He insults the troll king. Then he tries to sneak away.
It doesn’t really work, and you can hear him running and the troll king chasing him.
So is the moment in the play when Peer Gynt first is accused of being a troll...but not the last. So is the moment when music immortality begins.
Peer Gynt is a weird play. I’m not really sure what Henrik Ibsen* was thinking when he wrote it.
Henrik Ibsen
Peer Gynt (yes, that’s the name of the main character--it’s Norwegian) travels all over the world, gets in a lot of trouble and dies...maybe? Or is it all in his head? The play is five acts long and, honestly, doesn’t make much sense to me. I’m sure the Norwegians understood it better in 1876.
I hope.
Ibsen asked Edvard Grieg to compose incidental music** for the play.
Edvard Grieg (He looks Mark Twain-ish!)
Grieg did it, but it seems he didn’t enjoy it much. He wanted to make stuff up out of his head, not be forced to create things that matched a mood or a place.
Even if he didn’t enjoy the process, the music he created has stood the test of time. "In the Hall of the Mountain King" is the most popular of all the songs from Peer Gynt.
Did it sound familiar?
It should. This song is everywhere.
Duke Ellington:
Inspector Gadget:
The Who:
And, in my personal favorite spin off, Trolls, the movie.
I watched the movie with my son, and when I heard the beginning of the song "Hair Up!" I started laughing. Someone*** was clever. I adore that the composers used a song originally about a guy running from a troll in a movie about trolls. Only in this movie, the song is a celebration, not an escape scene.
In the world of the Timpanogos Symphony Orchestra, this song accompanies another monster/villain. Here’s a teaser for what you will see when we play "In the Hall of the Mountain King" on October 25 and 26.
Join us for our Villains and Monsters Halloween concert! Visit thetso.org for more information and tickets!
*But that beard! That beard is lit!
**Incidental music? Think of it as the soundtrack of the play.
***Justin Timberlake****, Max Martin, Shellback, Savan Kotecha, and Oscar Holter
****Wait, What? Justin Timberlake?*****
*****Yup.