Peer Gynt (incidental music)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peer Gynt Opus 23 is an incidental music by Edvard Grieg from 1875 to Henrik Ibsen's dramatic poem of the same name . The premiere of Grieg's commissioned work took place together with Ibsen's stage version of his dramatic poem Peer Gynt on February 24, 1876 in Christiania (now Oslo ).

History of origin

First page of Ibsen's letter to Grieg, January 23, 1874
Pavilion in the open-air museum Gamle Bergen , where Grieg composed in the summer of 1874

Based on the Norwegian fairy tale collection Huldre-Eventyr og Folkesagn by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen , published between 1845 and 1848 , Ibsen wrote the dramatic poem Peer Gynt , which appeared in 1867. Ibsen intended Peer Gynt as a pure reading drama. After the success of the poem, Ibsen changed his mind and planned to rework it into a play with music. He described his plan very precisely in a letter to Edvard Grieg, which he wrote on January 23, 1874 in Dresden , where he lived from 1868 to 1875:

“Dear Mr. Grieg! I am writing these lines with a view to a plan that I intend to carry out and I would like to ask you if you would like to participate in it. It is as follows: I intend to set up 'Peer Gynt', which is now in its third edition, for the stage. Do you want to compose the music for it? I will briefly outline how I feel about the matter. […] If you go into that, I'll get in touch with the management of the theater in Kristiania, deliver a text book and secure the performance of the play in advance. I intend to apply for a fee of 400 specie thalers to be shared equally between us. [...] "

Grieg immediately accepted the artistically and financially tempting assignment.

Ibsen, who is said to have not been particularly musical, described in this letter very concrete ideas how the music should increase the effect of his acting. In his later composition, Grieg followed Ibsen's instructions very precisely.

Grieg began in the summer of 1874 in the Chinese tea pavilion, which the shipowner Rasmus Rolfsen had made available to him, in Sandviken, a district of Bergen , with the composition, as he wrote in a letter to Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson on July 5, 1874 . It was not until the end of July 1875 that he completed the plant in Fredensborg , Denmark . The illness and later the death of his parents prevented rehearsals at the Christiania Theater . The first performance on February 24, 1876 was conducted by the conductor of the Christiania Theater, Johan Hennum, the director was Ludvig Josephson. Grieg could not travel from Bergen to Christiania and, like Ibsen, stayed away from the performance.

Revisions

Edvard Grieg at the piano and Henrik Ibsen as the listener (postcard from 1905)

In 1886 the play was performed in the Dagmar Theater in Copenhagen . For this new production Grieg revised the work and added “The Bridal Procession Passes by” and three of the Norwegian Dances , op.

When the play was resumed in 1892 after the severe fire in the Christiania Theater on January 15, 1877, in which the play's decorations and costumes were destroyed, Grieg made changes to the music “Peer Gynt and the Hunchback”.

For the Nationaltheatret , which opened in 1899 and where Peer Gynt was performed from 1902, Grieg re-orchestrated the prelude to the first act.

Because of his doubts about the acceptance of the work outside Norway, Grieg put together two four-movement short orchestral suites in 1888 and 1891 from eight movements of the incidental music. These two Peer Gynt Suites , which dispense with spoken dialogue, singing and choir, are among his most popular works today.

After the world premiere, Grieg did not agree to the full score being printed because he did not like the orchestration. It was only a year after Grieg's death in 1908 that Johan Halvorsen arranged for the score to be printed by CF Peters Musikverlag . There were only 23 numbers in this edition and they were out of order. A score containing all 26 pieces was not published until 1988 with the 18th volume of the Grieg Complete Edition edited by Finn Benestad.

Original score

The original score, Op. 23, contains the following 26 movements. Bold type means that these movements are contained in the suites (op. 46, op. 55) compiled by Grieg.

  • Act I.
  1. In the Hochzeitshof / I bryllupsgården (prelude)
  2. Halling / Halling (2nd and 3rd scene)
  3. Springdans / Springar (3rd scene)
  • Act II
  1. The bride robbery. Ingrid's lawsuit / Bruderovet. Ingrid's lament (foreplay)
  2. Peer Gynt and the dairy women / Peer Gynt og seterjentene (3rd scene)
  3. Peer Gynt and the Green Dressed / Peer Gynt og Den grønnkledte (Introduction to the 5th scene)
  4. Peer Gynt: “You can recognize the noble people by their riding gear!” / Peer Gynt: “På ridestellet Skal storfolk kjendes!” (End of the 5th scene)
  5. In the hall of the mountain king / I Dovregubbens hall (6th scene)
  6. Dance of the Mountain King's Daughter / Dans av Dovregubbens datter (6th scene)
  7. Peer Gynt chased by trolls / Peer Gynt jages av troll (6th scene)
  8. Peer Gynt and the Hunchback / Peer Gynt og Bøygen (7th scene)
  • Act III
  1. Åses Tod / Åses død (prelude and 4th scene)
  • Act IV
  1. Morning mood / Morgenstemning (prelude)
  2. Thief and Hehler / Tyven og heleren (5th scene)
  3. Arabic dance / Arabisk dans (6th scene)
  4. Anitras dance / Anitras dans (6th scene)
  5. Peer Gynts Serenade / Peer Gynts serenade (7th scene)
  6. Peer Gynt and Anitra / Peer Gynt og Anitra (8th scene)
  7. Solveigs Lied / Solveigs sang (10th scene)
  8. Peer Gynt in front of the Memnon Column / Peer Gynt og Memnonstøtten (introduction to the 11th scene)
  • Act V
  1. Peer Gynt's homecoming. Stormy evening at sea / Peer Gynts hjemfart. Stormfull aften på havet (foreplay)
  2. The shipwreck / Skipsforliset (between 1st and 2nd scene)
  3. Solveig sings in the hut / Solveig synger i hytten (5th scene)
  4. Night scene / Nattscene (6th scene)
  5. Whitsun song "O morning hour" / Pinsesalme "Velsignet tomorrow" (10th scene)
  6. Solveigs lullaby / Solveigs vuggevise (10th scene)

The two suites newly put together by Grieg from the incidental music include the following movements: Morning mood , Åse's death , Anitra's dance , In the Hall of the Mountain King (Suite No. 1, op. 46) and The Robbery of the Bride . Ingrid's lament , Arabic dance , Peer Gynt's homecoming. Stormy Evening on the Sea , Solveig's Song (Suite No. 2, Op. 55).

Performances

Complete performances of Grieg's Peer Gynt with Ibsen's original text are relatively rare, especially since the complete score, which includes several songs and choral works and was lost, was only restored and thus available again since the late 1980s. However, in 1987 Deutsche Grammophon published this restored version with all 26 movements performed by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under Neeme Järvi .

A concert version with spokesman Friedhelm Eberle and Kurt Masur led the Gewandhaus Orchestra in March 1988 under the direction of Kurt Masur. In the spring of 2001, the MDR Symphony Orchestra played Peer Gynt in a "version for concert use" based on the translation by Christian Morgenstern with Klaus Maria Brandauer as narrator, which only comprised 21 pieces. The version of the incidental music adapted for the event was performed under the direction of Thomas Hengelbrock , again with Brandauer and students from his theater school, at the opening of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival 2012.

In the theatrical context with the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria , the Austrian writer Franzobel had already created a text in "bundled form" for a speaker at the Grafenegg Festival for Grieg's music in autumn 2004 . The work was performed in this form in January 2013 by the MDR Symphony Orchestra with Ben Becker as speaker.

literature

  • Hella Brock : Grieg's music for Ibsen's Peer Gynt. Enrichment and independence. Hildegard Junker Verlag, Altenmedingen 2001, ISBN 3-928783-91-2 .

Web links

Commons : Peer Gynt (Grieg)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Rudolf Hirsch, Werner Vodtriede (ed.): Poets about their poems. Vol. 10 / I Henrik Ibsen , Heimeran, Munich 1972, ISBN 3-7765-3034-0 , p. 155 ff.
  2. a b Hella Brock: Edvard Grieg. Reclam Verlag, Leipzig 1990, ISBN 3-379-00609-2 , p. 172.
  3. Edvard Grieg til besvær. In: Bergens Tidende of May 22, 2005.
  4. a b Dan Fog, Kirsti Grinde, Øyvind Norheim: Edvard Grieg. Thematic-bibliographical catalog raisonné (1843–1907). (Edition Peters 11095), CF Peters / Henry Litolffs Verlag, Frankfurt (Main), Leipzig, London, New York 2008, ISBN 978-3-87626-990-0 .
  5. Edvard Grieg Complete Edition, Volume 18: Dramatic Music - Peer Gynt Op. 23. Instrumentation: 5 soprano, baritone, 2 bass, mixed choir, orchestra. (Edition Peters 8518 A, German / Norwegian), CF Peters, Frankfurt (Main) 1988, ISMN 979-0-0141-0269-2 (search in the DNB portal) .
  6. So the correct translation in the new complete edition, in the old Peters edition the subtitle was Stormy Evening on the Coast ; see. Hella Brock: Edvard Grieg. Reclam Verlag, Leipzig 1990, ISBN 3-379-00609-2 , p. 368.
  7. See section Revisions .
  8. Hella Brock: Edvard Grieg. Reclam Verlag, Leipzig 1990, ISBN 3-379-00609-2 , pp. 173, 342.
  9. Lothar Schmidt: Edvard Grieg, Henrik Ibsen. Peer Gynt. In: LeipzigAlmanach Das Online-Feuilleton from March 11, 2001.
  10. ^ NDR media library: SHMF - The opening concert 2012 , October 3, 2012.
  11. ^ Franzobel: Peer Gynt. Text intermezzi to the Grieg Symphony. After Ibsen. In: manuscript journal for literature , volume 44, issue 166 (September 2004), pp. 66–69, ISSN  0025-2638 .
  12. Andreas Ruf: Fragments of madness. “Peer Gynt” with speaker Ben Becker at the MDR matinée concert in the fully occupied Gewandhaus. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung from January 21, 2013, p. 7.