In the Hall of the Mountain King (Norwegian: I Dovregubbens hall) is a piece of orchestral music composed by Edvard Grieg for the sixth scene of Act II in Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, which premiered in Christiania on February 24, 1876.
It was originally part of Opus 23, but was later extracted as the final piece of Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1, Op. 46. Although a performance of the full piece runs to slightly less than 3 minutes, its easily recognizable theme has helped it attain iconic status in popular culture, where it has been arranged by many artists.
The piece is played as the eponymous Peer Gynt, in a dream-like fantasy, enters "the royal hall of the Old Man of the Dovrë (the Mountain King)." The scene's introduction continues: "There is a great crowd of troll courtiers, gnomes and goblins. The Old Man sits on his throne, with crown and sceptre, surrounded by his children and relatives. Peer Gynt stands before him. There is a tremendous uproar in the hall." The lines sung are the first lines in the scene.[1]
Grieg himself wrote: "For the Hall of the Mountain King I have written something that so reeks of cowpats, ultra-Norwegianism, and 'to-thyself-be-enough-ness' that I can't bear to hear it, though I hope that the irony will make itself felt."[2]
Contents |
The famous two-phrase theme, written in the key of B minor:
The simple theme begins slowly and quietly in the lowest registers of the orchestra. It is played first by the cellos and 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 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 with a return to the tonic, and ends on a final B minor chord, signifying Peer's successful escape.