THE DEVELOPMENT AND PERIODS OF EDVARD GRIEG’S ORCHESTRAL STYLE

Abstract

Edvard Grieg considered the orchestration of his compositions as a very important means of creative expression. In spite of its seemingly simple character, Grieg’s orchestral style is colourful and versatile. It is based on full concordance of the orchestral means with the other elements of composer’s music. Grieg began with the orchestral style based on firmly established traditions and later deviated towards more colourful and refined way of scoring which suited best for the specific musical images of his creations. The effectiveness of Grieg’s orchestration lies first of all in properly chosen and proportionally distributed roles of the orchestral sections and individual timbres. The author of this article made an attempt to establish the approximate periods of Grieg’s orchestration style and to introduce their main traits. Relying on the analysis carried out in this article, it was possible to discern four periods of Grieg’s orchestration style development. The boundaries of these periods are approximate and based on their predominant orchestration features.

Keywords

• Edvard Grieg, orchestra, orchestration, periods.