The Classical Music Book

209

See also: The Bartered Bride 206 ■ Pictures at an Exhibition 207 ■

Dvorˇ ák’s Symphony No. 9 212–215 ■ Finlandia 220–221 ■ Appalachian

Spring 286–287

NATIONALISM 1830 –1920

poetic drama, to be read rather

than staged. Seven years later

when Ibsen adapted his work for

a full-scale stage production, he

invited another internationally

renowned Norwegian artist—

Edvard Grieg—to compose music

for the first production. Grieg had

already produced successful

incidental music for Bjørnstjerne

Bjørnson’s play Sigurd Jorsalfar.

The collaboration between Ibsen

and Grieg would elevate Peer Gynt

to the status of national epic.

Emotive music

Grieg eventually produced more

than 20 individual pieces for the

numerous cues in Ibsen’s five-act

drama, reflecting the emotional

mood of each moment—from the

uproar of the Hall of the Mountain

King to the grief-filled death of

Åse, Peer Gynt’s mother. Grieg

later assembled eight of the most

substantial of these into two

orchestral suites, which have

become standard concert-hall

works. They include movements

that reference the major characters

and scenes in the drama: Åse;

Anitra, a Bedouin chief’s daughter

whom Peer tries to seduce; Ingrid,

the farmer’s daughter he abducts

on the eve of her wedding; the troll

kingdom into which he stumbles;

and Solveig, the faithful woman

who waits patiently for his return.

Genre in decline

Later examples of incidental

music that survive outside their

original theatrical contexts include

Fauré’s and Sibelius’s music for

Pelléas et Mélisande, Debussy’s

Le martyre de Saint Sébastien,

Elga r’s The Starlight Express, and

Sibelius’s The Tempest. Incidental

music is still commissioned for

some theatrical productions but

is generally performed with fewer

musicians or even prerecorded.

Modern examples include Michael

Tippett’s music for The Tempest

and Harrison Birtwistle’s Oresteia.

Some characteristics of the genre

have migrated to film, television,

and even video games. ■

Edvard Grieg

Grieg was taught to play the

piano by his mother, a music

teacher in the Norwegian

town of Bergen, where he was

born in 1843. As a teenager,

Grieg met the internationally

acclaimed violinist Ole Bull,

who urged his parents to send

him to study at the Leipzig

Conservatoire. There, he was

influenced by Schumann and

Mendelssohn; it was only

later, in Copenhagen, that

Grieg became interested in

the Norwegian folk tunes that

inspired his music.

In 1867, Grieg married his

cousin Nina Hagerup, for

whom he composed many

songs. The following year, he

wrote his one piano concerto,

which, like Peer Gynt, brought

lasting fame. In later life, he

devoted himself to smaller

piano works, especially the 10

volumes of Lyric Pieces, some

of which draw on folk idioms.

Grieg died in Bergen in 1907.

Other key works

1868 Piano Concerto in A

minor, Op. 16

1872 Sigurd Jorsalfar

1884 Holberg Suite

1902–1903 Slåtter (Norwegian

Peasant Dances)

I have also written

something for the scene

in the hall of the mountain

King ... it absolutely reeks

of cow pies, exaggerated

Norwegian provincialism,

and trollish self-sufficiency.

Edvard Grieg

The more he saturated

his mind with [Peer Gynt],

the more clearly he saw that

he was the right man for a

work ... so permeated with

the Norwegian spirit.

Nina Hagerup

Grieg’s wife

US_208-209_Grieg.indd 209 26/03/18 1:01 PM