Dear Vocalisters:
Solveig's Sang (Song) was originally written in Norwegian. Swedish and Norwegian and Danish have similar roots but the languages are very different. Swedes do not speak Norwegian well, according to Norwegians and there is often a strong rivalry between the two peoples. Even in American.
Norwegian has a word syntax that is very similar to English, German syntax is very different from English. Early Grieg songs were written in German while Grieg studied at the University of Leipzig (if my memory of this information is accurate). Consequently, his early songs should be sung in German.
But the majority of his song output was written in Norwegian and because Norwegian is not well known by most singers, and Norwegian translates quite well into English because of a similar syntax, it is better to do Grieg's songs in English for English speaking singers (with the exception of his early German song).
An American authority on Grieg's songs is Bradley Ellingboe at the University of New Mexico. He has published, through Leyerle Publications, translations and IPA translations of the 45 Grieg songs that used to be available from Hanson, a Norwegian publisher but now out of print. These 45 songs are now available, also from Leyerle Publications, edited by Ellingboe. Both books are treasures and wonderful intruductions to the richness of Grieg's songs.
-- Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA Professor of Voice, Pedagogy School of Performing Arts Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ 86011
|
| |