From Holberg’s Time (Holberg Suite)
5 min
Recording
- IV. Air — Andante religiosoMarine Chamber Orchestra of the United States Marine Band; Maj. Jason K. Fettig, conductor · 17 August 2013, Alexandria, Virginia5:17
The Air, marked Andante religioso, is the slow G minor fourth movement of Grieg’s From Holberg’s Time, Op. 40, for strings, written in honour of a playwright born in Bergen in 1684. The Marine Chamber Orchestra plays it under Jason K. Fettig.
Listening notes
- Air, G minor
Andante religioso, G minor, in 3/4, marked cantabile. The upper and lower strings share the melody. Suspensions run through the harmony, with notes held against the chord and then resolved.
- Repeat of the opening strain
The opening strain is played a second time, as its repeat sign directs, with its crescendo and diminuendo.
- Middle section in B♭ major
The middle section moves to B♭ major, the relative major. Here Grieg uses the full sonority of the Romantic string orchestra, and the music builds steadily.
- Holberg bicentenary, 1884
Grieg called From Holberg’s Time “a good exercise for concealing one’s own personality”. He wrote it for the 200th anniversary of Ludvig Holberg’s birth, on 3 December 1884, first as a piano suite and then, in 1885, for strings.
- Return of the opening melody
The opening melody returns in G minor, shared between the upper and lower strings. The music builds to a climax near the end; in Grieg’s piano version the melody returns in the left hand at bar 107 and builds to ffz at bar 121.
- Closing bars
After the last climax the tempo slows and the texture thins, with dim. and ritardando leading down to pp. The final chord is held under a pause.