Dance Scene from Queen Tamara - Johan Halvorsen, arr. Tom Gontier

Concert Band Grade 4 Performed by Sykkylven Janitsjarorkester (Norway) at the Norwegian Wind Band Championships 2026 (2nd division). Johan Halvorsen (1864-1935) was among the most prominent Norwegian musical figures of his day, not only as one of the leading composers of his generation but also as a violinist and conductor. His compositions develop the national romantic tradition of his friends Grieg and Svendsen, but his was a distinctive style marked by brilliant orchestration which in turn was inspired by the French romantic composers. The varied fruits of his career produced such scores as Fossegrimen, the neoclassical Suite Ancienne and his Symphonic Intermezzo from The King, a tone poem much indebted to the musical language of Liszt and Wagner. Halvorsen wrote extensively for the stage, and his lifelong fascination with ‘exotic’ elements in music is evident in the ‘Dance Scene’ from the incidental music to Knut Hamsun’s Queen Tamara, a historical play set in the Caucasus. Available as print-at-home at https://www.gontier.no/shop/p/dance-s...