The Story Orchestra: In the Hall of the Mountain King illustrated by Jessica Courtney-Tickle

I was so excited to get this book. My kids and I have long loved this popular piece of orchestral music, composed by Edvard Grieg in 1875 to accompany the play Peer Gynt, written by his friend Henrik Ibsen. Whenever we hear it, we’re moved to perform spontaneous interpretive dance to it all around the house.

To my ears, the gradual increase in tempo - which eventually explodes into euphoric, cacophonic, orchestral fireworks - is the classical music equivalent of “build up” in EDM.

This beautifully illustrated picture book has an ingenious system whereby you press a quaver symbol on the page and you’ll hear an excerpt from Grieg's epic piece which relates to each part of the story. The story - a sanitised version of the original Nordic play, to cater for the younger audience - focuses on the part where the young Peer sneaks away from the wedding he and his mother are attending. He stumbles upon a bucolic scene: a dairy farm next to a lake. But Peer is restless; he desires adventure and boasts to the farmers that he has ridden a reindeer through the sky. They dare him to steal treasure from the Mountain King’s cave. A young girl gives him a precious stone to keep him safe; press the quaver and you’ll hear Anitra’s Dance.

Not long after entering the cave - ignoring the warnings of the gnomes outside - Peer finds himself surrounded by trolls. He tries to flee (cue the orchestral fireworks) but is captured and taken to the monstrous Mountain King, who challenges Peer to bring him a gift - or become a troll like him (Ingrid’s Lament). Peer remembers the precious stone, which he whips out, and as he escapes, he grabs a golden cup from the piles of treasure. When he reaches the farm, he gifts the golden cup to the farmers, and returns to the wedding venue to find his worried mum waiting for him.

As I’d anticipated, my kids were stoked to read this book with me and eagerly pressed the quavers along the way. I’m also excited about this book because as a primary school teacher, I’ve taught a brilliant MoE unit which uses In The Hall of the Mountain King to explore rhythm and beat, and until now I’ve never been able to find a satisfactory picture book about Peer Gynt to flesh out the story to the tamariki.

This book would make a fantastic gift for any child, and provides a hands-on way to turn them on to the beauty and versatility of classical music. Including ethnically diverse people in the illustrations is a nice touch too. My only criticism is that the music is only heard in brief snatches, around 15 seconds apiece, and there’s no apparent way to replace the batteries once they wear out.

Reviewer: Stacey Anyan

Allen & Unwin