Grieg and Grieg

[sd cisco]

Hello;
A few weeks ago, we were treated to the dramatic impact of Frits and his Podium music production software, demonstrating its fantastic yet unfathomable powers, for me at least, in a rendering of Grieg's Aases Death from the Peer Gynt Suite. There were something like 124 separate violins all playing and I thought it was very good, extremely rich and layered sounding. Anyway, this got me more interested in other music in the Peer Gynt, as well as in general by Grieg. Growing up, I was mostly familiar with the A Minor Piano Concerto, and heard parts of Peer Gynt a couple of times.
Now, inspired by the sound of Aase's Death and armed with my GPO4, I went on the hunt for more Grieg, suitable to render, after first subjecting them to my usual treatment!! (Alas, in Cubase!)
I found all of the PG Suite very interesting and have selected two of these short pieces, March of the Trolls and Solvejgs Song to present.
Grieg seemed to be comfortable in the smaller form; he can be comic or tragic, but inventive and clever, so, all in, it has been great to work through these pieces. All GPO4.

Grieg - March of the Trolls
Grieg - Solvejgs Song


Best regards,
sd cisco

[jsaras]

Solvejgs Song was by far the more believable mix.

If you please like, I would like to take a crack at re-mixing the March of The Trolls. I use Sonar, so you'd have to output a MIDI file and save the various Aria ensembles (or Kontakt ensembles...I have both versions of GPO on my system).

Let me know,
J

[pokeefe]

Grieg has never been a favorite composer of mine. I can think of only 3 things of his I like (if the Holberg Suite can count as 1). But one of those 3 is Solvejg's Song.

I think this a very moving piece of music, either in its orchestral or vocal form. The switch to major I find emotionally shattering. (Re: Dante's "There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery". I have no idea if that was intended by Grieg, but it hits me that way. In the sung version of the song those major sections are a vocalise so no words to help explain.) While some of your phrasing was not as convincing as a real performance, overall the peice worked (and is a heck of a lot better than I could do!).

Pat

[boulifb]

Hi sd,

How can I say softly...
As english is not my native language, I don't have diplomatic vocabulary. Sorry.

Not to be rude, but review the mix and execution for both tracks... Specially "The march of the trolls". It sounds horribly midi, unmixed and very mechanical.

Here are a few examples made only with GPO4:
http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/...ad.php?t=70427

and here:
http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/...ad.php?t=70153

These are not the best I have done, but you can get yourself much better with GPO4!

Keep going with your work and good luck with the mixing!

Sorry again for my rude vocabulary...

Fred.

[sd cisco]

J and Fred;
I take my response from a short essay on Peer Gynt, found in Wikipedia;

"Crucial for the plot and understanding of the play is the question asked by the troll-king: What is the difference between troll and man?
The answer given by the Old Man of the Mountain is: "Out there, where sky shines, humans say: 'To thyself be true.' In here, trolls say: 'Be true to yourself-ish.'" Egoism is a typical troll-trait in this play. From then on, Peer has this as his motto, claiming as time passes to be himself, whatever that is............."

That's all.
sd cisco

[sd cisco]

Grieg has never been a favorite composer of mine. I can think of only 3 things of his I like (if the Holberg Suite can count as 1). But one of those 3 is Solvejg's Song.

I think this a very moving piece of music, either in its orchestral or vocal form. The switch to major I find emotionally shattering. (Re: Dante's "There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery". I have no idea if that was intended by Grieg, but it hits me that way. In the sung version of the song those major sections are a vocalise so no words to help explain.) While some of your phrasing was not as convincing as a real performance, overall the peice worked (and is a heck of a lot better than I could do!).

Pat

Hi Pat;
Thank you for your remarks. I agree on the emotional impact of Solvejg's Song. If I'd heard it before, it was a long time ago, so really, this recent exposure to the music was a revelation, again, due to the beauty of the music.
Incidentally, the words are:

Grieg - Solvegjs Song
The winter may pass and the spring disappear,
The summer too will vanish and then the year,
But this I know for certain: you'll come back again.
And even as I promised you'll find me waiting then.
God help you when wand'ring your way all alone.
God grant to you his strength as you'll kneel at his throne.
If you are in heaven now waiting for me,
And we shall meet again love and never parted be, and never parted be

Best regards,
sd cisco

[jacksiru]

Hi SD,

I liked both the sound and the interpretation of both songs. The tempi seems just about right, and the orchestration also comes through very effectively. If I was to make a minor quibble, I think here and there the rhythm, or more specificly the accents, seem a tiny bit off - e.g. the last thump in Trolls seems to me it should come a tiny bit later; similarly, in the B section of Solvejg's Song the placement of accents here and there would help clarify the rhythm a bit more.

In general, as usual, I think your renderings are very good. Also, if I was to listen to these pieces again, I might have second thoughts about my minor quibbles.

Regards,

Jack

[garymosse]

Hi SD,
A lot of time in putting this together. Time well spent on good music.
It seems to me like the volume level never increased or decreased. Musicians tend to practice musical expressions which aren't indicated
in a score: gradually get softer on long tones; rise & fall with the movement of the melody line; slight pauses between phrases, etc.
I have found that changing the ensemble size helps the impression as opposed to constant TUTTI.
It sounds like there is a VERY flat xylophone or bell at the end part of the trolls(?)
Keep up the good work.

Gary