Grieg, Edvard - Norwegian Suite for Eight Horns, Arr. Cynthia Carr

Norwegian Edvard Grieg is one of Scandinavia’s most beloved composers. He was instrumental in developing a Norwegian national musical style in the latter part of the 19th century. Grieg’s music is primarily straightforward and clear in form, with lyrical, folk-like melodies. While he excelled in writing for voice and piano, his Peer Gynt Suite for orchestra is perhaps his most widely known work.

This Norwegian Suite incorporates both vocal and instrumental music from the early and middle part of Grieg’s life. The first movement is from the suite Aus Holbergs Zeit, which Grieg published in versions for either solo piano or string orchestra. The second movement is from a set of piano works, and the final movement is from a choral work. Rötnams-Knut was a Till Eulenspiegel–type character of Norwegian legend: a prankster always getting into trouble.

I have scored this work for two choirs, in the tradition of Verne Reynolds’s wonderful Cantos arrangements, which I came to know in the Eastman Horn Choir under Reynolds’s direction. The parts can be doubled; if so, the solo marking would indicate one on a part. I envision the two choirs slightly separated in performance. - Cynthia Carr