Grieg, Edvard Hagerup.
Chapter 2. Peer Gynt
One outcome of a pact with another Norwegian composer showed itself when Grieg was persuaded to co-operate with the Norwegian playwright, Henrich Ibsen, in a new production of "Peer Gynt", a drama based on folk tales of his native country. He had drawn them from "Elder Edda" a collection of Norse Folk tales and sayings. His first production of this epic had been playing the theatres for some time but had not been going a bomb: Ibsen felt it was too heavy and needed something to make it more acceptable.
Grieg, although not convinced that it would add anything to the play, was to write 22 incidental pieces for Ibsen's drama but his lack of enthusiasm resulted in it taking nearly 2 years to complete. When eventually performed in Oslo, in 1867, it was an undoubted success and, a year later became the basis of Grieg's two "Peer Gynt Suites" (Opus Nos 46 and 55) - a reworking of 8 of the pieces written for Ibsen's great psychological drama. In these suites 4 of these pieces, "Morning", "Åse's Death", "Solveig's Song" and "In the Hall of the Mountain King" particularly used his harmonic craftmanship to fuse the folk music of Norway into music which was the equal of many of the then great European Composers.
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