In the Hall of the Mountain King - Edvard Grieg - Lesson 1

This is a wonderful piece of music that kids love.  The very first step in teaching this piece is to tell the story that lies behind it.  The piece is from a suite called The Peer Gynt Suite.  The adult version of the story is much more complicated than this simple version but for young children here is their version.

THE LEGEND OF PEER GYNT

There once was a little boy named Peer Gynt. He was a bad boy. He stole things, played tricks, and never helped his mother. Everybody hated Peer Gynt. One day, he went to a wedding. There he met the most beautiful girl in the world. He knew the instant he saw her that he was in love. The girl's name was Solveig.

Peer wanted to marry this wonderful girl. But that would not happen because Solveig's parents had heard about Peer and they didn't like him. They told Peer to leave their daughter alone because she would not marry him.

Poor Peer's heart was broken. He knew that he could not stay in the village because seeing Solveig would be too painful to his heart. So he ran from the village and into the mountains where he could be alone forever. But little did Peer know that along his way he would have many adventures.

Here is the first adventure and the story of our piece of music.

I do NOT tell the children how this story ends.  The music will tell them the ending.  I just want to tell enough to set the stage for listening.

Peer Gynt arrived at the hall of the Mountain King. He was then surrounded by many ugly trolls, captured and taken before the king. At first the king is not happy to have an intruder in their kingdom but Peer assured him that he is looking for a new home and perhaps he would be allowed to live there.  The king finds that he likes this young man and suggests that Peer could marry his daughter. She was beautiful but not as pretty as Solveig. The king described what Peer would have to do to marry his daughter. The things he would have to do were: grow a tail, not see the light of day for the rest of his life, and, last but not least, slit his eyes to see the world as a troll does.

That night when he was alone in his bedroom Peer begins to think about the king's plan.  He decides he does not want to become a troll.  But now he has a problem.  How can he say "No" to the king without making him really mad.  He decided he had better sneak out of the mountain right then while it is still dark.

As the music begins you will hear Peer sneaking on his tip toes as quietly as he can.  Listen carefully to this piece of music and see if you can tell me how the story ends.

The children will have all kinds of ideas of what happens as they listen to this very exciting piece of music. When they have exhausted their ideas, you can share how the author ended the story.

Peer tip toes through the halls of the mountains so very quietly but unfortunately there were troll guards along the way who hear him.  A chase begins as Peer frantically tried to escape.  At last the trolls started to surround Peer. He is sure he is going to be captured and turns to face them.  Peer started to step backwards and he heard church bells ringing. When the sounds hit the eardrums of the ugly, hairy trolls, they melted away to never be seen or heard from again.

You might listen again to see if there is a bell there at the end.  They will want to know.  No, there is no bell. When Grieg wrote the music he just let it end with that wonderful big crash!

Here is a good version of the music on youtube.  Don't let the kids "watch" the video.  Just play it so they can use their imaginations.  Afterwards, you might want to watch the video.  Good pictures of Grieg and of his beloved home in Norway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrIYT-MrVaI

Another lesson for this same music will follow.

In the Hall of the Mountain King - Lesson 2

In lesson one, we got acquainted with this wonderful piece of music.  Now we will have some fun as we examine the elements that helped create the piece: rhythm, tempo and dynamics.  The picture you see is a graphic illustration of this music - a music map.  You'll need to print out the three pages. The task now is to first focus on how this music repeats over and over a very simple rhythmic pattern. Ti-ti ti-ti ti-ti ta, ti-ti ta, ti-ti ta, Ti-ti ti-ti ti-ti ti-ti ti-ti ti-ti ta.  The task for this lesson is to be able to "follow the dots" on the chart until Peer Gynt finds himself safely out of the mountain. By the time you have done this enough to be able to touch each dot without getting so excited by the music that you get silly about it, you will know that rhythmic pattern well.  Remember, you MUST touch each dot along the way, hopping from dot to dot, not just sliding your finger along the path!

IMPORTANT NOTE:  Pages 1 and 2 repeat THREE times before you do the final page.  I prefer this version without the vocals as you do this exercise.  The beginning is really soft so you have to listen carefully.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRpzxKsSEZg&feature=related


Now, that you have accomplished this first part, it is time to discuss this question:  How could this composer keep repeating the same pattern over and over and yet we were never bored?  If I was talking to you and I keep saying the same thing, over and over and over, you would die of boredom.  But this piece is exciting.  Why?

This will lead to a discussion of tempo (the speed of the music) and dynamics (how softly or loudly the music is played)  The children will figure those two things out without your help.  It is so obvious.  It is your job to introduce them to the correct musical terms.  You may enjoy printing out the rhythm,  tempo and dynamics posters for future reference.

In the Hall of the Mountain King - Lesson 3

This activity is an early elementary activity for grades K-2, possibly 3. The whole purpose of this lesson is to develop the ability to hear music as a series of musical phrases.  This activity also develops an awareness of time and space.  You need two things in order to do this activity: troll dolls and a castle.  At school I had a collection of troll dolls that we used for this.  But when I was volunteering in a second grade class in Santa Rosa, California in 2007, we used the patterns below and in some ways it was more fun because the kids got to make and keep their own troll dolls.  In California I used a simple castle picture and duplicated it 4 times, pasted on the four sides of a cardboard box and made a castle.  At school I actually used a box and cut it out to look like a castle, painted and decorated.  It lasted for many years.

The object of the activity is to have each troll doll move into the castle - one troll per phrase of the music.  The troll begins with the first note of the phrase and ends by jumping into the castle on the last note of the phrase.  He cannot get there early and just wait by the castle.  Neither can he jump in if he is not all the way there.  So you have to really learn to time yourself and think about the phrase.  Halfway through the phrase you have to be halfway there, etc.

There are a total of 21 phrases in this piece.  You can count them on the charts from lesson 2.  I had that many kids in my classes at school so each child did this once.  You'll have to come up with your own plan for doing it.  Will you make 21 trolls?  Will you just use a few trolls and have them repeat?  There is no right or wrong but you for sure will want to do the whole piece of music because the fun begins as the music gets going.



Here are some patterns that you might consider: