Eivind Groven - Biography

Biography

Groven was born in Lårdal and came from a gifted family of musicians and artists, prominent in his home area. His father, Olav Aasmundsson Gøytil, was the youngest of eight siblings, and two of his father's brothers played the hardanger fiddle. His mother, Aslaug Rikardsdotter Berge, was the youngest daughter of Rikard Aslaksson Berge, known for preserving a great amount of old tunes, religious songs and dance-tunes. Two of Groven's maternal uncles also played the hardanger fiddle, and his mother's sisters, as well as Aslaug herself, were gifted folk singers. Thus, Groven's rural background was filled with traditional music.

Groven was the youngest of five brothers. Two of his brothers began to play the fiddle, and soon Eivind joined them. His father Olav was also an apt player, and in their childhood, the brothers learned notes, and sometimes played together, when they got their hands on classical sheet music. Otherwise, local folk music ruled. As Eivind grew up, he understood the value of writing down the tunes he heard from other fiddlers, and in this way, he soon gained great knowledge. He was also a skilled mathematician, and early on surpassed his older brothers.

At the age of 16, Groven was infected with a serious case of wet gangrene in the lungs and barely survived it. During his reconvalescent period, he studied music and played the fiddle. He later recalled: "I was free to do whatever I wished in that time".

Eivind Groven studied at Notodden to become a teacher, as his father had been, but soon abandoned this, because music called to him. He studied musical theory and composition for a year, mostly Berlioz and Beethoven. He held Beethoven in highest esteem for the rest of his life, and wished for the 9th symphony anthem to be played at his funeral. Unlike many other young Norwegian composers at the time, he refused to go abroad, but stayed at home, composing, and developing his own distinct musical forms, based on a merging of the sonata form with the special metamorphic principles unique to the dance music from Telemark, closely related to the forms of late baroque.

In 1925, Groven married Ragna Hagen, the younger sister of the author Ingeborg Refling Hagen. This resulted in a fruitful artistic relationship, and Groven created great music based on the texts written by his sister-in-law. He and Ragna had four children, Aslaug, Tone, Dagne and Gudmund. His older brother Olav Groven, an equally gifted folk musician, died from pneumonia in 1928, and Eivind reckoned this a heavy blow.

Meanwhile, in 1931, Groven was appointed by the Norwegian Broadcasting Company, NRK, to be responsible for half an hour of folk music every week. Thus, he got a lot of gifted rural musicians to the radio, thereby preserving the folk music for posterity. Reactions from the urban public were harsh and unfriendly. Debates intensified, and people living in Oslo mostly expressed their disgust for this "barbaric music". Groven worked on, said little, as was his way, but it is known that he silently burnt all the hate-mail. He received great and valuable support from his original rural community, and from his family. Groven resigned his post in NRK during the war, after a brief and unwelcome encounter with Joseph Goebbels, in his own studio.

From 1938 and into the war, Groven started his work on just intonation, which resulted in his special organ, completed in 1952. Albert Schweitzer wrote to Groven and wished he could try this organ, and when he was granted the Nobel Peace Prize, he seized the opportunity. He exclaimed that a great organ had to be built. The concept of pure tuning in all keys had been Groven's dream from childhood.

After WWII, Groven participated in editing and publishing seven volumes of written and collected tunes for hardanger fiddle, along with two fellow folk musicians in Norway. The work was completed after their deaths. Groven continued composing, and was in later years greatly admired for his musical style and his use of the orchestra.

His wife Ragna died in 1960, and Groven remarried two years later, to Signe Taraldlien from Telemark. In the end, she outlived him by twenty years.

Groven got Parkinson's disease in 1964, and had to put away the fiddle. The medications available at the time caused undue stress to his heart, and he died at the age of 75, in Oslo during the winter of 1977. He is buried alongside his first wife in the cemetery at Tangen, Hedmark.