Description
"Evening in the Mountains," the seventh piece of Book X of the Lyric Pieces, Op. 73, written in 1903 in Grieg's last years and belonging to the final book of the sixty-six. It is built on the Norwegian mountain herding call — the long-lined song used to carry a voice to distant livestock.
In G minor and cut time, it begins in writing close to a single line, the song proceeding with almost no harmonic support. Harmony gathers and thickens before the music returns to a single line and fades. Only some 530 notes fill about two and a half minutes, and the time between them does much of the work.
Its intermediate rating reflects the absence of fast motion. The task is making an unaccompanied melody carry: where no chord is sounding, the length of a note and the space after it are the only expression. Think of it as a call sent across a distance and do not hurry the ends of phrases. Keep the pedal shallow so the resonance stays clear.
A lifelong project by Grieg spanning 10 books and 66 pieces, reflecting Norwegian landscapes and folk music throughout.
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Sheet music provided by Mutopia Project
About the Composer
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Edvard Grieg was a composer from Bergen, Norway, and a leading figure of musical nationalism who drew on Nordic folk music. Widely known for his incidental music to Peer Gynt and his Piano Concerto in A minor, he also wrote the Lyric Pieces, a lifelong series of intimate, folk-inspired piano miniatures. This site includes 6 of his works, such as "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen" and "March of the Dwarfs."
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