Holberg Suite (Grieg)

Originally written for piano, Grieg later scored his Holberg Suite" for orchestra. Geoffrey Brand has done a masterful job of setting two movements of the suite Ð the Sarabande and Gavotte Ð for wind band. Give your students the opportunity to perform first-rate classical music they wouldn't otherwise have access to.

Genre: Band | # of Players: Standard
Level: 3 | Duration: 5:25

Instrumentation
1st Flute
2nd Flute
Oboe*
1st Bb Clarinet
2nd Bb Clarinet
3rd Bb Clarinet
Bb Bass Clarinet*
Bassoon*
1st Eb Alto Saxophone*
2nd Eb Alto Saxophone*
Bb Tenor Saxophone*
Eb Baritone Saxophone*

1st Bb Trumpet
2nd Bb Trumpet
1st F Horn
2nd F Horn
1st Trombone
2nd Trombone*
Euphonium
(TC Baritone)
Tuba

Timpani*
Xylophone*

Parts marked with an asterisk (*) are NOT ESSENTIAL, although their presence will obviously enable a fuller realization of the composer's intention to be had.

Program Notes

Born in Bergen, Norway, into a family of Scottish descent, Edvard Grieg showed a talent for music early and at the age of 10 had piano lessons from his mother. In 1849 he went to study at Leipzig Conservatoire before moving to Copenhagen where he met Riokaard Nordaak, a young Norwegian composer who was immersed in Norwegian nationalism and greatly influence Grieg who felt his future was as a musician dedicated to romantic nationalism.

Holberg Suite, originally for piano, was written in 1884 in response to a commission to mark the bicentenary of the birth of Ludvig Holberg, a Norwegian dramatist and satirist. A year later, Grieg arranged 5 movements for string orchestra.

Sarabande and Gavotte are intended to be played segue but can, if desired, be performed separately. The music expresses Grieg and his native Norway in a manner which justifies his declaration "I am not an exponent of Scandinavian music but of Norwegian."