To most of the concert-going public, Edvard Grieg is only familiar as the composer of two fabulously popular concert works: the Concerto for piano and orchestra, and the first Orchestral Suite extracted from the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play, Peer Gynt. Ever since the Peer Gynt Suite No.1, Op.46 appeared in the late 1880s it has been a staple of the orchestral repertory. Indeed, it is safe to say that its four constituent pieces are among the most frequently played and immediately recognizable ever written; yet, in a good performance, they still retain a great deal of their original vitality and freshness.

Ibsen's five-act drama concerns a young Norwegian ruffian named Peer Gynt, who dreams of becoming emperor of the world. His sundry adventures--abducting a bride-to-be during her wedding, abandoning her for another woman, being tormented by gnomes, posturing as a prophet among the Arabs, eloping with and being subsequently double-crossed by an Arab princess, and finally returning to Norway--are the stuff of high drama and adventure, and are rough and isolated in a way that is peculiarly Nordic. Grieg captures this tone perfectly.

Grieg opens the first Peer Gynt suite with a piece called "Morning Mood", originally played at the beginning of the fourth act. A gentle E major theme is announced by the flutes, and then the oboes, against a static harmonic background that effectively emulates the stillness of the first moments of dawn. This lovely melody--an inverted arch shape--is taken through a sparkling palette of subtle harmonic inflections; bright flute trills join the musical mixture as "Morning Mood" comes to a gentle close. Although "Morning Mood" is only four minutes long, Grieg manages to capture in music something both timeless and universal.

Source: AllMusic (https://www.allmusic.com/composition/peer-gynt-suite-f or-orchestra-or-piano-or-piano-4-hands-no-1-op-46-mc000 2395500).

Although originally created for Large orchestra, I created this arrangement of the "Morning Mood" for Small Orchestra (Piccolo, Flutes, Oboes, Bb Clarinets, Bassoons, Bb Trumpets, French Horns, F Tubas, Violins, Violas, Cellos & Bass).