Geirr Tveitt - the Biography
		TVEITT, Geirr, 1908-1981, composer, pianist and music theorist. Born in Bergen, October 9th 1908, and named Nils. Changed his name to Geirr in 1935. Died in Oslo, February 1st 1981. Buried in Vikøy, Kvam, Hardanger.
		by Reidar Storaas translated by Mari Skjerdal Lysne
		In the Geirr’s first four years the Tveit family lived in Bergen, and after that, one year at Lofthus. Later his father was made director of Danvik Christian School for nine years. In Drammen, where the school was situated, Geirr had all his years of primary school, but already from childhood he was tightly connected to his family in Hardanger and the scenery there. The family spent all their holidays in Hardanger. In 1941 Geirr Tveitt settled on the family farm Tveit in Norheimsund, Hardanger. There he built the composer’s home Bjødnabrakane in the hills 230 metres above sea level, where he lived for many years before he built a new house on the farm. His last fifteen years, Geirr Tveitt lived in Oslo. Tveitt grew up in a Christian, culturally open-minded home, with able access to books, paintings and music. He was familiar with the Old Norse Heimskringla and Edda from childhood, and also with Norwegian poets. He carried these literary sources with him into his composing, where a vigorous imagination transformed the impulses into musical poetry. Tveitt met strong impulses during his time in upper secondary school at Voss (1924-28). There he met an environment concerned with preserving and revitalizing Norwegian culture. Especially encounters with the traditional Hardanger fiddle played an important part in this. A recommendation from Norwegian composer Christian Sinding opened Tveitt’s road to the well-known Leipzig Conservatory of Music. Without any previous formal musical education, he started a four-year study of piano and composition. It was a hard school, but the student showed endurance and would soon prove his talent. He made his debut as a composer in April 1931 with his Concert for piano in F minor, which was performed by the Leipzig Symphony Orchestra. This concert received praise in the German media, and was also performed in Bergen and Oslo. Already in 1930 Breitkopf & Härtel published Geirr Tveitt’s 12 tvorøystes fyristudiar (12 Two-part inventions). They were on the programme when Tveitt had his first concert in Norway on March 3. 1934. By now he had finished his studies, with stays in Paris and Vienna. He came home with plans of a ballet, and developed Baldurs draumar (Baldur’s Dreams) based on the Edda. The Norse world of ideas, a mythical landscape of tales and sagas, was basis for a musically modern work with a primitive subject, influenced by among others Stravinskij’s The Rite of Spring. A piano version with solos was performed in Leipzig and Berlin, Oslo and Bergen in 1935. Geirr Tveitt conducted the first orchestration of the ballet in Oslo in 1938, a major breakthrough for the composer. A fragment of Baldurs draumar was also performed in Copenhagen, and as an orchestra suite in Paris.
		During the second half of the 1930s and the war years, Geirr Tveitt collected folk music from oral sources in Hardanger. From a collection of more than a thousand, he arranged fifty folk tunes for piano. In the collection Hundrad hardingtonar (100 Hardanger Tunes) for orchestra there are four suites adding up to sixty different numbers, some of them the composer’s own “folk songs”. The vital melodies, masterly instrumentation and rich feeling of these compositions, place both the piano version opus 150 and the orchestra version opus 151 among the most important Norwegian musical works. Geirr Tveitt was taken up with the Norse mythology tied to Germanic heathendom and race ideas that were important in the social debate during the 1920s and 30s. In Oslo, he joined the society around the national socialist magazine Ragnarok, which worked for a change in the Norwegian society based on race ideas. Tveitt was musical consultant of the state, for the Nazi-regime in occupied Norway, from 1940 to 1942, and was excluded from the Norwegian Society of Composers in 1945 for alleged non-national attitude during the War. In 1946, he was accepted back in. Tveitt was never a member of the ruling party during World War II, Nasjonal Samling. An investigative committee led by presiding judge Erik Solem “was sorry” that Tveitt accepted artists’ stipends and scholarships during the occupation, but stated that Tveitt had worked against the nazification with all available means and had been a help for the national front. From 1958, Geirr Tveitt received artists’ scholarship from the state. As a performer, Geirr Tveitt was a virtuoso in the tradition following composer-pianists like Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev. Experience with practical problems on the piano triggered his imagination and he stretched the boundaries for what sounds could emanate from a piano. Examples of this are the visionary sonata no. 29 Sonata etere, the etude Eolsharpa (The Aeolian harp)and Solgudens dans (Dance of the Sun God).
		During the 1950s and the beginning of the 60s, Tveitt composed solo concerts for piano, Hardanger fiddle and harp, one symphony and opera. In the early 60s he made a series of special poets’ portraits with new music for the Norwegian radio (NRK). Many of which became very popular. With these, Tveitt contributed greatly to the Norwegian song treasure.
		Geirr Tveitt was a fascinating person with strong inner contrasts. He had a temper it was difficult to control, and mildness and warmth could quickly go over in rage. He was stubborn like few, and a limitless fantasy could result in wild ideas in words and action, like it also is reflected in his music. He was the most colourful composer of his generation – and probably the most productive as well. A terrible tragedy struck the artist when his house in Norheimsund, which contained most of his original material, burned to the ground in 1970. Although the fire destroyed much of his work, there is still a long list of works from an original composer. Since 1981, the family, with support from the public, has done an extensive work restoring and reconstructing damaged sheet music and scores. An increase in the performance of Tveitt’s work and recordings of his music has made Geirr Tveitt a well-known name in musical circles all over the world.
		Photos
		1. Geirr Tveitt at the piano in Bjødnabrakane. Dressed for a concert.(Foto: Kvam Herad / Alfred Vikør / the Tveitt family) 2. Geirr Tveitt 6 years old. Cropped from a larger photo. (Photo: the Tveitt family) 3. Geirr Tveitt at the piano. (Photo: the Tveitt family)