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E.Grieg
Two Elegiac Melodies

During the course of his life, Grieg had several unproductive periods due to a chronic illness.
The year 1880 marked the end of one of such periods, and the inspiration came from poet
Aasmund Olafsson Vinje, a proud romantic Norwegian nationalist.

Grieg, whose sentiments perfectly aligned with Vinje's, chose 12 poems to set to music as a song
cycle. From those 12, Grieg transcribed two of them for string orchestra: Hjertesår (The
Wounded Heart), and Våren (The Last Spring).

Hjertesår
The Wounded Heart
The first melody speaks about the wounds suffered by the heart in the struggles of life. It begins
in a very dark C minor, with the melody played by the first violins. Notice the second violins and
violas split into 2, while the basses are absent.

The very first note is for the second violins, on a G pedal. The other half of the second violins, in
the low register, doubles the violas on bar 2 while the second half of the violas double the cellos.

The parts are moving in contrary motion, a composing trait that goes way back to the origins of
counterpoint. Coupled with the register in which these parts are playing, it contributes to a dark
sound stirring emotions from the inside.
The music hits the breaks for a second on bar 5. Notice the 2 downbow markings for everyone,
increasing the weight of both notes and creating a natural breath between them while the players
lift the bow for the second note. Also, retaking the bow for the second note allows for a long and
smooth diminuendo.

The second part of the phrase uses the same elements, moving up in the register and ending up in
C major
Notice the cellos divisi on the last chord: it adds depth to the sound without too much weight
which would come, for instance, by using the basses on the same note.

We move to the next verse and the next section: the palpitations of the heart are visible in the
repeated eight notes. Each section - or half section - starts at 2 quarters from each other: the
second half of the violas, then the first half of the violas, same for the second violins.

Everything builds up to the line's entrance, sung by the cellos. The basses join in in pizzicato,
mirroring the first violins in a lower register.
Notice the articulation on the eighth notes: one long, two short but in the same bowing. This,
coupled with the downbow stroke, creates a natural effect of stressing the first of the three notes -
the one that would typically have the weaker stress - adding more tension to this accompaniment.

The melody, now sung by the cellos, is the only one in a mezzoforte dynamic and bears the
marking cantabile.
Notice how there is no more break between the first and the second half of the phrase: following
the written bowing, the cellos actually end up on a downbow on the downbeat of 3 bars before
letter B, with the following 2 notes in legato, one bowing, with a natural diminuendo.
Eliminating the break of the retake here ties the second part of the phrase in a more dramatic
way, almost without breathing between the two parts, emphasizing the anxious character of this
middle part.

The last repetition of the melody is left to the first violins again, in octaves and in a forte
dynamic. Notice the marcato sign, the accents in the second violins and violas, the doubling of
cellos and basses now adding that weight to balance the higher register and power of the first
violins and adding all the drama needed to make this phrase explode.

The dynamics are more and more insistent, going to a forzato, then to a più' forte, and becoming
more intense with a crescendo. We would expect a fortissimo now but instead, Grieg surprises us
with a pianissimo
…only to grow again a bar later, sweeping up to the fortissimo dynamic. The phrase retreats
down, slowly, in diminuendo, ritardando, and morendo to a pianissimo dynamic in C major.
Faith has been restored.

Våren
The Last Spring
While the first of the Elegiac Melodies is of a very dark nature, at least until the end, the second
one switches to a lighter tone from the beginning. The veil of melancholy though remains for the
entire piece.

In his poem, Vinje describes the beauty of the countryside in spring, appearing after the snow of
winter; he thinks he might be seeing it for the last time.

The very first chord is actually an E minor chord, split between the second violins divisi and the
violas. On the second bar, it is clear already that we're moving to G major, with a perfect
dominant-tonic cadence on the entrance of the cellos.

The melody, sung by the first violins, is terse and characterized by an alternation of one quarter
note and two eighth notes, constantly returning on their own steps. The intriguing parts are the
harmonic shifts underneath. If we look just at the violas' part, there is a half-way chromatic
downward scale: the chromatism adds a distinguished character to the phrase because of its
innate tension. Something we've observed in some of the past episodes in Mozart. That's how
this melody, in a clean G major, acquires that specific melancholic trait.

Once again, the basses are, for the time being, absent.
The following phrase proceeds without the cellos, with a small imitation game between the first
violins and the violas.

The first bar of this second phrase is used to move to B major. But notice the constant
chromatisms in one section or the other, the cellos line, and the dynamic. Nothing here speaks of
tranquillity or peace of mind.
The D# to D natural in the violas shifts the key from B major to B minor, returning to G major in
the following bar. But not for long: the constant underlying anxiety prevails moving to E minor
within 2 bars.

Again, this does not last long and two bars later we're back in G major. Notice the cellos using
the head of the theme to lead to the conclusion of the phrase

The first violins answer with the same cell, reversed, used to build a small coda to this section
while the underlying chromatism keeps the tension up.

The very end of this section is left to the violas and cellos divisi, with the violas taking the head
of the melody and leaving it suspended.
The second part of this piece corresponds to the second verse of the poem and it's a repetition of
the same material but with a very different orchestration.

Grieg orchestrates the melody, initially, for the violins only, divided in four, in the high register.
The dynamic is pianissimo but there is another interesting indication: sul ponticello. This means
that the players should play with the bow closer to the bridge.

It generally creates a slightly shrieking sound. It's interesting here because one would normally
expect an indication of playing towards the keyboard, to get a warmer, rounder sound. However,
this indication from Grieg tells us plenty in terms of how much this piece is everything but
peaceful in spite of its major key.

When the phrase continues, the bow goes back to its regular position while the violas join in
And then the cellos

Notice how the orchestration has gotten thicker and thicker, with doublings, octaves, and the
intensification of the chromatism. Finally, the basses join the rest of the group in a final
crescendo leading to a fortissimo e ben tenuto, another indication of not letting of the tension,
reiterated by the accents.
The next fortissimo is followed by a subito piano and then by a piano dolcissimo, moving to the
most delicate sound of the entire piece. Once again, the head of the theme returns, and the music,
simply, fades away like a beautiful landscape observed for the last time.
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