In The Hall of the Mountain King [MP3's]

(MP3s: 36 of them beyond the jump)

Peer Gynt (1867) by Henrik Ibsen marks the end of romantic nationalism in Norway. In 1874 Edvard Grieg was asked to compose music for the play (or rather, was given a lot of cash to ditch a less profitable project with Norwegian author Björnstierne Björnson). As Ibsen's play grew on him, he complained to his friend Frants Beyer; "It is an immensely difficult subject, and I've done something  to the Mountain King, that I myself find unable to listen to - it reeks of cow-dung, Norwegian-Norwegianess and absorbed in it's own Norwegianess! But I expect the irony to be pungent, especially when Peer, after the ordeal with the Mountain King utters against his will 'Both the dance and the playing was [cat scratchily] beautiful.'"

Alas, the irony did not seep through - and Grieg managed to get himself a huge audience and a nice reputation as a composer. Nonetheless, he refused to be present at the opening night in 1876, including the rehearsals, and he never bothered to have the music printed. Grieg was said to be a square (and even a pentahedron). He supposedly referred to a conductor as pig-face, and called a poor oboist a "fucking klutz." Even his own work got in his face, and on occasion, he referred to his lyrical pieces as "bugs and lice." He referred to his own composition Sangerhilsen as a "piece of shit!"

The 5th of October this year, New York found itself infected with trolls in Central Park. Actors and hordes of extras were flown in to play Peer Gynt for 3 days, with a budget of $1.3 million. Anne Midgette from the New York Times has a wonderful review on that occasion.

How many versions of this theme have been made, and how many more compositions have been "inspired" by it? I'll try to give you a few examples. Follow the jump for 36 downloadable MP3s:

Inspired:
Rick Wakeman    Inspector Gadget    Helloween    When    Vintersorg

More than inspired:
Apocalyptica    Aunt Mary   Duke Ellington    E.L.O    Erasure

Leslie West    Rainbow    Saga    SkaP    SRC    Vanguards

Savatage    The Who    Van Helsing's Curse

Too Inspired:
Captain Jack    Delinquent Habits    DJ Ruffneck    Galaxee Trance      Techno Classical

Full Blown:
Orchestral "Original"    Panta Rhei (MP3) - The Whole Peer Gynt Suite Info(!)

For the real connoisseur (or just Black Metal fans studying Norwegian):
Peer Gynt (the play) by Henrik Ibsen - in Norwegian; part 1 -  part 2 - part 3 - part 4 - part 5 - part 6 - part 7 - part 8 - part 9 - part 10 - made in 1952.

Comments

[martinf]

hi, the link to part 8 ist broken...

[Ergo Phizmiz]

This is wonderful, cheers for posting this ....

[Station Manager Ken]

I fixed that broken link.

Great post John!

[Fatherflot]

Thanks. It was great to see the E.L.O. version. It just so happens that I recently dug out and listened to (after about 25 years) "On The Third Day," "Face The Music" "E.L.O. II," "Eldorado" and even "No Answer." There's GREAT stuff on these albums!

[Uncle Bela]

Great stuff!...The only one missing that
would make it perfect is the version by
Sounds, Incorporated, a mid-'60's British
instrumental group; they initially made their
reputation backing up visiting American singers
like Little Richard...and they played it on
"Shindig"!

WFMU rawks.

[Douglas]

How about Half Japanese's "In the Hall of the Mountain King/Louie Louie" medley from Our Solar System?

[Lukas]

There is an absolutely fantastic version on Duke Ellington's absolutely fantastic album "Three Suites" (Nutcracker, Peer Gynt, Suite Thursday). Did I mention that this album is fantastic?

[Lukas]

Oops, you already posted the Duke Ellington version. Next time I promise to read the post first before I comment... Still, the whole album is great.

[Dale Hazelton]

Love the theme see the movie -- Fritz Lang's "M", that is. Peter Lorre is creepier than John Mark Carr as he whistles that theme while picking up little girls to murder. There was also a scene in Renoir's "Rules of the Game" where characters were dancing around in skeleton jumpsuits and I thought that was the music. Haven't seen it in 25 years -- maybe someone knows. Now excuse me while I go look up "pentahedron."

[ed]

i'm surprised to see the SRC version on here! it was popular locally in southern indiana when i was a kid in the mid 60s. a local band even did a cover of the "...mountain king" in its gigs!

[epp]

There is also an inspired version on the album "Mucho Macho: Machito & His Afro-Cuban Salseros" by Machito.

The title, "Hall Of The Mambo King", says it all really.

John - kan sikkert sende deg en mp3 dersom du er interessert.

[Tore Stemland]

Great version by The Mysterons is found here; http://www.frantone.com/mysterons/
For those who want to know more about classical music in pop click into this one; http://www.allegro.philharmonic.me.uk/ When you have done that, then scroll down to 1961 and listen to the sample of “In The Hall Of The Mountain King” by Nero and the Gladiators, it`s great.

[lee]

Hawkwind LP 'the hall of the mountain grill' with lemmy from motorhead

[lee]

there should be a Tomita version. or am i wrong?

[John from Oslo]

Oh dear. I certainly missed a few of the big ones ; )
Keep 'em coming, and I'll make a part two on the theme.
So, We'll have to find; Sounds Incorporated, Half Japanese, Machito, Mysterons, Hawkwind, Nero and the Gladiators - and Tomita (Ah, of course, Tomita...)Strange that Spike Jones doesn't have one. He did the Nutcracker Suite (as did Les Brown - a great version!)

And that pentahedron remark - it is just badly translated by me, and it doesn't even make much sense in Norwegian. [Det sies om Grieg at han kan være firkantet inntil det femkantede.]Roughly; It is said about Grieg, that he can be a "four angle" bordering to five. I guess it means that is not hip to be square, and even less hip to be a pentahedron (sic). Although, being something more elaborate geometrywise than a square, must be a positive thing, not? As, being less conventional and conservative... Oh crap, I'll be dipped in cowdung...

[E Ploetz]

There's a sort of cool version by Funk United out of Toronto. Want me to e-mail you a copy?

Just finished listening to the techno version ... it's wonderful in a godawful kind of way.

E

[Voggis]

...not to forget Witchfynde's Cry Wolf, from the 1983 album Cloak And Dagger.

[Lukas]

There is also a great version by the Portsmouth Sinfonia, but they "adamantly" don't want any of their stuff distributed as MP3 (even though it is long out of print, but that's what their manager told me, announcing a big CD re-relase which is probably never going to happen).

[bcolflesh]

It seems strange to not include Savatage's "Hall Of The Mountain King" from the album of the same name...

[vjb2]

MC Chris, the Dauphin of nerdcore rap, the Dungeonmaster of Ceremonies, has just posted a song to the tune of Peer Gynt on his MySpace page. What timing.

[ResidentClinton]

Here's a somewhat campier (or at least more odious) version from the album Musical MAD, put out by MAD Magazine and RCA.

Concerto For Two Hands mp3

I just heard this the other day, from a post (with more mp3s as well) over at Record Robot, so it jumped right to mind.

[Kirk D.]

I love this post!

Lawrence Welk did an astonishing version of "Mountain King." I uploaded it here.

[Joey]

Zoobilee Zoo - Peer Gynt

spotted this on the 'ol youtube

[Joe]

re techno - this version has to be the daddy of them all - DJ Scotch Egg's Scotch Forest. Couldn't find an mp3 of the original but it's the first track (of 4 I think) in this youarehear podcast

http://youarehearpodcast.blogspot.com/2006/04/dj-scotch-egg-live-in-session-on-you.html

[Zerothis]

Shouldn't Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die" be included in the Inspired section?