Olav Gurvin

Olav Gurvin (24 December 1893 Tysnes Municipality – 31 October 1974) was a Norwegian musicologist, a professor at the University of Oslo from 1957. He co-edited the first Norwegian music encyclopedia in 1949, and edited the magazine Norsk Musikkliv from 1942 to 1951.

Personal life Gurvin was born in Tysnes Municipality as the son of teacher Elling Olson Gurvin and Kristina Olsdatter Flugem. He married Dagny Siqveland in 1947.

He edited the magazine Norsk Musikkliv from 1942 to 1951, and was a music critic for the newspaper Verdens Gang from 1945 to 1958. Together with Øyvind Anker he also co-edited the first Norwegian music encyclopedia, titled Musikkleksikon and published in 1949.

His ethnomusicological studies in the 1950s resulted in the development of an electroacoustical apparatus for melody analysis. He was appointed professor in musicology from 1957. He edited the first five volumes of a series of string airs for Hardingfele, from 1958 to 1967. In 1962 he published a biography on Fartein Valen. He was decorated as a Knight, First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1968.

Selected works (thesis). (Norway's first music encyclopedia. Co-editor with Øyvind Anker.) (Book series on string airs for Hardingfele. Editor of five volumes from 1958 to 1967). (Biography of Fartein Valen).