# What is this classical music piece? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 22, 2007, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-classical-music-piece/420074 "2007-09-22T04:27:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Moonchild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@Moonchild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonchild)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-classical-music-piece/420074/1 "2007-09-22T04:27:42Z")
Play [this YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_or1LMwCTA) video and the piece begins about 15 seconds in. It’s a fairly well known piece, but I’m not well edumacated in classical music. (Not really educated in much of anything, really!) Thanks much. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-classical-music-piece/420074/2 "2007-09-22T04:31:36Z")
> **[In the Hall of the Mountain King](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Hall_of_the_Mountain_King)** > > "In the Hall of the Mountain King" (Norwegian: I Dovregubbens hall, lit. 'In the Dovre man's hall') is a piece of orchestral music composed by Edvard Grieg in 1875 as incidental music for the sixth scene of act 2 in Henrik Ibsen's 1867 play Peer Gynt. It was originally part of Opus 23 but was later extracted as the final piece of Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1, Op. 46. Its easily recognizable theme has helped it attain iconic status in popular culture,\[citation needed\] where it has been arranged by many ... ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-classical-music-piece/420074/3 "2007-09-22T04:43:20Z")
With a name like **Moonchild** you should be a natural Grieg fan, like Robert Fripp obviously is. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-classical-music-piece/420074/4 "2007-09-22T04:54:55Z")
[QUOTE=riker1384] > **[In the Hall of the Mountain King](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Hall_of_the_Mountain_King)** > > "In the Hall of the Mountain King" (Norwegian: "I Dovregubbens hall", lit. 'In the Dovre man's hall') is a piece of orchestral music composed by Edvard Grieg in 1875 as incidental music for the sixth scene of act 2 in Henrik Ibsen's 1867 play Peer Gynt. It was originally part of Opus 23 but was later extracted as the final piece of Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1, Op. 46. Its easily recognizable theme has helped it attain iconic status in popular culture, where it has been arranged by many artists (see Th... [/QUOTE] By far the lamest arrangement of it I’ve ever heard, but definitely Hall of the Mountain King, yeah. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-classical-music-piece/420074/5 "2007-09-22T05:01:22Z")
When I was taking Russian in high school, I just couldn’t manage the word _sotsialisticheskikh_ (as in Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, SSSR=USSR) until I learned to hear it to the tune of the first 7 notes of the substantive portion of “In the Hall of the Mountain King.” Now whenever I hear that tune, I think: \*So-tsi-a-lis-tich-e-skikh, tich-e-skikh, tich-e-skikh, So-tsi-a-lis-tich-e-skikh, Soy-uz So-ve-ts-kikh! \* ETA: Here’s a nice cover: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw0TikGmVz4](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw0TikGmVz4). The part I mean starts at 48 seconds. Nice to hear screaming for a bit of program music. ---
**Author:** ![Moonchild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@Moonchild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonchild)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-classical-music-piece/420074/6 "2007-09-22T05:38:16Z")
[QUOTE=dropzone] With a name like **Moonchild** you should be a natural Grieg fan, like Robert Fripp obviously is. [/QUOTE] Forgive my density, but why is that? ---
**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:** [September 22, 2007, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-classical-music-piece/420074/7 "2007-09-22T05:46:09Z")
I like the performance of the Jerusalem Orchestra: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzyi3C4gNnE) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-classical-music-piece/420074/8 "2007-09-22T05:54:36Z")
How come those guys aren’t all called for traveling? ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-classical-music-piece/420074/9 "2007-09-22T06:09:21Z")
Since the OP’s question has been answered, I’ve got a similar question. I’ll ask here rather than starting a new thread. There’s a commercial for Nike which shows several clips of (staged) (and at least partially computer generated, I think) football games in various kinds of weather. There’s a song being played during these clips which I recognize, but can not place. I like the song quite a bit. Anyone know what song it is? (Found a copy of the ad in question [here](http://www.metacafe.com/watch/821945/nike_football_commercial_leave_nothing/). The song starts playing a few seconds in. It sounds like movie music to me. Is it from a movie?) -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-classical-music-piece/420074/10 "2007-09-22T09:40:03Z")
[QUOTE=Tengu] By far the lamest arrangement of it I’ve ever heard, but definitely Hall of the Mountain King, yeah. [/QUOTE] Actually I wouldn’t even all it an “arrangement” of it, so much as perhaps a “parody”. I’d say it’s one of those cases where they hire a composer to compose something that sounds almost exactly like a popular recording but altered enough to not have to pay royalties (see that a lot in commercials), only there obviously are no copyright restrictions involved here 😕 Perhaps someone felt that, by altering the chromatic descent of the main theme of the original piece into a chromatic _ascent_, it would be more effective in emphasizing the basketball players’ flights upwards towards the basket, rather than the dunk itself… …or maybe the conductor just had his score upside down by mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-classical-music-piece/420074/11 "2007-09-22T09:44:07Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] Since the OP’s question has been answered, I’ve got a similar question. I’ll ask here rather than starting a new thread. There’s a commercial for Nike which shows several clips of (staged) (and at least partially computer generated, I think) football games in various kinds of weather. There’s a song being played during these clips which I recognize, but can not place. I like the song quite a bit. Anyone know what song it is? (Found a copy of the ad in question [here](http://www.metacafe.com/watch/821945/nike_football_commercial_leave_nothing/). The song starts playing a few seconds in. It sounds like movie music to me. Is it from a movie?) -FrL- [/QUOTE] Sounds like an arrangement of a traditional Irish folk melody. They tend to all sound the same to me. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-classical-music-piece/420074/12 "2007-09-22T14:23:23Z")
It’s from the 1992 version of “Last of the Mohicans.” ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-classical-music-piece/420074/13 "2007-09-22T14:29:28Z")
[QUOTE=Moe] Actually I wouldn’t even all it an “arrangement” of it, so much as perhaps a “parody”. [/QUOTE] It has the same effect on me as someone scraping their fingernails down a blackboard. ☹