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Grieg’s music brought back to his ancestors

With our thoughts turning to spring, we invited Scottish composer and conductor Tommy Fowler to reflect on the day, decades ago, he took the Girls’ Choir of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation – the Norsk Rikskringkastings Jentekor, or today’s Norwegian Girls Choir of Oslo – on a visit to Rathen Kirkyard. The visit, complete with musical surprise was, as Tommy recalls, one never to forget.

It was one of those events seared into the memory. One of those stories with such vivid emotional recollection that countless retelling never diminishes. One of those ‘moments’.

Tommy Fowler
Composer & conductor Tommy Fowler on a later visit to Rathen Kirkyard, in 2007.

I was born in Aberdeen but brought up in Fraserburgh. In the 1970s I was a journalist and also, that cliché, a keen amateur musician. Having read about Grieg’s family connection with the Fraserburgh area and undertaken some research I discovered, in the tiny cemetery attached to Rathen West Church just a few miles south of Fraserburgh, the grave of John Greig and Anne Milne, Edvard Grieg’s great-great-grandparents. It was completely overgrown and indeed not the first grave I literally uncovered until I found the one I was looking for. As a journalist I had strong connections with the district council and persuaded them to erect a plaque on a nearby wall. Despite the plaque-makers’ confusion with the spelling of Greig/Grieg; no doubt assuming that it was my typing error, the plaque remains to this day. However, the flat, ground-level gravestone is again overgrown and the carved lettering even more difficult to read than it was then – almost 50 years ago.  Continue reading “Grieg’s music brought back to his ancestors”

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First phase of project ‘Monumentally Grieg!’ gets underway

Over two bright, but bracing January days, our Honorary Director made a special visit to the Aberdeenshire village of Rathen to set the Society’s project Monumentally Grieg! in motion. Though the weather was chill, the welcome could not have been warmer.

Day 1 was set aside to meet informally with representatives of Banff and Buchan Community Council and Aberdeenshire Council, to chat and scope out ideas for the local community’s participation in both conservation and interpretation aspects of the project. We were delighted to find that word had spread, and as we gathered for our conversation in the kirkyard, our meeting with three, grew to a gathering with seven interested individuals, including two members of the local kirk session, plus one of the two head teachers and the pupil support assistant at Rathen Primary School.

The Grieg Society of Scotland meets the local community at Rathen, Aberdeenshire
Left to right: Frances Kelly (Pupil Support Asst, Rathen Primary School), David Bellany (Chair, Banff & Buchan Community Council), Ian Campbell (Session Clerk, Rathen West Church), Cllr Charles Buchan (Aberdeenshire Council), Linda Walker (Sec, Banff & Buchan Community Council), Kathleen Catto (Dep Session Clerk, Rathen West Church), Dr Sally LK Garden (Hon Director, Grieg Society of Scotland). Out of shot: Jacqueline Geddes (Head Teacher, Rathen Primary School).

The meeting generated a number of productive themes the Society can help develop with the input of the community. These include: education and language-learning, local heritage and family history, tourism, and community participation in conservation workshop activity.

We learned too, that composer Edvard Grieg is ‘aye ca’d’ – always called, in the lilting Doric tongue of his ancestors, simply ‘Edward Greig’ – a fine compliment, and sure sign that his spirit is alive in the community!

Day 2 we welcomed our conservation expert Clara Molina Sanchez of Spectrum Heritage, to make a site visit to assess the condition of the gravestone. This, in the midst of a snell wind, brought a surprise, and puzzle. Beneath the grass, lay a layer of mortar. A discovery, from our conservation point of view, which will need some thought!

Spectrum Heritage at Rathen
Conservation expert Clara Molina Sanchez of Spectrum Heritage assesses the condition of the Grieg ancestral gravestone.

A lot now has to be done to develop our formal plans and submissions to relevant authorities, a process that will take us into early spring. But looking round the kirkyard, maybe that’s not so far off – isn’t there a change of season in the air?

First snowdrops at Rathen
Snowdrops at Rathen Old Kirkyard, a gentle sign of spring close by the grave of Edvard Grieg’s great great grandparents John Greig and Anne Milne.

Above our heads the corbies cawed and circled, settling softly on the winter-bare branches, curious perhaps to see such a gathering below. And round our feet, the first shy snowdrops, sheltering among the stones, listened to our chatter and laughter. With these first hints of Spring, finally, gently, the first phase of Monumentally Grieg! was underway!

Author: Dr Sally LK Garden