Listen to the second movement of Peer Gynt Suite no.1

This movement is called The Death of Åse. 

Åse was Peer’s mother, so you can imagine that this music is very sad. 

How does Grieg use the Elements of Music to give us a feeling of sadness and grief?

Think about Dynamics, Tonality and Tempo

What do you notice about Grieg’s orchestration in this movement? (Compare it to Morning)

How are the double basses treated differently to the other string instruments?

What key is this piece in? For this you will need to look at the key signature and check it against the first and last chords of the piece.

Write out the melodic version of the scale of this key. This will help you know which notes are diatonic and which are not. Write all the notes as crotchets.

Can you find any notes in the score that are not diatonic? Find two different examples and give their note name and bar number.

In terms of Structure this piece consists of 5 pairs of phrases and a 5 bar coda.

How long is each phrase?

Phrases 1 & 2

Let’s take a closer look at the first two phrases.

Phrase 1 starts on a chord of ________________ and ends on a chord of _______________.

Phrase 2 starts on a chord of ________________ and ends on a chord of _______________.

The chord progression at the end of a phrase is called a cadence and in Western music cadences are very important because they confirm tonality – or the key the music is in at any point.

Any chord leading to chord V (the dominant) is called an Imperfect Cadence.

Chord V leading to chord I (the tonic) is called a Perfect Cadence.

In bar 4, chord I on beat 2 leads to chord V on beat 3. Find his in the score. Don’t be put off by the passing note quavers in the cello and bass. It is the first quaver that counts as the chord note.

What inversion is chord I? 

What inversion is chord V? 

What type of cadence is this? 

In bar 8, chord V on beat 1 leads to chord I on beat 2. Find his in the score. Don’t be put off by the accented passing note in the bass. It is the second quaver that counts as the chord note. In the cello both quavers are chord notes because the second quaver is the seventh, making a dominant seventh chord.

What type of cadence is this? 

This type of paired phrase structure, with an imperfect cadence followed by a perfect cadence, is very common in music of the Classical period. You’ll even find it in music as familiar as “Happy Birthday To You”.

Did you spot the non-diatonic note in bar 5? It is the E# in the second violin part. This creates a chromatic chord/altered chord. We don’t need to worry about this chord just now. It is a chord that we study at A level, called an augmented sixth because this is the interval between the root and the altered note.

Can you work out which note is the root of this chord? 

Why do you think Grieg uses a chromatic chord in this piece (it crops up quite a lot)?

Phrases 3 & 4

Now let’s take a closer look at the second and third phrases.

Ignoring the dynamics, how do these two phrases differ from phrases 1 and 2?

In what way are these two phrases the same as phrases 1 & 2?

Phrases 5 & 6

Make four statements to describe these two phrases, comparing them to phrases 1&2.

So far we have described the structure of this piece in terms of phrases. We can also view the piece as having two main sections, from the beginning to letter A and from letter A to the end.

The letter A in the score is called a rehearsal mark. It is used as a musical land mark for orchestras to navigate from in rehearsals.

Looking at this larger (macro) structure, make three points to describe differences between the first section to letter A and the second section after letter A.

Finally, let’s look at the cadences at the end of this section. There are three repeated cadences in bars 40, 41 and 42 into 43. The important thing to notice is that the note D in violin 1 in bar 40 is held over from the previous bar. It does not belong to the chord in bar 40. It is called a suspension because it is suspended over the bar line. But it has to resolve so on the second beat it moves down to C#.

What is this chord (beat 2 of bar 40)? _____________________

What chord does it resolve onto on beat 3? ____________________

Bar 40 is a _____________ cadence in _________ minor.

The piece ends with a fermata (pause) on a B minor chord. What does the Italian word morendo mean? (tick the correct box)