Johan Peter Selmer (1844-1910) had originally intended to study law; he was forced, however, to spend time abroad in an attempt to cure a lung disease. In 1869 he embarked on music studies in Paris and, like his contemporary Johan Svendsen, was very taken with Hector Berlioz musical ideas. Selmer became actively involved in the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 and had to flee Paris for fear of his life. In 1871 he resumed his studies in Leipzig. Even in such…
Johan Peter Selmer (1844-1910) had originally intended to study law; he was forced, however, to spend time abroad in an attempt to cure a lung disease. In 1869 he embarked on music studies in Paris and, like his contemporary Johan Svendsen, was very taken with Hector Berlioz musical ideas. Selmer became actively involved in the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 and had to flee Paris for fear of his life. In 1871 he resumed his studies in Leipzig. Even in such a conservative environment he continued to compose, inspired by Berlioz. Selmer was the first composer after Grieg and Svendsen to receive a State composers grant, which he did in 1879, and for a period he conducted the Kristiania Music Society. Selmer composed choral songs, Lieder and piano pieces, but it is his eight orchestral works which have earned him a place in history as a Norwegian representative of programme music and the musical realism that dominated the so-called New German school at the end of the 19th century. In his day Selmer was looked upon as a rebel and a revolutionary; a foreign, exotic figure on the Norwegian music scene. Despite the fact that his music was performed a good deal while he was alive, all of his works, with the exception of the song Tollekniven, gathered dust in the archives of Norsk musikksamling for many years. 2006