the concert stage as well as for the home. However, in one sense, it’s never abandoned its domestic beginnings: most art songs are still scored for voice and piano.

Politics and Music!

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