In the Hall of the Mountain King

"In the Hall of the Mountain King"

Performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra

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"In the Hall of the Mountain King" (Norwegian: I Dovregubbens hall, lit. 'In the Dovre man's hall') is a piece of orchestral music composed by Edvard Grieg in 1875 as incidental music for the sixth scene of act 2 in Henrik Ibsen's 1867 play Peer Gynt. It was originally part of Opus 23 but was later extracted as the final piece of Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1, Op. 46. Its easily recognizable theme has helped it attain iconic status in popular culture,^[1] where it has been arranged by many artists (see Grieg's music in popular culture).

The English translation of the name is not literal. Dovre is a mountainous region in Norway, and "gubbe" translates into (old) man or husband. "Gubbe" is used along with its female counterpart "kjerring" to differentiate male and female trolls, "trollgubbe" and "trollkjerring". In the play, Dovregubben is a troll king that Peer Gynt invents in a fantasy.

The two-phrase theme, written in the key of B minor

The piece is played as the title character Peer Gynt, in a dream-like fantasy, enters "Dovregubbens (the troll Mountain King's) hall". The scene's introduction continues: "There is a great crowd of troll courtiers, gnomes and goblins. Dovregubben 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.^[2][3]

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 cannot bear to hear it, though I hope that the irony will make itself felt."^[4] The theme of "to thyself be... enough" – avoiding the commitment implicit in the phrase "To thine own self be true" and just doing enough – is central to Peer Gynt's satire, and the phrase is discussed by Peer and the mountain king in the scene which follows the piece.^[5]

Modified theme in F♯ major

The piece is in the overall key of B minor. The simple theme begins slowly and quietly in the lowest registers of the orchestra, played first by the cellos, double basses, and bassoons. After being stated, 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.

The two groups of instruments then move in and out of different octaves until they eventually "collide" with each other at the same pitch. The tempo gradually speeds up to a prestissimo finale, and the music itself becomes increasingly loud and frenetic.

• D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915) used the song to build up to the Union attack on Atlanta. The song had by that time already been used in film scores, whether for Ibsen's play or other works; yet the popularity of Griffith's film helped to establish it in the American popular imagination.^[6][7]
• "In the Hall of the Mountain King" plays a major plot point in Fritz Lang's early sound film M (1931). Peter Lorre's character of child killer Hans Beckert whistles the tune whenever he is overcome with the urge to commit murder. However, Lorre himself could not whistle – it is actually Lang who is heard.^[8] The film was one of the first to use a leitmotif, associating "In the Hall of the Mountain King" with the Lorre character. Later in the film, the mere sound of the song lets the audience know that he is nearby, off-screen. This association of a musical theme with a particular character or situation, a technique borrowed from opera, became a staple in film.^[6][9]
• In 1953, an Argentine remake was made, called El Vampiro Negro, where Nathán Pinzón played the murderer, whistling the song every time he was going to commit the crime.
• British rock band The Who recorded a performance of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" in 1967. This version went unreleased until 1995, when it appeared as a bonus track on a CD reissue of The Who Sell Out.^[10][11][12] Tucson Weekly has called this cover a "Who-freakout arrangement".^[13] One reviewer called The Who's version the "weirdest of these" covers on the CD, and says it is "a rendition of the corresponding extract from Grieg's Peer Gynt suite ... [yet] it hardly sounds like Grieg here, anyway..." Another says that "the main function of the composition is to evoke thoughts of (naturally) King Crimson and (unnaturally) Pink Floyd, because in parts it sounds exactly like 'Interstellar Overdrive'."^[14]
• The British rock band Electric Light Orchestra performed a cover of In The Hall of the Mountain King (sometimes in a medley with 'Great Balls of Fire') in live concerts"^[15] and later made a studio recording on the 1973 album 'On The Third Day'
• The English keyboardist Rick Wakeman uses this piece in the fourth section ("The Forest") of his 1974 album "Journey to the Centre of the Earth".
• The theme music for the 1980s American children's cartoon show Inspector Gadget, composed by Shuki Levy, was inspired by "In the Hall of the Mountain King".^[16][17]
• The opening theme of the 1993 animated series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog includes a rendition of "In the Hall of the Mountain King".^[18]
• Britain's largest theme park Alton Towers have continously used the theme "In the Hall of the Mountain King" since 1992 with the opening of the Runaway Mine Train and the Haunted House as a central musical identity to the park. The main theme is present in nearly all of the park's music and is often the most common association of the theme.^[19]
• In the film The Social Network (2010), the song is played as the Winklevoss twins lose their rowing competition in the United Kingdom.^[20]
• The piece is sampled in Ashnikko's 2021 single "Halloweenie IV: Innards".^[21]

• Grieg's music in popular culture § "In the Hall of the Mountain King"

Sources

• Ibsen, Henrik (1985) [1876]. Peer Gynt. Translated by Peter Watts. Penguin.

• Benestad, Finn; Schjelderup-Ebbe, Dag (1990). Edvard Grieg: Mennesket og kunstneren (in Norwegian) (2nd ed.). Oslo: Aschehoug. ISBN 82-03-16373-4.

• Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• In the Hall of the Mountain King (interactive score) on Verovio Humdrum Viewer