Georg Michael Dødelein Reiss (August 12, 1861 – January 25, 1914) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

lawyer, composer, and musicologist. In 1913 he became the first Norwegian to receive a doctorate on a music theory subject.

Career

Reiss was trained as a lawyer; he received his

candidate of law Candidate of Law (Latin: ''candidatus/candidata juris/iuris'') is both a graduate law degree awarded to law students in the Nordic region as well as an academic status designation for advanced Law School students in German-speaking countries. ...

degree in 1886, and he started working as a secretary in the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs in 1899. He was a pupil of Ludvig Mathias Lindeman, Otto Winter-Hjelm, and

Christian Cappelen Christian Cappelen (26 January 1845 – 11 May 1916) was a Norwegian organist and composer. Biography Cappelen was born in Drammen, Norway. He studied under Ludvig Mathias Lindeman and at the Leipzig Conservatoire. In 1887, after 20 years ...

. Later he also studied at the Academy of Music in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. He was organist at Saint Peter's Church (since 1962 Sofienberg Church) in

Kristiania Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

from 1893 to 1914, and he was a music reviewer for ''

Dagbladet ''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newspa ...

'' from 1893 to 1896, for ''Nordisk Musikrevue'' from 1903 to 1906, and for ''

Verdens Gang ''Verdens Gang'' ("The course of the world"), generally known under the abbreviation ''VG'', is a Norwegian tabloid newspaper. In 2016, circulation numbers stood at 93,883, having declined from a peak circulation of 390,510 in 2002. ''VG'' is n ...

'' from 1904 onward. Reiss himself wrote a church cantata in 1902, and other compositions for voice and choir, including an eight-part

kyrie Kyrie, a transliteration of Greek , vocative case of (''Kyrios''), is a common name of an important prayer of Christian liturgy, also called the Kyrie eleison ( ; ). In the Bible The prayer, "Kyrie, eleison," "Lord, have mercy" derives f ...

. With support from the Nansen Foundation and as a

government scholar Government scholar (Norwegian, ''statsstipendiat'') is a position awarded by the Parliament of Norway upon the recommendation of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education and Research and funded directly over the State budget of Nor ...

starting in 1908, Reiss studied

neume A neume (; sometimes spelled neum) is the basic element of Western and Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff notation. The earliest neumes were inflective marks that indicated the general shape but not nec ...

notation, paleography, and medieval music theory, published manuscripts from the National Archives, worked on two sequences for

Saint Olav Olaf II Haraldsson ( – 29 July 1030), later known as Saint Olaf (and traditionally as St. Olave), was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. Son of Harald Grenske, a petty king in Vestfold, Norway, he was posthumously given the title '' Rex Per ...

, and received a PhD in 1913 with his dissertation ''Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden'' (Music in the Medieval Olav Cult in the Nordic Countries), which was Norway's first doctorate in music history.

Family

Georg Reiss was the son of the music teacher Hans Peter Reiss (1824–1908) and Petronelle Cornelia Hansen (1832–1879). Georg Reiss married Elisabeth Dymling (1861–1920), a merchant's daughter, in

Vänersborg Vänersborg () is a locality and the seat of Vänersborg Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 23,882 inhabitants (out of a municipal total of 39,591) Until 1997 it was the capital of Älvsborg County, which was dissolved in 1998. Sin ...

in 1893. They were the parents of the actor

Thorleif Reiss Thorleif Dymling Reiss (May 22, 1898 – April 14, 1988) was a Norwegian actor. Career Reiss made his debut at the National Theater in Oslo in 1918. From 1931 to 1939, he was employed at the Carl Johan Theater, where he also served as co-dire ...

and the pianist and cabaret performer Elisabeth Reiss. Georg Reiss was the grandfather of the actor

Helge Reiss Helge Reiss (27 February 1928 – 11 November 2009) was a Norwegian actor. He was the son of the actor Thorleif Reiss. Career He began his career in 1948 with a minor role in a low budget crime film, and remained active until his death. He provi ...

Works

*1900: ''Drei Lieder in altern Stile für gemischten Chor a capella: Op. 3''. Christiania: Haakon Zapffe. *1908: ''Det norske rigsarkivs middelalderlige musikhaandskrifter: en oversigt''. Christiania: Dybwad. *1912: ''Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden''. Kristiania: I kommission hos J. Dybwad. (Dissertation)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reiss, Georg 1861 births 1914 deaths Norwegian jurists 19th-century Norwegian composers 20th-century Norwegian composers Norwegian male composers Norwegian musicologists Music historians Norwegian government scholars