Grieg has written in almost every department of music: chamber music, orchestra suites, overtures, compositions for string quartet, and sonatas for piano and violin, a sonata for piano, concerto for piano, and a very considerable variety of poetic and interesting compositions for piano alone; in addition to these, many songs, some of which have attained a wide currency. In all these works certain characteristic peculiarities of Norwegian music continually make themselves felt, so that there is nothing of Grieg's which could be mistaken for the work of any good German composer. Whether we should regard these national peculiarities in his music as provincialisms, considered from the world's standpoint, or as a fortunate appeal to the ears of his own countrymen and generation, who shall decide?
Grieg belongs to the modern romantic school, conspicuously, in having derived the suggestion or inspiration of many of his pieces from poetic suggestion. One of the most famous and best known of this kind is the first "Peer Gynt" suite. Peer Gynt is a ne'er-do-weel in Ibsen's poem. He had a variety of adventures in the course of his unprofitable life, a few of which are alluded to in the suite here under consideration. For example, it begins with a prelude in 6/8 time—a movement somewhat pastoral in character, designated "Morgenstimmung," or, in English, "The Morning Mood." In this piece the flavor of Norwegian folk-song is only very faintly perceptible, if at all, and is perhaps more to be imagined from the somewhat unusual succession of chords than from anything very characteristic in the melody. The second piece of this suite, "The Death of Ase," is practically a funeral march of a sad and grief-laden character. Ase is the poor mother of Peer Gynt, who was left alone in her cottage on the mountains while her ne'er-do-weel son was off on his travels. At length death overtook her, desolate and alone, on the bleak mountain side. This is the story of the march. The third piece in this suite is entitled "Anitra's Dance." Anitra, in Ibsen's story, was a fascinating minx of the desert, who, when Peer Gynt was masquerading as the prophet, encountered him upon his travels and beguiled from him one gift after another until finally she took from him his rings, spare apparel, and finally his horse, and capered off with them like the winds of the morning, while the pseudo-prophet pursued his sandy and inglorious way on foot. In this music of Grieg we have simply the sparkling lightness of Anitra, the unaccustomed charm which induced her victim to yield so easily to her the things he most valued. To come down from the realm of poetry to the barren facts, it is simply a sort of quick waltz or mazurka, and the connection of Mr. Ibsen's Anitra with it is purely imaginary.
The fourth of these tone pictures is entitled "In the Hall of the Mountain King." It relates to an episode in Peer Gynt's life when, in exploring the mountain, he came upon one of the original owners of the country, quite in the manner that happened later to Rip Van Winkle in the Catskills of New York. The gnome took him into the cavern in the mountain where his people had their home, and it is the queer and uncanny music of these humorous and prankish people that Grieg has brought out in this closing movement of the suite. It is a rapid, dance-like movement which, in the orchestral arrangement, is extremely grotesque in the tone coloring; even on the piano, when sufficiently well done, much of this quality appertains to it.
More closely examined, this suite of Grieg's has a certain resemblance to a sonata. The first movement is somewhat elaborately worked out, the second movement a slow one, the third in the manner of a scherzo, and the fourth a sort of grotesque finale. The order of the keys, however, is different from what would be considered correct in a sonata. The first piece is in the key of E major, the funeral march in B minor, Anitra's dance in A minor, and the finale in B minor again—the whole very pleasing and poetic.
In the collection of pieces called "Aus dem Volksleben," or "Sketches of Norwegian Life," the national coloring is still more marked. This work contains three pieces, the first entitled "On the Mountain," the second a "Norwegian Bridal Procession," and the third "Carnival." "On the Mountain," after an opening of a soft chord or open fifth in A minor, commences with a bass melody in unison, as if played by basses and 'cellos. The rhythm is that of a strongly-marked peasant dance, as is shown by the emphatic half-note at the end of the phrase, as if here the peasant put down his foot solidly. In the sixth measure of this melody another Norwegian peculiarity appears in the minor seventh of the key. This melody, after having been delivered in unison by the basses, is taken up by the sopranos and continued with accompaniment. Later on a soft and rather sweet middle piece in A major comes in, after which the first idea returns with a coda.
The "Norwegian Bridal Procession" is extremely well known. It is a very pretty light march which, when well done, is capable of very charming effect. The "Carnival" is a very sprightly presto, full of hurry and excitement, with occasional moments of softer suggestion, the whole making very considerable demands upon the skill of the player. In the coda the whole work is brought together again as one, since the leading motives of all the parts here occur and intermingle one with the other.
One of the most strongly worked out of the lighter works of Grieg is the "Holberg" suite, the name being derived from that of the famous Danish-Norwegian poet, who lived about the time of Bach. This opens with a "Praeludium," followed by a "Sarabande" and "Gavotte"; the whole ends with a "Rigaudon." This work has very much more the character of a modern sonata than some that bear the name, but, avoiding the name sonata, it is able to go its own way in any form of originality which pleased the composer. The prelude is a musical idea worked out with great bravura, and when well done it makes an excellent effect. There is no particular story suggested in it, any more than in the first prelude of Bach. The second movement, the Sarabande, has a great deal of the peculiar pathos of Grieg. It should be played as if it were being done by a string quartet, as legato and sympathetically as possible. The Gavotte, again, is a charming example of modern antique, short and pleasing. The fourth movement, an "air," is beautifully done, and the last, the Rigaudon, in G major, a very pleasing and sprightly dance effect. This work has less of the distinctly Norwegian character perhaps than many of the earlier ones of Grieg, and it is more seriously worked out in some respects, and therefore extremely satisfactory.
In some of the earlier and smaller works of Grieg the national traits appear, while in others nothing of this sort is to be observed. For example, in the collection entitled "Lyric Pieces for the Piano," Opus 12, there are a charming arietta, a pretty little waltz, a very serious fanciful piece called "Wachterlied," or the song of the watchers in Shakspere's "Macbeth," an elfin dance, a curious peasant mazurka, a quick Norwegian dance, an album-leaf, and a song of the Fatherland. Here are eight little pieces, all comprised within the compass of eight pages. In point of difficulty no one exceeds the fourth grade, yet they are little poems that the greatest artist could play with pleasure.
Perhaps, on the whole, the songs of Grieg show his remarkable talent in its most favorable light, and for this purpose those in the first Grieg Album of Schirmer are as good as any. Accordingly, it is from this that the selections of the illustrative programs are taken. For low voice, "Sunset" and the "Cradle Song" are both very delightful, the latter particularly so. The former might be sung by baritone, but the latter requires an alto. Yet another song for low voice, which would indeed be better for a baritone than alto, is "The Poet's Last Song," a noble lyric of elevated sentiment. For high voice, "Good Morning" and "Thanks for Thy Hand" are both unusually fine songs.
No doubt other examples equally good are to be found in other works of Grieg, of which the house of G. Schirmer publishes four volumes, which, being in the Schirmer Edition, are sold at moderate prices. From these, should it be more convenient, other selections could be made.