Peer Gynt: the fruits of collaboration between two cultural giants—Henrik Ibsen and Edvard Grieg

Abstract

In 1874 the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen sent a request to Edvard Grieg to have him compose music for a stage production of his ‘dramatic poem’ Peer Gynt. Grieg's immediate response was positive, and a happy collaboration between the two artists was established, the result of which was the premiere of Ibsen's drama with Grieg's music at the Christiania Theatre in the Norwegian capital in February of 1876. The history of Grieg's work, the first performances in Scandinavia, the editions of the score, and finally the 26 individual musical pieces of Peer Gynt are described in this paper.