Edvard Grieg

Homage March From Sigurd Jorsalfar

Grieg is the most important Norwegian composer in the national-romantic period. In 1872 he composed the incidental music for Sigurd Jorsalfar, a play on a subjekt drawn from Norse saga by the nationalist poet Bj(o/rnstjerne Bj(o/rnson, who had been director of The Christiania(Oslo) Theatre. Grieg decided to revise three pieces, and they were published in 1892 as the Sigurd Jorsalfar Suite, op. 56.
The Homage March accompanied the procession of the two Kings and their retainers from the crusade to the Holy Land. After the opening fanfare, the main melody been announced. A second theme, given by the the low brass, marked the entry of the Halberdies. The trio and reprise of the march proper were added in Grieg's later revisjon from 1892.