Norwegian nationalist composer Edvard Grieg composed one hundred and eighty songs, including songs in Norwegian, Bokmal, German, and Danish. The Sechs Lieder, Op. 48 was written in German texts, which Grieg successfully merged the style of High Romantic Lieder with his Norwegian cultural background. This lecture-recital document contains the following four main sections: Grieg¡¦s biographical information, the musical characteristics of Grieg¡¦s art songs, the background of his composing the Sechs Lieder, Op. 48, and a performance analysis of the Sechs Lieder, Op. 48. The work captures the essence of German Lieder with its text painting and expressive piano accompaniment, and has earned a well-deserved place in the German Lieder repertoire, despite the fact that Grieg does not have German nationality.

The lecture recital was given on July 13, 1987. The discussion of the poetry by C. F. Gellert and the musical settings by C. P. E. Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven including analyses of all the pieces was followed by their performance. In addition to the lecture recital, three other public recitals were given: three of solo literature for voice and piano and one of vocal chamber literature. These included the works of Monteverdi, Caldara, Mozart, Brahms, Strauss, Mendelssohn, Ives, Honegger, Debussy, Faure", and others. All of these recitals were recorded on magnetic tape and filed along with the written version of the lecture material as a part of the dissertation.