Composed by Edvard H. Grieg (1843-1907). Arranged by F. Leslie Smith. Romantic Period, TV, European, Mother's Day, Wedding. Score, Set of Parts. 22 pages. Published by Sweetwater Brass Press (S0.131535). - Score,Set of Parts - Romantic Period,TV,European,Mother's Day,Wedding - Sweetwater Brass Press In 1880, Edvard Grieg composed twelve songs based on the poetry of A.O. Vinje. Two of those he arranged for string orchestra as Two Elegiac Melodies.
Four years later Grieg composed a five-piece suite to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Ludvig Holberg, the Norwegian-born writer who played a major role in the founding of Danish literature. Originally written for piano, Grieg soon arranged From Holberg?s Time for string orchestra.
Nearly one hundred years later, Kathryn Forbes? novel, Mama?s Bank Account, was published, recounting the tale of a Norwegian family living in San Francisco in the early Twentieth Century. Forbes? book inspired a number of dramatic presentations, Broadway and Hollywood productions. Most relevant to ?Two By Grieg,? however, was Mama, a TV series CBS launched in 1949 that ran for eight years. This weekly half-hour program used two Grieg compositions as themes: ?Sarabande? from Holberg Suite and ?The Last Spring? from Two Elegiac Melodies. For many viewers, this was the first time they had ever heard these beautiful songs, and the two melodies have been forever linked thereafter.
?Sarabande? and ?The Last Spring? are the compositions that comprise ?Two By Grieg.? This arrangement is based on Grieg?s string orchestration and stays as close as possible to the original.
Completed in 2016, this arrangement runs about 7 minutes, 3 seconds. The arranger, Les Smith, will be happy to provide substitute parts (for example, treble clef baritone for trombone) at no charge; contact him directly at lessmith61@bellsouth.net. For more arrangements by Les, enter "Sweetwater Brass Press" (without the quotation marks) in the SheetMusicPlus search box.
