Grieg: Norwegian Folk Tunes and Dances, Op. 17

Last night I listened to some excerpts from Grieg's Norwegian Folk Tunes and Dances, Op. 17, and I found some melodies that sounded familiar to me.  The melodies in pieces XXIII and XXIV are also in the fourth of Grieg's Symphonic Dances on Norwegian Themes, Op. 64.

The melody for Op. 17: XXIII is worth picturing in its entirety since all of it is used on Op. 64: IV.

(notation found here)

I've actually found the melody from measures three to six in two different Grieg pieces, and I've written about them before.  It's in the Symphonic Dances on Norwegian Themes, but it's also in Nineteen Norwegian Folk Tunes, Op. 66: VI. Cow-call and Lullaby:

(click here for a larger image)
(notation found here [Op. 64] and here [Op. 66])

Of course, there are some differences, but the melodies are all very similar.

There's more of a resemblance between Op. 17: XXIII and Op. 64: IV than with Op. 66: VI though because the melody in measures eleven to fifteen is similar to the melody in measures eleven to twenty in the section marked B of Op. 64: IV:

(click here for a larger image)

I haven't thoroughly studied the fourth Symphonic Dance, but I've listened to it enough to become fairly familiar with it.  I'm pretty sure it's in sonata form, and - as occurs with sonata form - these two melodies come back for the second A section.

The B section of the Symphonic Dance shares a melody with Op. 17: XXIV:

In the Symphonic Dance, a very similar melody is in the clarinet and oboe beginning at the Più tranquillo:

(click here for a larger image)

When I originally found the melody that Op. 66: VI. and Op. 64: IV have in common, I was reading a book of Grieg's letters.  I referenced the index of works in the back and found that, as the opus numbers would suggest, they were written around the same time.  The book says the Symphonic Dances, Op. 64 are from 1896, and that the Folk Songs, Op. 66 are from 1896-1898.  Again, as the opus number would suggest, the Folk Tunes and Dances, Op. 17 are much earlier; the book says they're from 1870.  I think Grieg is pretty well-known for using folk tunes in his music, so I find it interesting that he used the same ones almost thirty years apart.

Grieg: Lyric Pieces X, Op. 71: VII. Remembrances

This morning I listened to some more of Grieg's Lyric Pieces for piano.  The seventh piece (Remembrances) in Book X, Op. 71 sounded a bit familiar, and I realized that it's very similar to the first piece (Arietta) in Book I, Op. 12.

I intended to look up the notation for both and compare them, but when I lookt up the notation for Op. 71: VII, I noticed an asterisk after the title:

which lead to a footnote at the bottom of the page:

It's in German:  "Vergl[eich] Lyrische Stücke Heft 1 No. 1 (Arietta)."  Translated, this is "Compare Lyric Pieces Book 1 No. 1 (Arietta)."

I'm glad that footnote was there because the notation is still above my skill level.  I did notice though that Arietta and Remembrances are both in the same key: Eb major.

Most of the books of Grieg's Lyric Pieces that I have are incomplete; I have only excerpts.  This is the case with Book X.  I lookt up the complete book and discovered that Remembrances is the last piece in the book.  Since Book X is also the last book of Grieg's Lyric Pieces, there's a sort of bookending going on.  He starts and ends his Lyric Pieces with a similar-sounding tune.

Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16

Three days ago, I listened to Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16.  In the third movement, there was a part that reminded me of Beethoven's 5th Symphony.  So I looked up the scores and compared the two pieces (that's what took so long between first hearing this and writing a post about it - I'm not very good at reading music).

On the left are the first two bars of the 4th movement of Beethoven's 5th symphony.  On the right are some measures from the 3rd movement of Grieg's Piano Concerto.  Both of these - the first measure and a half of Beethoven's 5th Symphony and the 69th and half of the 70th measure of Grieg's Piano Concerto - use inversions of C major in escalating the melody.  Beethoven does this with a variety of instruments (although I've shown only a few), and Grieg does it with just the piano, but they're both doing the same thing.