This is a famous and beautiful piece by Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach was the most prolific composer in baroque music. He wrote hundreds of pieces of music in every type except opera.
Bach was not famous during his lifetime. He was a composer and choir director at a church for most of his life. His manuscripts, (written music) were discovered long after he died and people realized how incredible his music was and started to play it.
Since then, Bach is generally considered the greatest composer of all time.
Edvard Grieg is best known for the incidental music he wrote for Henrik Ibsen’s play, Peer Gynt. Incidental music provides background or atmosphere for the action in a play. Peer Gynt is a tale about one man’s epic journey to the four corners of the globe. Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” describes Peer Gynt’s adventure in the underground Kingdom of the Trolls. Can you hear the trolls creeping up on Peer? They are coming faster and faster!
This is a song that we all know. A game we’ve all played, and now it’s time to learn to play the song!
The challenge in playing this song is the rhythm. As with all the other songs we’ve been playing lately, it’s important to make you know what it’s supposed to sound like before you try to play it. Don’t let the complicated rhythms scare you! It’s just the hokey pokey!!