Peer Gynt: “Solveig’s Song”

Main page for Grieg’s Peer Gynt

• “Solveig’s Song” appears in Act 4 of Grieg’s incidental music (1874-75)¹ to Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt (1867).²
• This movement is vocal number in the original incidental music. Solveig is a woman whom Peer left behind in the far north of Norway when he went off on his adventures.³ She sings of her faith that Peer will return to her.

The winter may wane and the springtime may fly,
The summer depart and the year may die,
To me thou wilt return, thou art mine soon or late,
I give thee my promise and faithfully can wait.

From the singable English translation of “Solveig’s Song”⁴

1. John Horton and Nils Grinde, “Grieg, Edvard,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed October 16, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000011757.
2. Robert M. Adams, “Henrik Ibsen,” Encyclopædia Brittanica (May 19, 2019), accessed October 16, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henrik-Ibsen.
3. Liner notes to Edvard Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites et al, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Naxos 8.550864, CD, 1994.
4. Edvard Grieg, “Solvejgs Lied,” from Peer Gynt (Leipzig: Peters, ca. 1893), IMSLP, accessed October 16, 2019, http://ks4.imslp.net/files/imglnks/usimg/c/cc/IMSLP90292-PMLP54588-Grieg,_Peer_Gynt,_Op.23,_Solveig’s_Song.pdf.