In the Hall of the Mountain King from Peer Gynt

The central figure of Ibsen’s dramatic poem Peer Gynt, for which - reluctantly but most successfully - Grieg wrote the incidental music between 1874 and 1875, is based on a real-life character. His name was still remembered by the peasant community in Gubrandsdal in Norway during Ibsen’s and Grieg’s lifetime. Of course, the poet’s development of the story and the fantastic, satirical detail of Peer’s exploits in America, Morocco and Egypt go far beyond the original folk sources. In the Hall of the Mountain King is an essentially Norwegian scene, however. This is where the trolls, gnomes and goblins are to be found and where Peer, who has ventured into the subterranean palace in pursuit of the Mountain King’s daughter, is in danger of being torn to pieces. In music that, according to according to his own description, “reeks of cowpats” Grieg creates his alarmingly primitive effect by repeating one grotesque theme over and over, louder and louder, and quicker and quicker.