Selmer, Johan

One of the composers of the epoch, which boasted Grieg as its chief figure and is one of the few Norwegians who have passed most of their years of study abroad. He was forced to travel in the east because of a lung affection, shortly after finishing his studies, but returned in 1868 to Paris and for two years was a pupil of Ambroise Thomas at the Conservatory in that city. He represents a more ambitious school of music than that which preceded him, and numbers among his works, many compositions in large forms, among others, In den Bergen and Nordische Festzug, both for full orchestra; Le Captive; Zug der Turken, and other cantatas; besides choruses for mixed voices; many duets; and an album of songs. Selmer's Spirit of the North, for chorus and orchestra, won a prize at Copenhagen in 1888, but his Tempest, produced the following year at a Norwegian concert in Paris, was less successful.