Below, we are happy to share some of our ideas behind Crossing Grieg - Opus 72 reimagined. Insights on each piece will be updated along with the release of the first single tracks. The complete album is expected on June 26. [general info on the project here].
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13. BRUREMARSJ FRA TELEMARK / WEDDING MARCH FROM TELEMARK
Every track of Crossing Grieg contains its own solutions to the challenge we set ourselves: to explore how the original Hardanger fiddle slåtter can be merged with Edvard Grieg's piano adaptions, keeping interesting characteristics from both while creating a new, combined musical flow.
In this Wedding March we choose to enter the music gently and gradually from both sides, through improvisation and by using only selected elements from Grieg's piano version.
At the start, the fiddle gradually improvises its way into the slått.
(bars 1-7)
After 16 bars the fiddle has found the slått and plays it normally:
(the start of the traditional Wedding March)
The piano gradually moves towards Grieg's original, in a simplified version that retains the rhythmic character and a few pivotal notes.
At the start of next sound sample, a little detour to temporarily include some of Grieg's original romantic-style harmony:
(last 4 bars of 1st section, and start of 2nd section)
What you then heard (after these 4 bars) is the middle section of the March where, Compared to Grieg’s version, the fiddle melody has been transposed up one octave, as traditionally played on the fiddle and as notated by Halvorsen in the transcriptions he wrote down for Grieg. See illustration below.
The bass line from bar 15, which in Grieg's piece is rather dominating (repeated four-note pattern in pedal-point style), is in our version continuously shifted up and down in octaves, allowing the folk tune to emerge and the sonority of the Hardanger fiddle to project in a more varied way.
We keep the original Grieg in bars 24–31 and from 41 to the end.
Listen to the whole piece in the youtube link below!
Stay tuned for more updates - next single out on June 5!