As part of our music topic ‘Folksong and Fantasy’ we have been exploring the adventurous music of the Faroese islands and Nordic culture. One of the most famous Norwegian classical composers, Edvard Grieg, composed many masterpieces based on folk stories about the Trolls an other magical creatures in the beautiful Norwegian mountains.
This piece of music the ‘Hall of the Mountain Kings’ tells the story of how a man, Peer Gynt, is captured by a group of evil trolls. They take him to the castle of the mountain king, and in the night when he is trying to escape, the trolls wake and run after him. He reaches a big, oak door and bangs on it. No one answers. He bangs again, louder. No one answers. He bangs a third time. This is where the story ends!
In music class we have been retelling this famous tale through the music of Grieg, using our understanding of pitch, rhythm, dynamics and story telling. We have learned the music through a combination of ear playing and musical notation. We hope you enjoy!
