Rikard Nordraak
Rikard Nordraak (born June 12, 1842 in Christiania , † March 20, 1866 in Berlin ) was a Norwegian composer . At the age of 18, he composed the Norwegian national anthem Ja, vi elsker dette lands (“Yes, we love this country”) based on a poem by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson .
Life
Nordraak was born in the Norwegian capital but studied in Copenhagen . At the age of 18 he moved to Berlin and studied with Theodor Kullak and Friedrich Kiel . He died of tuberculosis in Berlin, only 23 years old, and was buried in Cemetery IV of the Jerusalems- und Neue Kirche congregation in Berlin-Kreuzberg . Nordraak was a cousin of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and a friend of Edvard Grieg , whom he strongly influenced with his idea of an independent Norwegian music. Grieg composed a funeral march for his death .
The 40th anniversary of his death in 1906 was the occasion to make the grave more representative. During a ceremony, Bjørnson, now aged, unveiled a five-meter-high granite stone from Norway, which was placed on Nordraak's Berlin grave.
In 1925 Nordraak's bones were exhumed and reburied in Oslo in Vår Frelsers Gravlund , the Norwegian national cemetery. The magnificent grave complex in Berlin was preserved.
In Oslo (then Kristiania) a statue was erected by the sculptor Gustav Vigeland in 1911.
Rikard Nordraak's first tombstone in Berlin-Kreuzberg , Cemetery IV of the Jerusalem and New Church congregation
Rikard Nordraak's first tombstone (back, detail)
Rikard Nordraak grave since 1925 on Vår Frelsers Gravlund in Oslo, Norway
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Young Nordraak was sent to business school in Copenhagen at the age of 15, instead studying music and becoming a passionate representative of the national art movement.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Nordraak, Rikard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Norwegian composer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 12, 1842 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Christiania |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 20, 1866 |
| Place of death | Berlin |