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EDVARD GRIEG
Selections from Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1, Op. 46 (1874–75)

Grieg had just embarked upon the composition of the opera Olav Trygvason when he was interrupted, in early 1874, by a commission from the great Norwegian playwright Henryk Ibsen to compose incidental music for a new production of his play Peer Gynt, the symbolic tale drawn from Norse mythology of the loafing, opportunistic anti-hero Gynt. The original production of the play had taken place in 1867. Grieg envisioned this as a small-scale project that he could complete in a short period; instead it grew into a major undertaking, finally comprising 23 musical numbers and taking nearly two years to complete. “The more he saturated his mind with the poem,” the composer’s wife later wrote, “the more clearly he saw that he was the right man for a work of such bewitching power, and so permeated with the Norwegian spirit.” The newly revised version of the play appeared in Christiana (Oslo) in February 1876, with Grieg’s fascinating and extensive musical score. It was an overwhelming artistic and public success, and it remains one of the composer’s most beloved works.

Ibsen’s figure of Peer Gynt has much of the character of a wanton Wagnerian knight—and not coincidentally, since Wagner drew upon the same body of Norse mythology for a good deal of his dramatic source material. Like Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Gynt sows his oats carelessly and profligately until finally, late in life, he finds redemption through the pure, steadfast love of a virtuous woman. As in Wagner, the medieval morality tale has been transformed into something more in keeping with 19th-century extravagance and Romanticism. The action of Ibsen’s play begins in the home of Gynt’s mother, Åse, where young Peer lives humbly and restlessly. Longing for power and adventure, he abducts a former girlfriend from her own wedding ceremony, taking her into the mountains, where she deserts him. He encounters the troll-king and her daughter and is ultimately attacked by the trolls—but saved by the cleansing force of church bells. Retiring to the woods, he is approached by Solveig, a sweet young woman who loves Peer unconditionally. He leaves to return to his mother, who is dying. Disconsolate after Åse’s death, Peer travels to Morocco, Egypt, and the Americas. Finally, he returns home, wizened but not wise, to find that Solveig was the key to his salvation all along.

Shortly after the play’s stellar success in 1876, Grieg extracted two concert suites from the music, each of which included four scenes. The pieces are not in the order in which they appear in the drama itself, but are arranged within each Suite so as to produce the most effective musical result. The familiar First Suite begins with Morning-Mood, a depiction of the pastoral setting of Gynt’s family home. The last movement of the Suite, In the Hall of the Mountain King, evokes dramatically the world of gnomes and mountain trolls, bringing the Suite to an effective close.

—Paul J. Horsley

EDVARD GRIEG
Selections from Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1, Op. 46 (1874–75)

Grieg had just embarked upon the composition of the opera Olav Trygvason when he was interrupted, in early 1874, by a commission from the great Norwegian playwright Henryk Ibsen to compose incidental music for a new production of his play Peer Gynt, the symbolic tale drawn from Norse mythology of the loafing, opportunistic anti-hero Gynt. The original production of the play had taken place in 1867. Grieg envisioned this as a small-scale project that he could complete in a short period; instead it grew into a major undertaking, finally comprising 23 musical numbers and taking nearly two years to complete. “The more he saturated his mind with the poem,” the composer’s wife later wrote, “the more clearly he saw that he was the right man for a work of such bewitching power, and so permeated with the Norwegian spirit.” The newly revised version of the play appeared in Christiana (Oslo) in February 1876, with Grieg’s fascinating and extensive musical score. It was an overwhelming artistic and public success, and it remains one of the composer’s most beloved works.

Ibsen’s figure of Peer Gynt has much of the character of a wanton Wagnerian knight—and not coincidentally, since Wagner drew upon the same body of Norse mythology for a good deal of his dramatic source material. Like Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Gynt sows his oats carelessly and profligately until finally, late in life, he finds redemption through the pure, steadfast love of a virtuous woman. As in Wagner, the medieval morality tale has been transformed into something more in keeping with 19th-century extravagance and Romanticism. The action of Ibsen’s play begins in the home of Gynt’s mother, Åse, where young Peer lives humbly and restlessly. Longing for power and adventure, he abducts a former girlfriend from her own wedding ceremony, taking her into the mountains, where she deserts him. He encounters the troll-king and her daughter and is ultimately attacked by the trolls—but saved by the cleansing force of church bells. Retiring to the woods, he is approached by Solveig, a sweet young woman who loves Peer unconditionally. He leaves to return to his mother, who is dying. Disconsolate after Åse’s death, Peer travels to Morocco, Egypt, and the Americas. Finally, he returns home, wizened but not wise, to find that Solveig was the key to his salvation all along.

Shortly after the play’s stellar success in 1876, Grieg extracted two concert suites from the music, each of which included four scenes. The pieces are not in the order in which they appear in the drama itself, but are arranged within each Suite so as to produce the most effective musical result. The familiar First Suite begins with Morning-Mood, a depiction of the pastoral setting of Gynt’s family home. The last movement of the Suite, In the Hall of the Mountain King, evokes dramatically the world of gnomes and mountain trolls, bringing the Suite to an effective close.

—Paul J. Horsley