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The Worlds of Gilbert and Sullivan

This beautiful nocturne is from Edvard Grieg's Lyric Suite. The suite consists of four pieces taken from Book V of the Lyric Pieces, Opus 54 for solo piano. It was arranged by Edvard for full orchestra, and is a must for any music lover!

The four pieces in the suite are:

The whole suite is full of haunting melodies, taken from folk legends conjuring up images of Norway with its mountains, fjords and forests.

Nocturne is 3 minutes of sheer poetry! We hope you think so too. Here is our arrangement. Visit that 'Secret Garden'? Hear that nightingale? Perhaps it drives you to write some of your own . . .

Here is a couple of stanzas (VII and VIII) from John Keats' (1795 - 1821) Ode to a Nightingale. This poet's work, he died when aged 26, would be very fresh in the minds of William and Arthur. Might it also have inspired Edvard . . .?

Thou wast not born for death, immortal bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
The same that oft-times hath
Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
To toll me back from thee to my sole self!
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well
As she is fam'd to do, deceiving elf.
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades
Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep
In the next valley-glades:
Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is the music:- Do I wake or sleep?

Shall we now turn to  Edvard's   Peer Gynt   suite. . .?

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