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
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