Grieg: Peer Gynt

Welcome to Sticky Notes

0:00Hello, and welcome to Sticky Notes, the classical music podcast. My name is Joshua Weilerstein, I'm a conductor, and I'm the music director of the Orchestre National de Lille, and the chief conductor of the Alborg Symphony. This podcast is for anyone who loves classical music, works in the field, or is just getting ready to dive in through this amazing world of incredible music. Before we get started, I want to thank my new Patreon sponsors, Fred, Hildegard, R. Lee, David, Richard, William, Emily, Don, and Owen, and all of my other Patreon sponsors for

0:38making Season 10 possible. If you'd like to support the show, please head over to patreon.com slash stickynotespodcast. And if you are a fan of the show, please take a moment to give us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It is greatly appreciated. I am going to be in Alborg this week with the Alborg Symphony, doing Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony, as well as a live podcast on Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony, which will be coming out at the end of Season 10 in mid-October. We are also going to be doing Sibelius's Violin Concerto with the violinist Eldborg Hemsing,

1:11whose sister, Ranyhild, actually features on this podcast today about Pierre Gint, and a world premiere of a piece by a Greenlandic composer named Arnanguak Gerstrom. We're really excited to be performing that with the orchestra. It's going to be a really fun episode as well for the show today. Thank you to Flavia for sponsoring this show on Patreon, all about Grieg's Pierre Gint. Get ready to have a real adventure with this episode. Hope you enjoy it.

Origins of Peer Gynt

2:08Grieg's Pierre Gint suites are among the best-known and best-loved works of classical music in the world. They are practically embedded into popular culture, being used in a dizzying amount of cartoons, advertisements, and films. In the classical music world, like with Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, they have almost become a cliché, and they are often performed on so-called pops concerts. The two big hits from Pierre Gint, Morning Mood and In the Hall of the Mountain King,

2:38are instantly recognizable to the general public, even if they don't know who wrote the music or where it comes from. And where all this music comes from is really interesting, and is going to be one of the main topics of this show. Because the famous music from Pierre Gint comes from the two suites that Edward Grieg took from his massive score of incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play in verse called Pierre Gint. The two suites together take about 45 minutes to perform, but Grieg actually wrote almost an hour and 45 minutes worth of music. He then extracted the music that he felt

3:14would stand on its own, without the text, for his suites. And this was a good decision, as they are certainly his most popular pieces and have etched his name into the classical music pantheon forever. But what about the rest of that music? What about the play? Today on this Patreon-sponsored episode, we'll tell the story of the origins of Pierre Gint, both for Ibsen and for Grieg. And then we'll go through the nearly two hours of incidental music, most of it in a bit of a cursory way, which frankly

3:47is perfectly appropriate for Grieg, whose music abounds with naive simplicity and gorgeous tunes. But all the way through, we are going to tell the wacky, wonderful, and way ahead of its time story of Pierre Gint, all through the music that Grieg wrote. On the show today, you'll hear some of the most famous music in the world, and then some music that only the most passionate of connoisseurs has encountered. So, in essence, my kind of show. All this and more is coming right up on Sticky Notes.

Ibsen writes the play

4:22Henryk Ibsen met Grieg for the first time a year before he began writing Pierre Gint.

4:52Neither had any idea they would be working together ten years later. Now, the play, Pierre Gint, it was meant for reading, not necessarily staging, but that didn't prevent an uproar over the totally innovative language and setting that Ibsen used. Ibsen embraced the freedom which came from not having a staging in mind for the play, writing a story that mixed reality and fantasy, earnestness and satire, and even regularly moves between different locales, including a trip to North Africa. In 1874, Ibsen was invited to put on a production of the play, after all, at the

5:28Christiana Theater in Oslo. The director of the theater had the idea that music could enhance the effect of the play. And so, in the tradition that came from Mendelssohn's music for Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, Ibsen asked Grieg to write the music. Grieg didn't really like the play, but he was completely broke, so he took on the task, which was monumental. He had to write music that could fit potentially with 40 different scenes, a huge amount of characters, and a plot that is quite modern in its conception. The way I'll structure the show today is to follow the plot,

Act One and the Wedding

6:03and then we'll look at Grieg's 26 different musical selections, which of course includes those famous ones. Pierre Gint, the character, he's essentially a loser. He pretends to be a poet, but essentially he is drunk all the time and is pretty useless. The play begins with Pierre telling a rollicking tale of a reindeer hunt gone wrong, and his mother, Asa, tells him off for being so useless and for blowing it with a woman named Ingrid, who is the daughter of the richest farmer in the area. Ingrid's wedding

6:35to another man is that night, so Pierre heads over to it to see if he can win her back. Grieg's music begins before all this, though, with a prelude, almost like an overture. The music begins with joyful excitement and is full of that naive and fresh energy that is in all of Grieg's best music.

6:59But soon this music begins, and I'll see you next time. This music falls away to reveal a mournful solo played by the clarinet. This theme is associated

7:34with Solve, who will be an extremely important character later on. This music reveals, in my mind, the absolute best of Grieg's lyricism. Like Rachmaninoff, it seems so effortless that it's hard to realize just how great and how moving this music is. Grieg really touches us directly, something that very few composers had the ability to do with such ease. So, I'll see you next time. So, I'll see you next time. So, I'll see you next time. So, I'll see you next time. So, I'll see you next time.

8:07So, I'll see you next time. Then comes a complete contrast. A viola solo, which is meant to be played behind the curtain

8:41of the stage. The solo is a holling dance, a rustic Norwegian folk dance that references the upcoming wedding. Though I also wonder if it could be Pierre Gint himself crashing the party. This solo reminds me a bit of the way Richard Strauss uses the viola. In his great tone poem,

9:22Don Quixote. In Don Quixote, Strauss uses the viola to portray Don Quixote's hapless sidekick, Sancho Panza. That folk music is responded to by Solveig's music again, and it culminates with the strings playing this gorgeous theme. One other great aspect of Grieg, which we will hear throughout this music, is his absolutely brilliant sense of orchestration. This is not something that is easy to achieve, but Grieg's music just works. It fits every instrument. It's well written, and it always just sounds terrific.

9:54Grieg's music. Sancho Panza The End

10:28The End

10:58The next movement of incidental music corresponds to the bridal procession for Ingrid. This is also based on Norwegian folk music, and it's music that is elegant, slightly playful, and totally gorgeous. It is full of playful, dotted rhythms and a sense of harmony that is totally naive and yet knowing at the same time.

11:31It is perfect bridal procession music as well, and it takes us so easily to the location of the wedding and all of the attendees. It's rare to have music that is so vivid like this, and Grieg takes full advantage of those dotted rhythms to bring out all of the folk aspects he can. ORCHESTRA PLAYS ORCHESTRA PLAYS

12:22My friend Ragnhild Hemsson actually did an arrangement of many movements of Pyrgynt for the Hardanger, the Norwegian fiddle, which shows off even more of the folk music aspects of this music. We performed this together in Norway, and it was a wonderful experience. ORCHESTRA PLAYS ORCHESTRA PLAYS The final pieces of incidental music in the first act

13:13are violin solo pieces that correspond to the wedding itself, another holling dance, and then a spring dance. This is not Grieg like you've heard it before. If you only know the Hall of the Mountain King or maybe the Piano Concerto, prepare to be surprised by the authentic nature of this music and the way that Grieg captures its spirit.

13:43This is the last incidental music for Act 1, but allow me to fill in the gaps here for the story before we head on to the next excerpt of music. At the wedding, Pierre is essentially laughed at for his low status,

14:17but Pierre notices a girl for the first time whose name is Solve. She will also become one of the central characters in the play, but after Pierre asks her to dance, she refuses, aware of his reputation. Pierre begins to drink copious amounts of alcohol, and somehow he manages to abduct the bride, Ingrid. And as the Norwegian Ibsen Company's synopsis of the play so euphemistically puts it, quote, spends the night with her in the mountains. We've now arrived at the prelude to the second act,

Act Two and the Trolls

14:48entitled The Abduction of Ingrid, and then Ingrid's Lament. This is music that takes place after the abduction if one is performing the play and the music simultaneously. Grieg extracted this movement for one of his suites, though it is less familiar since it's not the most famous suite. This prelude begins with the same motivic idea as the prelude to act one, placing us back at the wedding. But it is full of desperation, and Grieg marks it to be played fast and furiously. Immediately, we understand we are in a different world

15:20from the celebratory mood we've been hearing before. Then begins Ingrid's Lament, music that has a Wagnerian intensity to it,

15:50but also has that Grieg simplicity. This is, to me, it's the magic of Grieg's music. The ability to be so expressive, so deep, and also so simple simultaneously. The strings play in their low register for this music of rich intensity full of longing and sadness.

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16:39It's also fascinating to me that Grieg chose to emphasize Ingrid so much since she barely appears for the rest of the play. It shows his empathy towards her as a character and her situation being abducted and likely assaulted by Pierre on the night of her wedding. The swooning dynamics in this next section really show the desperation of Ingrid as we reach a profoundly intense climax on G minor, which is followed by hammered triplets in the timpani and brass.

17:11It is epic and theatrical music, perfect for its use as incidental music.

17:34The movement ends with a return to the Allegro Furioso music, alternating with strange rumblings of stopped horns, timpani crescendos, and pizzicato. It is truly hopeless. Pyr is banished for abducting Ingrid, and he begins

18:33life as an outcast. He runs into three dairymaids, has some fun with them, runs into a rock, and spends the rest of the second act having a dream while being knocked out. Grieg has some fun with these dairymaids as well, as he writes music to accompany Pyr meeting them. The text here is really something else, so I'll read it out to you now. When they say Bard, they are referring to Pyr. Bard, want to sleep in our arms, you feller? Pyr, and who are you calling?

19:03Girls, why the trolls, sure enough. Girl 1, Trond, do it gently. Girl 2, Bard, make it rough. Girl 3, the hut has got all those bunks that need filling. Girl 1, rough is gentle. Girl 2, and gentle is rough. Girl 3, with no boys to play with, the troll's good enough. Girl 3, with no boys to play with, the troll's good enough.

19:52Girl 3, with no boys to play with, the troll's good enough.

19:59As you can hear, the music that Grieg writes is full of this sarcastic, impish, I guess you could call it charm, of the three girls. We don't hear in the recording Pyr's answers, but hopefully you get the idea. This is, again, much more harmonically daring music than we're used to from Grieg, and he seems to be reveling in the surreal nature of the story. I also sense a bit of a parody of Wagner here, using Wagnerian ideas of fanfares and even maybe of Valkyries in this comedic scene.

20:29He goes on to also revel in the rustic folk music ideas of the first act, as we hear this text. Pyr, I'm a three-headed troll with a three-lassy stride. Girls, a real he-man, are you? Pyr, for you to decide. Pyr, for you to decide.

21:14with a bang, as perhaps this is the moment where Pyr bumps his head into the rock. We then meet these trolls that have been alluded to by the girls. Pyr, in his dreams, meets a woman who is wearing green. She is the daughter of the troll Mountain King. Her appearance at first, though, doesn't give any inkling of anything trollish. Instead, the music is extremely calm and pastoral, and even references probably the second most famous moment in the suites. In this context, we really understand, again, the folk music.

22:11music roots of this music. And wait until you hear what that famous music actually accompanies in the story. We hear music that references the preludes as Pyr begins to follow this beautiful woman in green lumbering along. Pyr begins to flirt with her, not knowing her origins. And in the end, the woman in green allows him to follow her to her home in the hall of the Mountain King. I'll play you the very short incidental interlude here from Grieg, because it once again shows off the extremely famous morning mood music in a totally different light.

22:45PIANO PLAYS PIANO PLAYS We are now in the lair of the Mountain King.

23:19And yes, it's time for the most famous music of this piece, which serves in the play as an introduction to meeting the trolls for the first time. This music is so ubiquitous that it's easy to forget how brilliantly Grieg wrote it. It begins with the trollish bassoons at an extremely slow tempo. I'll narrate the rest as we go. I'll narrate the rest as we go. I'll narrate the rest as we go. I'll narrate the rest as we go. I'll narrate the rest as we go. I'll narrate the rest as we go. I'll narrate the rest as we go. I'll narrate the rest as we go. The theme is traded between the bassoons and pizzicato cellos and basses, and soon the violins

24:17will join with little violent tags in the violas. And now, of course, Grieg says to slowly increase the tempo and the volume as we ride.

24:51closer and closer to the realm of the mountain king. But I'm going to stop here because you probably have never heard this music in its entirety.

25:21This is because in the full incidental music, Grieg actually has a chorus, the trolls, sing at the climactic moment of this music. It slightly changes the vibe to hear the Ibsen text, which is, kill him, a son of a Christian dare seduce the mountain king's loveliest maid, and then to hear kill him repeated over and over again. And now, of course, we'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back.

25:52We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back.

26:31That's not quite as fun, is it? This is what I love about these kind of discoveries. Before I wrote this show, I had no idea that there was a choral part in this music. But now, when I conduct a suite, which I surely will very soon, I can have this in my mind, and even share it with the orchestra, who will likely have no idea about it either. The wealth of discoveries that are out there is absolutely amazing to me, even with a piece as famous and well-known as this one. The Mountain King, the Troll King, gives Pyr the opportunity to marry his daughter,

27:03the woman in the troll, in green, and to become a troll himself. But Pyr declines. Unfortunately, the Troll King tells Pyr that the woman in green is actually pregnant, which surprises Pyr because he claims he never touched her. The king replies that Pyr's thoughts made the woman in green pregnant. But then we get to the crux of the play. Once again, from the Norwegian Ibsen Company's synopsis of the play. Quote, Crucial for the plot and understanding of the play is the question asked by the Troll King.

27:34What is the difference between troll and man? The answer given by the old man in the mountain is, Out there where sky shines, humans say, To thyself be true. In here, trolls say, Be true to yourself and to hell with the world. Egoism is a typical trait of the trolls in this play. And from then on, Pyr uses this as his motto, always proclaiming that he is himself, whatever that is. In the midst of all this, the woman in green begins a slow and lumbering folk dance,

28:05which slowly gets faster and more raucous.

28:19¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ Thank you.

28:55As I said, Peer declines this generous offer to become a troll, which does not bode well for him. He tries to escape, but is hunted by the trolls, which Grieg portrays vividly with a variation on that legendary hall of the Mountain King music. It's amazing to hear this music in a totally different context. Grieg changes that steady march to a rollicking one to a bar, making the music pulse with excitement.

29:25Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

29:59The movement culminates with that same one-to-a-bar feeling, but with the chorus screaming, Close him in! Scratch him! Things aren't going very well for Pierre at this point, and Grieg's music is so vivid and so dramatic that it makes the perfect foil for that surreal text.

30:29The movement culminates with that same one-to-a-bar feeling, but with the chorus screaming, Then it all stops, and we hear a tolling bell, which suddenly alerts us that a tremendous storm is about to arrive.

31:27And with a blood-curdling climax, the trolls suddenly see something that terrifies them. They flee, and Pierre is left alone. The music fades away to an unsettled silence, as we have no idea what it was that scared the trolls so much to leave Pierre to survive their attack. The music fades away to an unsettled silence, as we are going toLED with yes, and we have no idea what it is again. The music fades away to an attenburyる to an Kontakt, and it shows the the기도함 whatever it is again. The music fades away between it, and it shows up.

31:58The music fades away before the갔 happened until... The music fades away from theagon. The music starts on entire downtown nokia... That's a terrible composer! And both a good denke bauen, during a conflict cerca of ancient townsfolk, Thank you.

32:38We then arrive at a curious scene with a character that is undefined called the Boig. The Boig seems to try to teach Pierre a lesson and tries to bind him, perhaps to steal his soul. But the prayers of Asa, Pierre's mother, and curiously Solve, are so powerful that the Boig also flees and Pierre is left alone again. The music here is truly incidental and wouldn't make much sense without the text, so I'm going to skip it here, which brings us to the end of Act 2.

33:12Pierre wakes up and suddenly is near his home. Helga, Solve's sister, tells him to stay away from Solve. But Pierre gives Helga a button for Solve to remember him by and leaves.

Act Three and Solveig

33:25Act 3 begins with Pierre deep in the forest, trying to get away from it all again. Grieg's prelude to Act 3 is full of the brooding character that we find Pierre in as the act begins, with oscillations between increasingly passionate music in the strings and calm, almost religious chorales. See you next time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

34:14Solvay suddenly shows up at Pierre's door and insists on living with him. My good friend Antony Ernst wrote a beautiful essay about Pierre Gint, and I think his interpretation of Solvay's actions really helps me understand what she's doing in this play, because it's very hard to understand why she insists on being with such a frankly unattractive character like Pierre. Antony writes, quote,

34:44The moral authority in his life is Solvay, a girl when we first meet her, an old woman at the end. Solvay is neither afraid of nor indulgent of Pierre. She comes from a rigidly religious family, but takes from it emotional courage rather than judgment, and ultimately leaves them behind for Pierre. Her commitment to him is the only commitment that binds him to another human being. The key to understanding Solvay is that unlike everyone else, she doesn't try to change him. Instead, she truly believes him to be a better man than he has shown himself.

35:17And in doing so, she indeed causes him for the only time in his life, and however misguidedly, to think of someone else. This brings us to Solvay's song, another one of the movements you'll probably recognize as Grieg extracted it for his sweets. There is a tenderness to the beginning of the song that is unlike everything we've heard so far. Grieg clearly set this kind of music aside for a character like Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay.

35:47Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Solvay. Grieg writes the song in A minor, and it is the same music we heard all the way back in the prelude

36:29of the entire play. Solvay's voice has been with us, however, unconsciously, all the time we've been listening to this music. The most touching moment of the movement for me is the middle section, which Grieg writes at a slightly faster tempo, but he keeps it very, very soft. The remarkable thing about this music, especially in context with the whole incidental music, is that tenderness that we've missed. Think about the music we've been listening to. It's been violent, trollish, a bit rustic and silly. And now here, finally, we have a human touch.

37:09Thank you.

37:39Solvay, the tragic heroine, is now fully established, which makes Pierre's actions to come even more unbearable. As Solvay enters the room, the woman in green, in imagined form, comes in with her, saying that she has cursed Pierre to remember her and all of his sins every time he sees Solvay. Pierre cannot handle this and hurriedly leaves, saying to Solvay that he has to go get something. He never returns. Instead, he goes to the home of his mother, who is so old now that she does not recognize him. He arrives in time for her death, which

38:13is another one of the most famous movements from the suites. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Listen to this display of creativity from Greek here.

39:01As Asa is dying, there cannot be necessarily much motion, and so Greek takes that initial motif and repeats it, and repeats it, and repeats it. It appears as an echo, but then it progressively gains in intensity, as Greek never varies that main motif. Only the harmony changes underneath it, becoming ever more intense and agonized. The use of octave intervals enhances the archaic, the old, the ancient aspect of this music.

39:35Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

40:30And then as the initial motif reaches its climax, Grieg introduces another motif, one of dissent. But Grieg's patience is endless, and just as the initial motif gained in intensity, the second motif fades away. Every time we think it can't repeat anymore, it does, as we witness the last breaths of the matriarch of the play.

41:00And then as the initial motif goes, it does, as we witness the last breath of the play.

Act Four in Morocco

41:30It's off overseas, beginning the absolutely surreal fourth act. As I mentioned earlier, Ibsen felt no barriers in the sense of stagings for this play, as it was originally meant to be read. So Pierre is off to Morocco first. And this is where we meet the other most famous moment of the suites, the portrayal of sunrises in so many movies and cartoons and advertisements that it can't even be counted. So Pierre is off to Morocco first.

42:24I mentioned that this movement might take you by surprise, considering its placement in the play. And if you imagine that this music is not meant to be portraying the Norwegian fjords as it is often described, but instead the deserts of Morocco, it takes on a slightly different feeling. Instead of Norwegian folk music, perhaps all of those turns and twists of grace notes and harmonic shifts are meant to be an homage to what Grieg would have thought, of course, with all the exoticism of his time, as Moroccan music. I really listen to this music differently now than I know its placement in the play,

42:58and I hope you do as well. I hope you do as well. Thank you.

43:41When I made this connection between the Moroccan, quote, home of this music, and Grieg's ideas, I immediately thought of Scheherazade, that pinnacle of exoticism and Orientalism. But Pierre Gint comes long before that piece was written. Ibsen and Grieg certainly would have been familiar with the folk anthology 1001 Nights,

44:12otherwise known as the Arabian Nights. And the swooning arpeggios here, and the slightly, and I really mean slightly, quote, Arabian harmonies here, are really a revelation to me on a musical level. As it suddenly reveals something about this music which I never knew existed. And also places Grieg as a little bit more of an innovator than he's given credit for. Music by Ben Thede

45:01I don't want to exaggerate this. There is definitely a reading of this that it's just a beautiful pastoral song. But later on, Grieg will explicitly dabble in this, quote, Orientalist music, so he was certainly familiar with the ideas. The plot becomes truly surreal here. Pierre becomes a businessman in Morocco, but he's highly corrupt, as we might expect. He is robbed, and then here is Grieg's next musical contribution, though this is truly music that only makes sense in the context of the play, so I'll skip it here.

45:34Suffice it to say that two thieves get very excited by the chance to rob Pierre blind, and they leave him alone on the shore with basically the clothes on his back. Pierre wakes up to find everything he owns gone and deplores his fate, though he soon finds some Bedouin clothes and suddenly is hailed as a prophet by an Arabian tribe. Culturally appropriate for 2026, this play is not, just to warn you. This leads us to the Arabian dance, which Grieg also extracted for one of his sweets. It's in this music where we hear Grieg's full-on embrace of that exoticism in music.

46:33This music actually reminds me a lot of the so-called Turkish march in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. This is that 19th century sensibility, not something that would fly today, but a character in music that was present and important to composers from Mozart to Beethoven, all the way to Grieg, Rimsky-Korsakov, and more. Loath to miss an opportunity to debase himself, Pierre then tries to seduce Anitra, the daughter of the chief of the tribe.

47:06This brings us one of the other extremely famous moments in the suites, Anitra's dance. Anitra's dance often gets compared to certain moments in the Nutcracker, but Grieg, like with Scheherazade, was first, since the Nutcracker wasn't written until 1892. Once again, Grieg gets overlooked for the creativity of this seductive and yet extremely elegant dance, full of those characteristic, quote, exotic harmonies. Anitra's dance. You're the one that един'sumed.

47:37One that, that was a kind of fake friend. Yes, yes. One that, that was extraordinary, means we're all in it for the nature of the children of God. It's very odd. We're all in it for you. So, Even to find a precise文 with success. This knockin' in mind really, this knockin' inchluss to touch us. I don't think it's an accident that Grieg includes some intervals that reminds us of

48:18the troll music here. Pierre's behavior in this section of the play is honestly revolting, and I think Grieg is helping Ibsen imply that there actually might be some troll in Pierre after all. Pierre now tries to serenade Anitra after her dance, and I think you can imagine

48:57how this goes.

49:27You can hear that as elegant as Anitra's dance was, Pierre is awkward, in a lumbering 6-8 rhythm, and the melodic line is almost deliberately repetitive, but not in a beautiful way like in Asa's death. Here it is brutish, uninteresting, and a clear reflection of the selfish character of Pierre. Finally, at one point you'll hear it when the cellos rise up, Pierre tries to tell Anitra that she is beautiful, but he does it in a way that, well, let's just say I don't think

49:57it's the most effective flirting one can do.

50:09Anitra, you are the sap of the palm tree, indeed you are. Cheese of the Angora goat is not half as delicious as us. With this uber-romantic line, the serenade mercifully comes to an end.

50:47Pierre gives it his best, but Anitra is uninterested, despite his prophet status, and is able to escape his clutches. Before the end of the act, a beautiful moment emerges. In the stage directions we read, At the performances in Christiania, the stage arrangement was successfully modified, in that, after the above lines, Pierre Gint remains on stage and sinks into deep reverie, settling himself on a stone bench, so that what follows is to be understood as a dream vision of Pierre Gint.

51:18The backdrop parts, and one sees in the clouds the image sketched by the poet. Summer day, high in the north, a cottage in the highland forest, Solvay, bright and beautiful, sits and spins outside in the sunshine. Solvay sings her song as we have heard it before, but now in the incidental music it is sung by an actual singer, not played by the string section, and it acquires a whole new level of beauty. This was the first time I'd ever heard this version,

51:48and I found it heartbreaking. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

52:24Perhaps both winter and spring will pass, and next summer too, and all the year, but sometime you will come, I am sure, and I shall wait, because I promised you.

52:54After everything Pierre has done, Solvay remains loyal to him, something hard to understand, but if we remember her radical acceptance of Pierre, then it becomes clear. This is the end of the musical contributions of Act 4, but a lot happens in the rest of the act, particularly a conversation that Pierre Gint has with the Egyptian Sphinx, who he mistakes for the Boig from earlier on. Pierre then meets the owner of a local madhouse, who explains to Pierre that everyone inside lives in their own world, and cares for no one but themselves.

53:30Pierre is named the Emperor of the Madhouse, considering he is the pinnacle of thinking only about himself. The message of the play and of everyone around him finally seems to get through, and Pierre, in despair, decides to return home and to ask for God's assistance.

Act Five and the Shipwreck

53:45This brings us to the final act, which begins with Pierre, an old man now, being shipwrecked. Grieg's Prelude is a thrilling depiction of the shipwreck, full of driving rhythms and dramatic crescendi. The Institutions of the Battle of the Madhouse

54:16Pier survives the crash, but is left completely without possessions once more. The rest of the act is a series of events that force Pier to account for all of the terrible things he has done. As the Norwegian Ibsen Company writes,

54:46Pier stumbles along and is confronted with all that he did not do, his unsung songs, his unmade works, his unwept tears, and his questions that were never asked. His mother comes back and claims that her deathbed went awry. He did not lead her to heaven with his ramblings. Pier escapes and is confronted with the button molder, who maintains that Pier's soul must be melted down with other faulty goods unless he can explain when and where in life he has been, quote, himself. Pier protests he has been only that and nothing else.

55:18Then he meets the troll king, who states that he has been a troll, not a man, most of his life. The molder comes along and says that he has to come up with something if he is to not be melted down. Pier looks for a priest to confess his sins, and a character named the Lean One, who is the devil, turns up. He believes Pier cannot be accounted a real sinner who can be sent to hell because he has not done anything serious. Pier despairs in the end, understanding that his life is forfeited. He understands he is nothing.

55:48Grieg did not write very much music for the fifth act, but what he did write, for example, this day scene, is tragic and full of the weight of the world that Pier must finally be feeling. Grieg did not write very much music for the fifth act.

56:28Solvay appears again at this moment, singing in her hut, now completely a cappella. Notice what Grieg has done. This theme appeared in the prelude as a clarinet solo, then it transformed into something for the full string section, then to voice an orchestra, and now to voice alone. The End Thank you.

57:25Now everything is ready for Whitson, and my dear boy is far away. Are you going to come? If your load is heavy, take it easy on the way. I shall wait for you. I promised you that.

57:55We now arrive at the final major musical contribution from Grieg, a night scene. It begins with an eerie ostinato, repeated figure in the strings, which takes us right into the atmosphere of the mysterious night. Ibsen says a white mist covers the ground, and using the strings and octaves, Grieg portrays it vividly. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

58:25Thank you. Thank you. This is exactly the confrontation which I read to you earlier,

59:03where Peer realizes that he has wasted his life. But the words don't come only from people. They come from balls of yarn, from dead leaves on the ground, from dewdrops. There is a kind of existentialism here before existentialism even really existed. Peer is not only a jerk, a womanizer, a criminal. He is nothing. And these tiny objects, these pieces of nature, are here to tell him.

59:43This is exactly the same. There is a kind of

1:00:17religiousness to this text, and Grieg takes advantage of this by having the chorus repeat the same note over and over again. Ibsen's relationship to religion was quite complicated, but the framework of Pier Gint as a story is still Christian, even if Ibsen was deeply skeptical of institutional religion. The lecture continues here. It is the crux of the whole play. Pier never did any of these things, and he was also not serious. So essentially, he did not exist.

1:00:47The chorus becomes more and more agitated as the music whips up more of this divine but very grounded judgment. We are the deeds you should have done. On the last day we shall come as a flock and bear witness. That will teach you. This leads to an absolutely terrifying climax, and then a sudden appearance of the end of Asa's death music. It's all coming full circle for the increasingly devastated and terrified Pier. And a

1:01:21people to their orean The people and they best and

1:01:44The Button Mulder continues to pursue Pierre, demanding a list of Pierre's sins,

The final crossroads

1:01:55or else he will melt him down. Finally, Pierre arrives at Solvay's hut, seemingly by accident. Solvay comes out and cries out in joy that Pierre has returned. But Pierre immediately demands that she reveal all of Pierre's sins to the Button Mulder. Once again, I defer to the wonderful summary on the Norwegian Ibsen Company's website. Quote, but she answers, you have not sinned at all, my dearest boy. Pierre does not understand. He believes himself lost. Then he asks her,

1:02:26where has Piergin been since we last met? Where was I as the one I should have been, whole and true, with the mark of God on my brow? She answers, in my faith, in my hope, in my love. Pierre cries out and buries his head in Solvay's lap, saying, Oh, hide me, hide me within you. Solvay then sings a song to Pierre. It's not specified what happens here, though the implication is that Pierre passes away in Solvay's lap, though it's possible the

1:02:58story is meant to continue. As Solvay sings, the Button Mulder says to Pierre, we meet at the final crossroads, Pierre, and then we shall see if I'll say no more here. Grieg's final contribution is Solvay's cradle song, that she sings to Pierre almost like a lullaby. The purity of the music is truly touching, again especially after the darkness, corruption, violence, and despair of the previous music.

1:03:34Sleep, my darling, my precious boy, I shall cradle you, I'll watch over you. Sleep, my darling, my precious boy, I'll catch you, I'll catch you, I'll catch you, I'll catch you.

1:04:08The middle section of the song features all of the beauty of Grieg's harmony, as the music takes on a fantasy-like sound. We're led to remember some of Pierre's actions, but now through the eyes of Solvay, who always had faith in Pierre's innate goodness. The child has lain close to my heart all the live-to-live-long day, now he is so tired. Sleep, my dearest boy, sleep, sleep, I shall rock you.

1:04:40Sleep, my dearest boy, sleep, I shall rock you. The song ends as innocently, as lovingly, as tenderly as it began, and that is the end of

Closing thoughts on the music

1:05:21the play. Ibsen's achievement is remarkable across this massive, sprawling play, and Grieg's contribution is equal to the challenge of writing incidental music for such a surreal, such a characterful, and such an all-over-the-place creation. Think of how far we've traveled from the beginning of the play, and think of all the variety of colors and characters and events that Grieg has portrayed for us. I don't know if a real production of the entire play with the incidental music will ever be put on again, but I really hope it is. It's a wonderful, very funny, and I think

1:05:54very moving play. And the music, as always with Grieg, the music is so beautiful in its simplicity, its creativity, and its ability to go straight to our hearts. Thank you to Flavia for sponsoring this episode, which really gave me an insight and a peer gant that I never had before. This episode was mixed by Charlie Cosella, so thank you very much to him, and thank you all for listening to Sticky Notes today. We'll have some more exciting stuff for you in a couple of weeks, so don't miss our next episode. If you like what you heard today, please feel free to rate and review the show on

1:06:27Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps the show gain more visibility. And please send any questions to stickynotespodcast at gmail.com, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. And if you'd like to support the podcast monetarily, just head over to patreon.com slash stickynotespodcast. Thanks, and I'll talk to you again after a while.

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