In the Hall of the Mountain King

Description

The last of the four numbers Grieg later assembled as the Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46, from his incidental music for Ibsen's play. It accompanies the scene in which Peer, having strayed into the mountain king's hall, is surrounded and driven out by the trolls.

In B minor and common time, a short theme stated low in the register repeats unchanged to the very end. Only the speed and the volume change: it begins quietly, as if on tiptoe, grows faster and louder with each repetition, and is finally cut off in a frenzy of pursuit. Building tension purely by repeating one piece of material is an extremely simple design.

It is rated intermediate because the figures themselves are easy. What is hard is planning the acceleration. Speed up too early and there is nothing left to raise at the end. Decide in advance how fast each stretch will be, and budget the volume the same way. Holding back through the whole piece for the sake of its last thirty seconds is the structural discipline that produces the effect.

A broad collection of standalone piano pieces not belonging to any specific set, offering hundreds of varied character pieces to explore and compare.