UKUK USUSIndiaIndia
Progress you can see
Join Us
Lucy
Ask the AI Tutor
Need help with Ten Pieces - In the Hall of the Mountain King? Ask our AI Tutor!
Lucy AI Tutor - Lucy
Connecting with Tutor...
Please wait while we establish connection
Lucy
Hi! I'm Lucy, your AI tutor. How can I help you with Ten Pieces - In the Hall of the Mountain King today?
now
Ten Pieces - In the Hall of the Mountain King
What do you know about In The Hall Of The Mountain King by Grieg?

Ten Pieces - In the Hall of the Mountain King

Listen to Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King. Discover how a simple idea grows louder, faster, and more exciting, creating a spooky chase using the whole orchestra.

Explore the Topic →
(quiz starts below)

Fascinating Fact:

A repeating “footsteps” style pulse runs underneath, helping the piece feel like something is creeping closer.

In KS2 Music, this piece is perfect for describing how music builds tension. Pupils can hear repeating patterns, changes in tempo and dynamics, and how instruments join in gradually to make the sound bigger and more dramatic.

  • Pulse: The steady beat that the music can be counted to.
  • Crescendo: A gradual change from quiet to loud.
  • Tempo: The speed of the music, such as slow, moderate, or fast.
What is In the Hall of the Mountain King about for KS2?

In KS2 terms, it is a piece that tells a story through sound, often linked to a character sneaking through a dangerous place, with the music building like a chase.

How does the music build in In the Hall of the Mountain King?

The music builds by repeating the same tune while getting louder and usually faster, and by adding more instruments so the texture becomes fuller and more intense.

What should I listen for in In the Hall of the Mountain King?

Listen for the repeating melody, the steady beat underneath, changes in tempo and dynamics, and how the orchestration grows as more instruments join the main idea.

1 .
Which other of our Ten Pieces was written in the same year, and also has a deliberate air of the supernatural about it?
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony
Mussorgsky's Night on the Bare Mountain
Handel's Zadok the Priest
Britten's 'Storm' Interlude
Yes, in 1867. None of the other composers listed in this question was alive at that time!
2 .
In contrast to the Mussorgsky piece, what is the basic overall musical 'shape' of this one by Grieg?
It starts fast and loud, and gradually grows slower and softer
It starts slow and loud, and gradually grows faster but softer
It starts fast and soft, and gradually grows slower and louder
It starts slow and soft, and gradually grows quicker and louder
The Mussorgsky piece, in essence, works the other way round.
3 .
Which woodwind instrument first plays the theme of ... the Mountain King?
The flute
The saxophone
The bassoon
The clarinet
All the instruments early in the piece are ones that play at low pitch ~ so that as the piece progresses, others added higher up create more tension and excitement.
4 .
Which of these Italian musical directions does NOT apply most of the way through the piece?
Staccato
Poco a poco accelerando
Poco a poco crescendo
Fortissimo
Fortissimo = 'very loud', which obviously isn't true until towards the end. The other answers in turn are that the notes should be played in a detached, brittle manner (not really particularly 'tunefully'); that the music gradually speeds up, and also gradually gains in volume.
5 .
One of the main ways to establish 'mood' in such a piece is by the composer's technical choice of key and mode. Which of these is the appropriate label for this present work?
A major key
A minor key
Whole-tone scales
Pentatonic scales
The home key happens in fact to be B minor.
6 .
Towards 2 minutes into the piece, which percussion instrument plays repeatedly on the off-beat (to ratchet-up the overall tension further)?
The triangle
The cymbals
The gong
The tambourine
The distinctive metallic clash of the cymbals is ear-catching enough at the best of times, but coming insistently (as here) it adds un-ignorably to the overall effect of rising excitement.
7 .
This piece is conceived as a grotesque version of which more 'normal' form of music?
March
Waltz
Polka
Minuet
The opening playing instructions begin 'Alla marcia'. The waltz and minuet are each 3-in-a-bar, which this piece clearly isn't!
8 .
Grieg wrote the piece as part of a suite of 'incidental music' (like a forerunner of the film-score, or the integral accompaniment to a Broadway-style stage musical) for a play by Norway's greatest playwright, who was ~ and remains ~ well respected in his own right, and was a great friend and encourager of the composer (then in his mid-20s). Who was the dramatist?
Henrik Ibsen
Nils Gade
Ole Bull
Hugo Alfven
The others here were all names of other Scandinavian musicians and/or composers. Ibsen's play was called Peer Gynt (Peer = 'Peter' in Norwegian), and the Mountain King piece accompanies what is more or less a nightmare sequence ... this detail may come as little surprise!
9 .
Which instrument creates the dramatic rumbling sound just before the final huge chord?
The bass drum
The kettledrum
The gong
The double-basses
One percussionist has this dramatic final solo!
10 .
... And which instrument/s started the whole huge piece off? (You may need to listen very carefully)
The violas
The horns
The harp
The drums
There is a quiet but distinct 'entry' from the horns, with a pause-mark on it too, before the seemingly unstoppable build-up begins. Happy listening ... don't have nightmares!
Author:  Ian Miles (Linguist, ESL and RE Quiz Writer & Tutor)

© Copyright 2016-2026 - Education Quizzes
Work Innovate Ltd - Design | Development | Marketing