About Halls of the Mountain King#
Edvard Grieg composed this piece in 1875 as part of the incidental music for Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt. In the scene it accompanies, Peer wanders into the throne room of a troll king, and the music tracks his mounting dread. It begins slow and hushed, then speeds up and grows louder until it nearly runs away with itself. Grieg later placed it in his first Peer Gynt orchestral suite, which is where most listeners meet it now.
This Norwegian Romantic tune keeps to a single octave, from C up to the C above, so every note falls inside the comfortable range of a 6-hole ocarina. The real test is not the pitches but the acceleration. Learn it slowly and let the speed come last.
Halls of the Mountain King Ocarina Tab#
| C. | D. | D#. | F. | G. | D#. | G. | F#. | D. | F#. | F. | C#. | F. |
| C. | D. | D#. | F. | G. | D#. | G. | C. | A#. | G. | D#. | G. | A#. |