In the Hall of the Mountain King (Peer Gynt), theme

Edvard Grieg · Level 3 (Late beginner) · Romantic · Piano

The trolls’ march from the incidental music to Peer Gynt (1875), arranged in A minor (original in B minor): the theme in eighth notes, its answer in E major, then the theme again. The murderer in Fritz Lang’s M (1931) whistles it; The Social Network (2010) uses it for the Henley regatta.

▶ Play this piece with the interactive score

How to practise it

• Listen first: the site plays it while the score scrolls.
• Wait mode: the score waits for you at every note, at your own pace.
• Tempo challenge: play in time, with a score and a map of the bars you got right.
• Very detached eighth notes, like trolls tiptoeing: a light hand, fingers close to the keys. Bar 2: D♯ then D♮ and B♭ — read the accidentals carefully, this chromatic twist creates the unease. Start slowly and speed up at each repeat, as Grieg does (accelerando up to the wild ending).

More pieces by Edvard Grieg

• Album Leaf Op. 12 No. 7
• Troldtog (March of the Dwarfs) (Op. 54, No. 3)
• Wedding Day at Troldhaugen (Lyric Pieces Op. 65 No. 6)
• The Death of Åse (Peer Gynt Op. 46 No. 2)
• The Mountaineer’s Song Op. 73 No. 7
• Arietta (Lyric Pieces Op. 12 No. 1)
• Folk Melody (Lyric Pieces Op. 12 No. 5)
• Morning Mood (Peer Gynt), theme

Source : Arrangement Note after Note d’après la transcription pour piano de Grieg (The University Society, 1918), Mutopia Project n° 1888 · Public Domain