Previous
Peer Gynt Suites - Grieg (1876)
Next
Soundtracks:
Love from a Stranger
Raising Cain
Needful Things
Create with parts and themes
Music mall
Films with classics

Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 (Opus 46) & No. 2 (Opus 55)

Photo by Nadav DafniGrieg wrote the suites for the play "Peer Gynt", by Norwegian poet and playwright Henrik Ibsen ("A Doll's House" and "An Enemy of the People" are two of his other well-known plays). The suites are set not by the stage order of the play, or by the plot, because Grieg wanted to design his music according to purely musical principles.

The story of "Peer Gynt" does not take place in the landscapes of Norway, as listeners who know Grieg and his origins might imagine. The story actually takes place in Morocco, Northern Africa, during the journeys of Norwegian hero Peer Gynt's, and only in the end of the second suite does Peer return to his loving Solveig.

The order of the suites' movements is:
Suite No. 1
Morning - magical music emphasizing the rising dawn
The death of Ase - Peer arrives on time to be with the dying mother in her last moments.
Anitra's dance - the Sheikh's daughter dances for Peer Gynt in the Arabian tent in Morocco. The movement is in the Mazurka rhythm.
In the hall of Mountain King - a series of variations describing Peer's torture by ghosts and demons.
Suite No. 2
The Abduction of the bride -Ingrid's lament - Peer Steals a girl.
Arabian Dance - again, in the sheikh's tent.
Peer Gynt's journey home - Peer's ship breaks on the Norwegian shore, and Peer comes home.
Solvejg's song.
Go to the main menu
Home
Listen to a MIDI example
Example
The country in which it was written
Country
About the composer
Composer
The form of the work
Form
The period
Period

Back to last screenMusixCool© By Nadav DafniTo The Listening Guide