Anitra's Dance

• Edvard Grieg


  Composer from the Romantic era (1810 - 1900), born in Bergen, Norway in June 1843 and died in September 1907
• Edvard Grieg


  • Learned piano from age 6, his father was a merchant and his mother was a music teacher
  • Studied at the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany, made his debut as a concert pianist in 1861
  • Interested in the characteristics of folk music in Norway and they were his inspirations for his musical works
  • Composed works for piano, male chorus, violin and cello sonatas, and incidental music for plays
  • Influenced by the music traditions of Felix Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann
• Grieg composed Peer Gynt Suite No.1


  1875
• Peer Gynt


  A play in five acts written in verse by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828 - 1906), published in 1867
• Peer Gynt (character)


  A charming but lazy peasant youth who leaves his home to seek his fortune, meets a girl called Anitra in Act IV
• Anitra


  The daughter of the village leader, too clever for Peer Gynt who tries to seduce her but she robs him of his money and possessions
• Peer Gynt Suite No.1 (Op. 46)

  Grieg selected four movements from the whole Peer Gynt work to create this suite in 1888, containing: Morning Mood, The Death of Ase, Anitra's Dance and In the Hall of the Mountain King
• Peer Gynt Suite No.1 and Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor are the most famous works by this composer
• Anitra's Dance


  One of the four movements in Peer Gynt Suite No.1
• Anitra's Dance

  • Instrumentation: String Orchestra (Violin I, Violin II, Viola, Cello I, Cello II and Double Bass) and Triangle
  • Tempo: Tempo di Mazurka/Molto Allegro, 160 bpm, spirited dance (waltz), slows at bars 68-69 and resumes original tempo at bar 70
  • Dynamics: Range from pp to f, with crescendo and diminuendo
  • Tonality: Main key is A minor, modulates to D major at bars 40-46
  • Rhythm and Metre: Simple rhythms, triple time (3/4)
  • Texture: Mainly homophonic, with some imitation
  • Melody and pitch: Conjunct and disjunct movement, use of trill and mordent, large range for main melody
  • Harmony: Diatonic and chromatic
• The overall structure could be analysed as binary or ternary form, but candidates will not be asked to comment on this in any examination
• Theme x


  Based in B Major played by the first violins and first cellos (in octaves)

  
• Melodic material of theme x


  • Generally chromatic, but some clear triads can be identified (E major in bar 16 and B minor in bar 17)

  
• Theme x


  1. Performed over a repetitive pedal B note played by the second violins, second cellos and double basses

  2. Melody instruments (first violins and first cellos) bowed while the other strings still use pizzicato

  3. Music begins pianissimo, becoming gradually louder (crescendo) and then gradually quieter (diminuendo)

  4. Violas highlight the descending chromatic movement

  
• Texture of theme x is homophonic (using a melody and accompaniment)
• Theme w


  Returns in unison in bar 19, with Violin II and violas playing in octaves, joined in bar 21 by the first violins with a scalic extension of the theme in E minor
• The last cadence here is V-I in E minor (perfect cadence)
• All stringed instruments are accented in unison (B-E)
• Melody of theme w

  Mainly conjunct, monophonic in texture and played pizzicato

  
• The whole A section is repeated exactly
• Theme y


  Features a dotted rhythm and a conjunct melody, with the second bar (ascending) being an inversion of the first bar (descending)
• Harmony of theme y

  • Based in the dominant major (E major), with the first two notes being the 7th and 9th intervals of the scale and the first violins playing in 3rds

  
• Theme y


  Second violins perform the simple accompaniment arco in bars 24-27, with the lower strings still playing pizzicato and the triangle playing a crotchet on the first beat in every other bar
• The texture of theme y is homophonic, and the harmony is diatonic
• Theme z


  A four-note quaver motive first played by the second violins and violas (pizzicato) and imitated by the first violins and cellos (arco)

  
• Harmony of theme z


  • Provides us with a diminished chord in the key with some passing notes between (each note in a diminished chord is made up of minor 3rd intervals, e.g. G#, B, D & F)

  
• Theme z


  1. Rhythms are made up of quavers, with the triangle part silent during this theme

  2. Texture is monophonic, which is a contrast to theme y, and with the use of pizzicato this gives a quieter feel

  3. Apart from the double basses, the descending pattern is played by all of the other instruments

  
• Following a different descending pattern in the cellos


  The music moves to the tonic major in bar 32 (A major – I7)
• The previous eight bars are then repeated in this new key firstly with theme y
• Theme z is based on a diminished chord, this time using the notes C#, E, G & B♭
• This material is repeated from the E major section before but now transposed to A major and finishes with another short descending pattern by the cellos, which takes us to the subdominant major (D major) in bar 40
• This is a circle of fifths: E major (bar 24) – A major (bar 32) – D major (bar 40)
• Theme w in Section A1

  Played arco by the first violins but now heard in D major, the subdominant

  
• Theme w in Section A1


  Begins as before with an upbeat and contains the ornaments as heard in the original section, with the other strings playing a simple pizzicato accompaniment as before, using the chords of D and A

  
• Theme w in D minor

  Heard again at bar 49 but in D minor (subdominant minor – iv), with the melody again played with arco and pizzicato accompaniment, and the dynamic marking is piano

  
• Theme w repeated in different keys

  From the upbeat to bar 55, this melody and accompaniment is repeated four times in a series of different keys, with each time theme w being heard played by the first violins and then imitated a bar later by the violas

  
• From bars 54-61, the first cellos perform the notes E♭ & F# as long sustained notes, then continuing with a slurred two-note pattern for the next eight bars
• In this section the dynamics increase until bar 58 and then decrease to bar 66, and at bar 69 the tempo begins to get a little slower as shown by the marking poco rit
• Theme w in Section A2

  The first violins play in octaves and the first cellos imitate theme w one bar later, with all other instruments playing with pizzicato and the dynamic being piano, marked dolce (sweetly)

  
• Theme w extended in Section A2


  The second half of the theme is now extended to eight bars instead of the original four bars earlier in the piece, forming another sequence, with bars 78-81 being a perfect 5th lower than bars 74-77