Surprise! It’s back! Just when you thought that the Keepin’ It Classy series had been safely tucked into bed and was sleeping soundly, it returns! The story of why I have opted to return with a special edition of this retired series has as much to do with the way modern social media works as it does with this composition itself. The story goes a little like this.
When it comes to interacting with the world via my computer, the one application that I use more than any other is YouTube. I use the programming content provided on YouTube in all manner of ways. If I were to take a screenshot of what my initial YouTube homepage looks like today, you would probably see videos for lawn care (because preparing my lawn for the spring and summer seasons is what I am currently working on around the house), home DIY projects (because there is always something to work on, somewhere in the house or out in the yard), sports (the Stanley Cup playoffs are on and baseball has started so I watch highlights on YouTube). I have also been checking in on the Icelandic volcano, anything to do with my homeland on Cape Breton island and, of course, all things to do with my music posts (Jazz, Canadian, movies and musicals, concert venues, punk rock, Hip Hop and all of the various associated videos I include in my posts such as movie clips, scenes with certain actors, historical footage, live concerts, etc.). In short, at present, my YouTube algorithms are a jumble of this and that. As a consequence of this, every time I opt to go to YouTube for whatever reason, I never know for sure exactly what content I will find when I get there. The other day, between periods of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game, I went to YouTube in order to do some research for my upcoming music post. When I logged on, I was met with a classical music video. Over the course of the past year, when the series Keepin’ It Classy was ongoing and active, I used to get classical music videos appearing on my YouTube feed all of the time. But since that series ended a few months ago, they had dropped off. I guess the sudden reappearance of a classical music video might have been YouTube’s way of doing a diagnostic self-check to see if this was still an area of interest for me. Whatever the cause, there on my screen sat a video for a composition entitled “In the Hall of the Mountain King” by Edvard Grieg. Naturally, I clicked on the thumbnail. This is the story of what happened next. Enjoy.
When I first decided to explore the world of classical music, I did so with a personal mandate that said I would focus on compositions that I felt most people had heard before. If most of you are like me, you will have heard countless compositions played, in segments or in full, as background music for films, cartoons, television shows or at public ceremonies such as weddings, funerals and graduations. My idea was to take these familiar melodies and state the full name of the composition, describe the inspiration for the music and talk a bit about the composer and the times in which the music was created. Over the course of fifty posts, I covered many of the obvious candidates for such a series. For instance, I posted about “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” by Tchaikovsky. I covered “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” by Mozart. Naturally, I wrote about “Ode to Joy” by Beethoven. By the time I had reached post #50, I felt fairly satisfied that I had fulfilled my mandate and had talked about the classical music world’s greatest hits, so to speak, in ways that gave novice fans of the genre (like me) a greater understanding of the composers, the compositions and the times in which they all unfolded. I was happy with what I had done and felt that I had exhausted the reservoir of instantly recognizable classical tunes. That was until I clicked on that YouTube link the other night.
When I decided to launch the Keepin’ It Classy series, the very first post I created was about a composition known as “Morning Mood” by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. In that post, I talked about how Grieg had been commissioned by famous Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen to create a series of suites that would serve as the incidental music for a new play called Peer Gynt. Ibsen’s play turned out to be an epic journey of self-discovery of a man named Peer Gynt. While Gynt physically travels across Europe and into Africa and back, he also undergoes a journey of self-discovery with regard to his place in the world and what it means to be an individual in a social world. The play is told all in verse form. Some of the time the action is rooted in the physical reality of the present, while at other times the action appears to take place within Gynt’s feverish mind. Because of the way Ibsen constructed this play, there were great demands placed on the audience to keep up with the action that was unfolding on stage and to attempt to sort out whether what they were seeing was real or in Peer Gynt’s imagination and whether the events of the play were in chronological order or in flashbacks. One of the ways that Ibsen sought to help his audience out was by having composer Edvard Grieg create music that would be played at times that would signify a change in scene. The music played while a scene was transitioning on stage was called incidental music. As mentioned in the post that I wrote about “Morning Mood”, there was always a second, well-known piece of incidental music that was part of Grieg’s Peer Gynt suites that had become famous in its own right, and that was a piece called “In the Hall of the Mountain King”.
Admittedly, when I wrote about “Morning Mood” that week, I never took time to check out “In the Hall of the Mountain King”. If I had done so then, I would have definitely added it to the original roster of the fifty greatest classical compositions of all time. As soon as I clicked on that YouTube link the other night and heard those first few notes being played aloud via an elaborate organ, I immediately recognized this piece of music as being something I had heard countless times over the years. It was instantly recognizable! How had I neglected it over the course of an entire year of writing!? Well, as soon as I heard those notes play, I knew that I needed to correct my oversight. This post is my attempt to make amends.
“In the Hall of the Mountain King” is a piece of music that was played during a fantasy scene in which Peer Gynt finds himself taken into the court of the Troll King. The music that is played is very ominous and foreboding. Once you listen to this composition, even for ten seconds or less, you will recognize this music as something you have heard in films or in cartoons in which a monster is approaching the hero or an army is on the march or some action is taking place that evokes danger or anxiety. In the case of Peer Gynt, he is asked to account for the nature of his existence. Up until that point in the play, Gynt has been a lazy man who never finishes a task, can’t commit to a relationship and has no goals for his future going forward. Instead, Peer Gynt wanders aimlessly through the beautiful Norwegian landscape with a poet’s sensibilities, drinking in the beauty all around him but creating nothing in reply. The Troll King demands to know how Gynt can call himself a man and a human individual and yet leave absolutely no mark upon the world. The Troll King then posits that Gynt is not truly a man at all but has actually been a troll all of his life. In order to be spared the wrath of the Troll King, Gynt must change his ways and demonstrate how he can be an impactful person and citizen, which is how the second half of the play unfolds. Ibsen’s play was generally seen as a political call to action for his fellow citizens with regard to what vision they would follow in shaping Norway’s future in the world. At the time, the play Peer Gynt was met with mixed reviews. There were some who felt that the structural innovations that Ibsen incorporated into the play were ahead of their time and symbolized the type of forward thinking that would propel Norway’s future fortunes for the better. There were others who were offended that Ibsen would dare to criticize the personality of his entire country by inferring that the initially shiftless Gynt is a representative character. The passage of time has looked favourably upon Ibsen’s work. Whether you are a student of the classics or not, Ibsen’s character Peer Gynt is regarded by critics and experts as being one of the most important and most fully-developed characters to appear in the field of modern dramatic literature. Consequently, the play Peer Gynt is heralded as being one of the finest and most important dramatic works in history. From that play came two separate pieces of music that have also stood the test of time. “Morning Mood” and “In the Hall of the Mountain King”, both by Edvard Grieg, are two incredibly distinctive works that are as relevant today as they were when they were first composed over 150 years ago.
As with every action (or inaction), there will be consequences. No doubt the lords of YouTube will make note of my selection of the video that accompanies this post and will assume that classical music is, once again, on the table when it comes to programming for my account. I expect to see many more classical music videos pop up on my timeline in the days and weeks to come as YouTube attempts to pigeonhole my tastes and feed me a diet of only those tasty confections. However, I enjoy confounding the algorithms by maintaining a wide range of interests. I encourage you to do the same. Social media (and the internet, in general) is a gift that opens whole new worlds for us if we engage with it in an active and thoughtful manner. That same internet/social media will work to limit your choices and diminish your worldview just as quickly if you remain a passive participant. Kinda like how the Troll King challenged Peer Gynt to take charge of his life rather than allowing life to simply wash over him. I challenge you to confound the algorithms meant to enslave you. Perhaps I will, in fact, watch the new classical music offerings that will surely appear. But just as likely, I will watch a hockey fight or women’s beach volleyball or a Climate Change march somewhere in the world or a music concert from 1984 or listen to a famous poem or speech or learn a new recipe or whatever. The choice really is mine and that’s how it should be. The only really important thing is to actively make that choice. If not, I will find the choices being made for me. That’s no way to live.
The link to the video for the composition “In the Hall of the Mountain King” by Edvard Grieg can be found here. ***I guarantee that you have heard it before. It is a 100% lock.
The link to the official website for Henrik Ibsen can be found here.
The link to the official website for Edvard Grieg can be found here.
The link to the official website for the country of Norway can be found here.
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