In the Hall of the Mountain King
A little tune tiptoes in the dark, then comes back again and again, faster and louder, until it explodes. Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King, from his music for Peer Gynt (1875), creeps up B minor step by step, then sidesteps onto two notes outside the scale, E sharp and C natural: sneaky, comic menace. Then the same theme repeats with nothing new added, faster (accelerando) and louder (crescendo), from pizzicato low strings and bassoons on tiptoe to the full orchestra in chaos. Play the first phrase slowly, find the sidesteps, and speed it up yourself.
In this lesson you'll
- Play the first phrase of the theme in B minor and hear how it creeps up the scale step by step: B, C♯, D, E, F♯ (whole, half, whole, whole), with no leaps.
- Find the two chromatic sidesteps, E♯ (a half step below F♯, the key F on the piano) and C♮ (a half step below C♯), see them outside B minor on the keyboard and the circle, and hear why they sound sneaky.
- Play the phrase three times, faster each time (80 → 120 → 160 BPM), and hear how accelerando, crescendo and the move from low strings and bassoons to the full orchestra build tension.
Music in this lesson
- In the Hall of the Mountain King (from Peer Gynt)Edvard Grieg · 1875
Remember
The tune creeps up B minor step by step, B C♯ D E F♯, like someone on tiptoe.
Then it sidesteps onto E♯ and C natural, notes outside the scale; the line F♯ → E♯ → E slides down in half steps: sneaky, comic menace, trolls tiptoeing.
Nothing new is added: the same tune repeats faster and louder (accelerando and crescendo), from pizzicato low strings and bassoons to the full orchestra, until it explodes; tension built from repetition alone (Boléro, lesson 68, used repetition and a crescendo; Grieg adds speed).