Educated at the Leipzig Conservatory, and later by the Danish composer Niels W. Gade, Grieg is noted as a nationalist composer, drawing inspiration from Norwegian folk music. Early works include a symphony and a pianosonata. He also wrote three sonatas for piano and violin, and his many short pieces for piano — often built on Norwegian folk dances — led some to call him the Chopin of the north.
Grieg's style was based on the German romantic tradition of music but bit by bit national awareness developed within him, coupled with a growing need to create a typical Norwegian style of music.
Later, Grieg went in search of folk music in its native environment, the written notes of folk music could only imperfectly reproduce the special atmosphere and the almost magical rhythms and harmonies that the folk musicians could coax out of their instruments.
The project was abandoned, but Grieg's dramatic talents were put to a new test when Henrik Ibsen asked him to write the incidental music to "Peer Gynt." This was no easy task for Grieg, but the music he wrote became one of the major works of the 1870s.
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