Edvard Grieg – In The Hall of the Mountain King

October 21, 2012 — classical, sunday

Ahh, a classic. I touched on composer Edvard Grieg a bit once before (looks a bit like a Norwegian Albert Einstein, don’t you think?), also with a song from the Peer Gynt Suite (see my post on Anitra’s Dance). I told you then that you’re probably more familiar with Grieg than you’d think, and now here I am again presenting one of his most famous songs to you. We lost our CD that had Peer Gynt on it, unfortunately, so I’ve been on the hunt for some good recordings. Haven’t quite found one yet I’m totally in love with so sorry the quality of this mp3 is a little crummy. However, while searching for a good copy, I did discover that Apocalyptica apparently did a cover of this iconic song once upon a time too. Interesting.  > o>

Now I can’t quite remember the story behind this song off the top of my head–something about the lad Peer Gynt trying to rescue someone from some trolls I think?–but I do remember that when I would listen to the Peer Gynt Suite CD many times over as a child, I always got especially interactive with this particular song. As the song starts out slow I would tip-toe around, but as it picked up speed and got faster (the version we had was a particularly fast recording), I would start running in place like a madman, pretending I was running away from the Mountain King, whoever he was. Thank goodness I usually did it with just myself in my parents’ bedroom because there’s no doubt I looked mighty silly doing it. I swear I don’t do it anymore, guyz.

Anyway, this song is frequently used in commercials or movies for a frantic or mischievous scene. You should recognize it right away. I thought it would go along mighty well with the whole October theme with classical music I’m doing here. Hope you enjoy it! Look forward til next Sunday for the big, grand, spooky finale!

– cheerlubber