The Mountain King and I

For me, music is has become part of who I am. It can both reflect my mood and shape it. I have played the piano since I was five years old and although I have much less time to practice now, I have come to find it relaxing. Over the past couple years my love for romantic/classical music has grown immensely. One of my favorite pieces is In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg. 

I'm not sure what initially drew me to this song, the melody itself is relatively simply as it is mostly a growing crescendo of the original refrain, resulting in an epic climax that brings the piece to an end. Perhaps what draws me to it is in the name itself, the imagery of what is happening in this hall of the fantastical Mountain King. I have always been drawn towards worlds that are fantastical in nature and this piece is a musical story, providing in its own way another world to delve into.

And all of that was before I learned about the whole story, about Peer Gynt and Edvard Grieg. Peer Gynt is notable by itself as a romantic play with the beginnings of modernism. It follows the peasant anti-hero Peer from his downfall to his redemption. It is nationalistic in that it is a call back to Norwegian heritage and story, while also providing social commentary in a satirical way. But it is Edvard's music, which was created when the author, Henrik Ibsen wanted to dramatize his poetry, that really remains with us today. The dramatic contrasts in pieces like the In the Hall of the Mountain King with its nearly imperceptible beginnings to its swelling end is powerful and helps tell a part of the larger drama that plays out across the 90 minutes of music made for Peer Gynt.

For me this piece represents exploration, into new genres of music as well as into new parts of our lives. Although I had been practicing and performing music by comparable composers of the time, this was one of the first romantic pieces that i really enjoyed listening to. It also reflects how life can feel, at first we may be very quiet, trying to explore and understand more without making to much of an impact. Then something changes, for better or worse things have changed and it will not be the same. This can be both good or bad, the music and life leaves that up to us to decide.