Grieg is known to have credited his wife Nina as being not only the finest interpreter, but the very inspiration for his collection of songs known as the Heart's Melodies for voice and piano, Op. 5. It is generally understood that his understanding of the technical capabilities and expressive possibilities of the human voice are directly attributable to her. Therefore, the sheer melodic potency of his early songs have rightfully earned them a revered place in the vocal music canon, despite their often mediocre texts. In addition, the piano writing of the early songs is well conceived, often with brief preludes and interludes, and motifs derived from the vocal lines. The early songs are typically strophic in form, which works well with text settings that often depict Norwegian folklore. Grieg's early songs encompass a wide-ranging emotional palette that includes deep anguish, humor, and in the Nordic tradition, impressions of nature.

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3.Jeg elsker dig ('I Love But Thee')

Very much like Robert Schumann, whose music he embraced, Edvard Grieg found his way into songwriting through the love of a woman. In this case, it was his future wife, Nina Hagerup, from whose singing he learned the expressive possibilities of the voice, whom he considered the only "true" interpreter of his music, and for (and about) whom he wrote his most popular song, "Jeg elsker Dig" (I Love but Thee). The third of Grieg's five Melodies (5) of the Heart, Op. 5, "Jeg elsker Dig" was written in Copenhagen in 1864, to the poetry of the composer's good friend Hans Christian Andersen. It is a simple, guileless outpouring of love, a mere four lines of poetry that go by in less than two minutes; this straightforward and ardent expression, combined with Grieg's natural feeling for melody, is at the heart of the song's enduring appeal. The popularity of "Jeg elsker Dig" presented an opportunity for singers to embrace the Norwegian language and, in the process, the rest of Grieg's excellent songs; unfortunately, it has been most often performed in either German or English translation (the English usually a translation from the German), and so has never fulfilled that potential. Adding insult to injury, Grieg's German publisher felt the song was too short in its original form and commissioned an additional stanza of poetry to be sung over a repeat of the music. The change is neither trivial nor flattering to the song, but it is in this altered form that "Jeg elsker Dig" has circled the globe and won the hearts of so many.

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