All Topics  
In the Hall of the Mountain King

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

In the Hall of the Mountain King
 
 
  Topics In the Hall of the Mountain King Topic Home

In the Hall of the Mountain King is a piece of orchestral music, Opus
Opus number

Opus, from the Latin word opus meaning "work", is usually used in the sense of "a work of art".The Latin plural of opus, "opera", is used to refer to the genre of music drama ....
 23, composed by Edvard Grieg
Edvard Grieg

Edvard Grieg was a Norway composer and pianist who composed in the Romantic period. He is best known for his Piano Concerto , for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's Play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces....
 for Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Johan Ibsen was a major Nineteenth-century theatre Norway playwright of realism drama and poet. He is often referred to as the "father of modern drama" and is one of the founders of modernism in the theatre....
's play Peer Gynt
Peer Gynt

Peer Gynt is a five-Act play in Verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen. Interpreted in its day as a satire on the Norwegian people personality, Peer Gynt is the story of a life based on avoidance....
, which premiered in Oslo
Oslo

is the Capital and largest List of cities in Norway in Norway.Metropolitan Oslo or the Greater Oslo Region makes up the third largest urban area in Scandinavia after Metropolitan Stockholm and Metropolitan Copenhagen....
 on February 24, 1876. (It was later extracted as the final piece of Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1, Op. 46.) Although a performance of the full piece runs to only two and a half minutes, its easily recognizable theme has helped it attain iconic status in popular culture.

A fantasy
Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of Plot , Theme , and/or Setting . Fantasy is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of technological and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three ....
 play written in verse, Peer Gynt tells of the adventures of the eponym
Eponym

An eponym is a person, whether real or fictitious, after whom a particular toponym, ethnonym, regnal year, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named....
ous Peer.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'In the Hall of the Mountain King'
Start a new discussion about 'In the Hall of the Mountain King'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


In the Hall of the Mountain King is a piece of orchestral music, Opus
Opus number

Opus, from the Latin word opus meaning "work", is usually used in the sense of "a work of art".The Latin plural of opus, "opera", is used to refer to the genre of music drama ....
 23, composed by Edvard Grieg
Edvard Grieg

Edvard Grieg was a Norway composer and pianist who composed in the Romantic period. He is best known for his Piano Concerto , for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's Play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces....
 for Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Johan Ibsen was a major Nineteenth-century theatre Norway playwright of realism drama and poet. He is often referred to as the "father of modern drama" and is one of the founders of modernism in the theatre....
's play Peer Gynt
Peer Gynt

Peer Gynt is a five-Act play in Verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen. Interpreted in its day as a satire on the Norwegian people personality, Peer Gynt is the story of a life based on avoidance....
, which premiered in Oslo
Oslo

is the Capital and largest List of cities in Norway in Norway.Metropolitan Oslo or the Greater Oslo Region makes up the third largest urban area in Scandinavia after Metropolitan Stockholm and Metropolitan Copenhagen....
 on February 24, 1876. (It was later extracted as the final piece of Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1, Op. 46.) Although a performance of the full piece runs to only two and a half minutes, its easily recognizable theme has helped it attain iconic status in popular culture.

A fantasy
Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of Plot , Theme , and/or Setting . Fantasy is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of technological and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three ....
 play written in verse, Peer Gynt tells of the adventures of the eponym
Eponym

An eponym is a person, whether real or fictitious, after whom a particular toponym, ethnonym, regnal year, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named....
ous Peer. The sequence illustrated by the music of In the Hall of the Mountain King is when Peer sneaks into the Mountain King's castle
Castle

A castle is a defensive structure seen as one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages. The term has a history of scholarly debate surrounding its exact meaning, but it is usually regarded as being distinct from the general terms fort or fortress in that it describes a residence of a monarch or noble and commands a specific defensive territor...
. The piece then describes Peer's attempts to escape from the King and his trolls.

The music

The famous two-phrase theme, written in the key of B minor, runs thus:
The simple theme begins slowly and quietly in the lowest registers of the orchestra. It is played, first by the bassoons, signifying Peer Gynt's slow, careful footsteps. After being recited, the main theme is then very slightly modified with a few different ascending notes, but transposed up a perfect fifth (to the key of F-sharp major, the dominant
Dominant (music)

In music, the dominant is the fifth degree of the Scale . For example, in the C major scale , the dominant is the note G; and the dominant chord uses the notes G, B, and D....
 key, but with flattened sixth) and played on different instruments: these are the King's trolls.

The two groups of instruments then move in and out of different octaves until eventually "colliding" with each other at the same pitch; and the trolls, having spotted Peer, give chase. The tempo gradually speeds up to a prestissimo finale, and the music itself becomes increasingly louder and more melodic.

The Mountain King himself thunders onto the musical stage and runs into Peer, who quickly runs the other way; these actions are depicted with long strings of diatonic steps, interrupted by brief moments of stillness as the Mountain King looks for the hiding Peer. Peer's cover is at last blown, and the music reaches its loudest and fastest point as he runs out of the cave. A series of crashing cymbals and rapturous timpani rolls then burst forward and silence all the other instruments, with the mountain tumbling to the ground and presumably killing the trolls who had been chasing after the fleeing Peer. The piece concludes appropriately — in both musical and theatrical terms — with a return to the tonic
Tonic (music)

The tonic is the first note of a scale in the tonality method of musical composition. The chord #The Triad formed on the tonic note, the tonic chord, is thus the most significant chord ....
, and ends on a final B minor chord, signifying Peer's successful escape.

A notable adaptation of the main theme was an obscure 78 from early 1938 on Brunswick
Brunswick Records

Brunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by Koch Entertainment....
 by Joe Usifer & his Orchestra. it's a very sophisticated swing arrangement, in the style of Raymond Scott
Raymond Scott

Raymond Scott , was an American composer, band leader, pianist, engineer, recording studio maverick, and electronic instrument inventor. He was born in Brooklyn, New York to a family of Russian-Jewish immigrants....
. This classic instrumental has been used for the autumn holiday Halloween
Halloween

Halloween is a holiday celebrated on October 31. It has roots in the Celtic mythology of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints. It is largely a Secularity celebration, but some Christians and Paganism have expressed strong feelings about its religious overtones....
.

See also

  • Grieg's music in popular culture
    Grieg's music in popular culture

    The music of European classical music Edvard Grieg continues to be relevant in popular culture into the 21st century. This is due to his music's fast pace, instrumentation, and similarity in feel to many popular musical genres....


External links

  • - Free Score
  • performed by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra
    Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra

    The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra of the Israel Broadcasting Authority traces its origins to the national radio orchestra founded in the 1940s as the Kol Radio Orchestra....