There are three Norwegian artists who, more than any others, have placed Norway on the cultural map of the world: Henrik Ibsen, Edvard Grieg and Edvard Munch. In Norwegian music research, Grieg and his music have held a central position. After approximately 30 years of work, Edvard Grieg’s Complete Works (Edvard Grieg Gesamtausgabe) have now been published in 20 volumes by the international publishing house C. F. Peters Musikverlag, Frankfurt / Leipzig / London / New York. Also worth mentioning is the major biography of Grieg (1980), written by Finn Benestad and Dag Schjelderup-Ebbe, and translated into English, Russian and German. Grieg’s letters are being published, and most of them will be available in print during 1997.

Among other research within the project area, one must mention a five-volume edition of Halfdan Kjerulf’s collected works, edited by Nils Grinde, as well as a number of monographs: Johan Svendsen, Rikard Nordraak, Christian Sinding (doctoral thesis), Johannes Haarklou (doctoral thesis), Johan Halvorsen (doctoral thesis in progress), Carl Arnold and Ole Bull. There are likewise several works dealing with Norwegian musical life in the relevant period.

In our opinion, the time is now ripe to view Grieg and his contribution in a broader national and international perspective. An important part of the project was to comprise stylistic studies of Grieg’s music in relation to contemporary European composers. The focus was also on the cultural conditions in Norway and Europe that made Grieg’s work possible, and on his significance in his own era and in the period immediately following. Grieg was, to the highest degree, instrumental in creating a Norwegian identity and was an important link in the nation-building of the last century.