Music library › Classical themes
In the Hall of the Mountain King (opening)
Edvard Grieg, 1876. Excerpt, written out for reading practice.
- Music
- Edvard Grieg
- Date
- 1876
- Key
- B minor
- Time
- 4/4
- Clef
- Treble
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- Excerpt
About the music
Grieg wrote this music for Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt, first staged in Christiania (now Oslo) in 1876. Peer has stumbled into the hall of the troll king, and the music starts quietly and slowly and gets faster and louder until the trolls chase him out.
The melody creeps up the B minor scale in eighth notes. It is a good workout for accidentals: the second bar uses F natural and C natural against a key signature of two sharps.
Reading tips
- The first bar is the B minor scale, B to F♯, then back to D and up to F♯.
- Bar 2 has naturals: F♮ and later C♮. An accidental lasts only to the end of its bar.
- It starts on B3, one step below middle C, just under the first ledger line.
How to practice it
Read the piece through once without playing, naming the starting note and looking for patterns and repeats. Then press Play and follow the notes as they light up. When you are ready, choose Practice this piece: it opens in the practice tool, where you can slow it down, play along on the on-screen piano, a MIDI keyboard or your voice, and have every note checked.