{"id":21566,"date":"2026-01-23T19:47:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T00:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=21566"},"modified":"2026-01-23T19:47:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T00:47:31","slug":"edvard-grieg-killer-composer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=21566","title":{"rendered":"Edvard Grieg, killer composer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Norway 1876: Grieg\u2019s Spirit | Healing from the North?\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Vm_qHdPI4bM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Recently, it\u2019s been my habit, <\/strong>during my morning writing sessions, to tune my TV to some kind of classical music collection from out of the great variety available on YouTube.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Edvard Grieg is always a good choice for me, and I\u2019ve found a couple really weird Grieg collections lately. One of them is posted above. The quotations it features seem dubious to me, and the art was obviously created by AI. Yet the resulting dreamlike concoction seems to suit my so-called creative process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you take the time to watch this video, you\u2019ll notice a couple odd images featuring large frogs. I did some web searches about \u201cGrieg\u2019s frog,\u201d and discovered that the composer did, in fact, have a frog, which he kept in his pocket. It was (I was relieved to learn) not a living frog, but a toy frog (rubber, apparently). It was his good luck charm, and he liked to rub it before performing in public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I learned of that fact in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cmuse.org\/7-fun-facts-about-edward-grieg\/\">this article<\/a>, which goes on to tell a truly bizarre story \u2013 one that seems to me absolutely too good to be true. I can\u2019t find it mentioned anywhere else online, so I reserve the right to doubt it. But it goes like this (excerpted as published):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once, the great Norwegian composer was giving a splendid concert in Oslo. In the beginning, he decided to make a programme including only his own compositions, but then he changed his mind and replaced the finishing number with a composition by Beethoven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As it was usual, the following day, the concert reviews were published in newspapers. It should be remembered that Edvard Grieg, as many talented people, had a lot of ill-wising critics. And one of them, he had an especially strong dislike for Edvard Grieg\u2019s music, wrote a humiliating critic article about the composer\u2019s concert. The number which drew particular attention of the critic was the last one, he disliked that the most. The critic mentioned venomously that the composition was simply ridiculous and absolutely unacceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Having read the critical article, Edvard Grieg called the critic on the phone and said:<br>\u2013 This is Beethoven\u2019s spirit disturbing you. I should tell you that it was me who had composed the finishing composition of Edvard Grieg\u2019s concert!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The disgraced critic felt far too awful as it was, and the joke became the last drop, he died from a heart attack.<em> (Credit: CMuse)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s always sad when anyone dies, of course, but I don\u2019t think any artist can help feeling a little wistful as he reads that anecdote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, it\u2019s been my habit, during my morning writing sessions, to tune my TV to some kind of classical music collection from out of the great variety available on YouTube. Edvard Grieg is always a good choice for me, and I\u2019ve found a couple really weird Grieg collections lately. One of them is posted above. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=21566\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Edvard Grieg, killer composer<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[846],"class_list":["post-21566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-edvard-grieg"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21566"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21568,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21566\/revisions\/21568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}