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Classical pieces arranged for ukulele are tricky, especially if the goal is to produce a Level 1 arrangement that is accessible to folks at a beginner/intermediate skill level. While some well-known classical pieces were written specifically as exercises for beginners (“Minuet in G” being a prime example), most were not. They don’t adapt well to ukulele because there’s too much going on – too many layers, too many instruments. But that doesn’t stop me from at least making the attempt.
Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” was originally written as a piece of incidental music (i.e. background music) for a 19th century play, Peer Gynt. It plays during a scene where the main character, Peer Gynt, enters (surprise!) the hall of the mountain king, a troll.
Funnily enough, this tune, which is immediately recognizable to people around the world, was written essentially as a joke. Here are Grieg’s thoughts on his own composition:
“For the Hall of the Mountain King, I have written something that so reeks of cowpats, ultra-Norwegianism, and ‘to-thyself-be-enough-ness’ that I cannot bear to hear it, though I hope that the irony will make itself felt.”
Well, sorry, Edvard, but we all like your ironic little tune, and we’re going to keep playing it.
“In the Hall of the Mountain King” Playing Tips
Getting back to my original point: Big, complex classical pieces literally cannot be transferred over to ukulele in many cases. The best you can do is create what amounts to a tribute – an arrangement that gets the point across to the listener without worrying too much about being entirely accurate.
My arrangement of “In the Hall of the Mountain King” attempts to keep the core idea of the piece intact. The central theme is repeated in three different places on the neck, creating that sense of building frenzy found in the original. The original goes even further than that with additional variations, but I was limited both by the range of the uke and by wanting to keep this piece relatively brief.
I wasn’t able to replicate the big, crashing finale of the original, so instead it just grinds to a halt. The “rit.” over the final line of the piece is a “ritardando,” which indicates that the final measures should be played gradually more slowly. Rather than trying to invent a concluding phrase for the piece, I ended it by allowing it to unwind, sort of the opposite of what the full piece actually does
Click the link or the ‘Download’ button below to see the sheet music if your browser doesn’t display the embedded PDF. Happy picking!
“In the Hall of the Mountain King” Low G Sheet Music Download
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