# Looking for the name and composer of a very well-know piece of classical music **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 16, 2019, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-the-name-and-composer-of-a-very-well-know-piece-of-classical-music/831209 "2019-03-16T00:20:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-the-name-and-composer-of-a-very-well-know-piece-of-classical-music/831209/1 "2019-03-16T00:20:45Z")
Hi Looking for the name and composer of a very well-know piece of classical music. I always associate it with spring. It’s continuous rising crescendo that reaches a wonderful flourish. I look forward to your feedback. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-the-name-and-composer-of-a-very-well-know-piece-of-classical-music/831209/2 "2019-03-16T00:25:43Z")
Ravel: Bolero? Vivaldi: Spring (from The Four Seasons)? Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending? Something completely different from any of these? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-the-name-and-composer-of-a-very-well-know-piece-of-classical-music/831209/3 "2019-03-16T00:48:14Z")
**Moderator Action** Moving thread from GQ to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-the-name-and-composer-of-a-very-well-know-piece-of-classical-music/831209/4 "2019-03-16T00:51:44Z")
Any chance you could provide a link or clue to where you might have heard it? ---
**Author:** ![gvntofly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/91b2a8/32.png) [@gvntofly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gvntofly)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-the-name-and-composer-of-a-very-well-know-piece-of-classical-music/831209/5 "2019-03-16T00:57:17Z")
I second Vivaldi’s Spring ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-the-name-and-composer-of-a-very-well-know-piece-of-classical-music/831209/6 "2019-03-16T01:10:52Z")
I can be Rossini’s famous beginning of “The William Tell Overture.” [“Call to the Cows”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFEDQXJ4vRQ) overused as the beginning of a beautiful spring or summer morning in classical cartoons. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-the-name-and-composer-of-a-very-well-know-piece-of-classical-music/831209/7 "2019-03-16T01:17:04Z")
Grieg—Morning from the Peer Gynt Suite, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-the-name-and-composer-of-a-very-well-know-piece-of-classical-music/831209/8 "2019-03-16T01:33:31Z")
Perhaps its [Grieg - In the Hall of the Mountain King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLp_Hh6DKWc) ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-the-name-and-composer-of-a-very-well-know-piece-of-classical-music/831209/9 "2019-03-16T01:48:37Z")
Or maybe Beethoven’s Pastoral symphony. [5th movement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRg0K5rgXog)? ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-the-name-and-composer-of-a-very-well-know-piece-of-classical-music/831209/10 "2019-03-16T02:29:14Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > Grieg—Morning from the Peer Gynt Suite, maybe? Thank you. Grieg’s Morning Mood from Peer Gynt [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/SS7-Gwz1Zio/maxresdefault.jpg "Grieg – Morning Mood from Peer Gynt. Jacek Kaspszyk & Warsaw Philharmonic") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS7-Gwz1Zio) ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-the-name-and-composer-of-a-very-well-know-piece-of-classical-music/831209/11 "2019-03-16T03:58:17Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Or maybe Beethoven’s Pastoral symphony. > [5th movement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRg0K5rgXog)? Yeah, that’s what I was going to guess. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-the-name-and-composer-of-a-very-well-know-piece-of-classical-music/831209/12 "2019-03-16T04:19:10Z")
Everyone thinks of morning and spring when they hear this piece, but here’s what it was written for: "The piece depicts the rising of the sun during act 4, scene 4, of Ibsen’s play, which finds Peer Gynt stranded in the Moroccan desert after his companions took his yacht and abandoned him there while he slept. The scene begins with the following description: “Dawn. Acacias and palm trees. Peer [Gynt] is sitting in his tree using a wrenched-off branch to defend himself against a group of monkeys.” ---
**Author:** ![Weirofhermiston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e274bd/32.png) [@Weirofhermiston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirofhermiston)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-the-name-and-composer-of-a-very-well-know-piece-of-classical-music/831209/13 "2019-03-16T14:36:09Z")
Outside chance [Helios Overture](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jikeQdzv3s), Carl Nielsen. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-the-name-and-composer-of-a-very-well-know-piece-of-classical-music/831209/14 "2019-03-16T15:24:55Z")
This video has been around for at least six years; if you haven’t seen it, it is utterly charming. Members of the Copenhagen Philharmonic knocking out the Grieg in the city subway, flash mob style. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/mLglIaE7QWE/hqdefault.jpg "Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra playing in the Copenhagen Underground") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLglIaE7QWE) ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-the-name-and-composer-of-a-very-well-know-piece-of-classical-music/831209/15 "2019-03-16T15:54:10Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Members of the Copenhagen Philharmonic knocking out the Grieg in the city subway, flash mob style. > > [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mLglIaE7QWE](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mLglIaE7QWE) This one’s even older, but the same mob doing Ravel’s Bolero in the main Copenhagen Train Station [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrEk06XXaAw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrEk06XXaAw) ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-the-name-and-composer-of-a-very-well-know-piece-of-classical-music/831209/16 "2019-03-17T01:12:36Z")
Happy to be of help—and happy to be right ������ gkster—curious about how the description you provide of the piece makes it not about morning? The spring part, I get, but what’s the conflict between the sun rising in North Africa and the stated name of the piece? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-the-name-and-composer-of-a-very-well-know-piece-of-classical-music/831209/17 "2019-03-17T02:14:37Z")
I think the point is that most people wouldn’t expect the part about fighting monkeys. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-the-name-and-composer-of-a-very-well-know-piece-of-classical-music/831209/18 "2019-03-17T02:32:13Z")
Don’t know about spring, but rising crescendo - Karelia Suite, Sibelius ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-the-name-and-composer-of-a-very-well-know-piece-of-classical-music/831209/19 "2019-03-17T03:30:10Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > I think the point is that most people wouldn’t expect the part about fighting monkeys. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I always end up fighting monkeys if I wake up early enough to see the sun rise.