Agathe Backer Grøndahl

Touch for directions.

Click or scan to see
this page online

Region,

Arc,

Europe,

Europe,

Scandinavia,

Countries,

Area,

World.

Overview: Agathe Ursula Backer Grøndahl (1 December 1847 – 4 June 1907) was a Norwegian pianist and composer. Her son Fridtjof Backer-Grøndahl (1885–1959) was also a pianist and composer, who

Photographed by Andrew Ruppenstein, July 11, 2024

2. Agathe Backer Grøndahl Marker - wide view

promoted his mother's compositions in his concerts.

Compositional style: Agathe Backer Grøndahl played a major role in the period often called the golden age of Norwegian music history. She composed in total some 400 pieces spanning seventy opus numbers. She was a prominent character on the Norwegian musical scene and a close friend of Edvard Grieg. Her earlier compositions synthesized the predominant pianistic and stylistic ideas of 1850s Europe. In her later years however, her style transformed and anticipated some of the early twentieth century impressionistic ideas, which ultimately led the composer Pauline Hall to call her the first true Norwegian impressionist.

Excerpt: Backer Grøndahl initially persisted with both composition and performance tours after her marriage to the choral director Olaus Andreas Grøndahl in 1875. They had four children, of which three survived. However, from the age of thirty her hearing deteriorated, resulting eventually in complete deafness. Despite encouragement from Grieg and a brave attempt

courtesy Wikimedia Commons, circa 1870

3. Agathe Backer Grøndahl

to return to concert life, from 1903 she turned her energies to composition and teaching; the latter was an important source of household income. Her output includes numerous songs and piano works, some choral works, a cantata and two orchestral works. Pianists may be interested in her exceptionally fine concert studies. Her Scherzo for orchestra is the first work by a woman to be publicly performed in Norway.