Anitra’s Dance

Arranger's note: “Anitra’s Dance” is from the first Peer Gynt Suite, which Grieg extracted from his incidental music to Ibsen’s play. Apparently, Anitra was the slender daughter of a Bedouin and her dance was intended to be quite delicate, so although this arrangement is definitely energetic, it also needs to be elegant.

Whilst this may present a stylistic challenge for four clarinets, there are no particular technical difficulties here. Grieg was dissatisfied with his work, taking two years to complete it, and amending it up until the last minute. Needless to say, I didn’t agonise over my arrangement quite so long!

The E-Edition PDF bundle comes with the following parts:

Clarinet in Bb 1
Clarinet in Bb 2
Clarinet in Bb 3
Bass Clarinet in Bb