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In The Hall Of The Mountain King

Well, I'm hardly an expert compared to some round these parts, but my assumption would be around the time Tussauds took over, in the early 90's? It's quite possible, of course, it was already established before that, and I was just too young to notice. We didn't get many adverts for Towers down south back in the bleak, grime encrusted 80's.
 
Interesting, it looks like they were transitioning between slogans there. "Where wonders never cease" and "Where the magic never ends". I don't remember seeing them together like that before.
 
I probably post this every few years, but Grieg wrote ITHOTMK with satirical intent, claiming it was inspired by "cowpats, ultra-Norwegianism, and 'to-thyself-be-enough-ness", and that he "could not bear to hear it, though I hope that the irony will make itself felt." It's basically deliberately rubbish.

Of course, it's been a huge hit for 150-years since.
 
I'd always assumed it was just a case of it being a recognisable, easy to licence piece of music - but part of me does think that maybe someone in the marketing department just had a soft spot for Grieg.


From: https://youtu.be/B2wfv5IX2Cc?si=4CM2QR1rVUAXqxl4


This promo opens with Anitra's Dance, funnily enough the piece of music directly before Mountain King in Peer Gynt - but around the 40s mark it transitions to his Piano Concerto in A Minor. So my money is on Mr. Aaron A Aaronson just really liking Edvard Grieg's music and using them at work - obviously Mountain King hit the spot and became synonymous with Alton Towers.
 
Interesting observation. My theory is maybe they needed music for one of the ads quick and just stuck in mountain king because it was copyright free and it just stuck.
 
mo237 said:
I'd always assumed it was just a case of it being a recognisable, easy to licence piece of music - but part of me does think that maybe someone in the marketing department just had a soft spot for Grieg.


From: https://youtu.be/B2wfv5IX2Cc?si=4CM2QR1rVUAXqxl4


This promo opens with Anitra's Dance, funnily enough the piece of music directly before Mountain King in Peer Gynt - but around the 40s mark it transitions to his Piano Concerto in A Minor. So my money is on Mr. Aaron A Aaronson just really liking Edvard Grieg's music and using them at work - obviously Mountain King hit the spot and became synonymous with Alton Towers.
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Interestingly, if I recall correctly, Anitra's Dance was first used by the park during the John Broome years.

So it is arguable that the reason Tussauds ended up landing on In the Hall of the Mountain King is actually directly linked to the prior regime. It seems too much of a coincidence that they accidentally ended up settling on the next track on the same tape.
 
Hmm some good theories here.

I did ask an ex employee who would have been involved in this sort of thing back in the early 90's, and they couldn't 100% remember, but they thought that - after Nick Varney was appointed as Marketing Manager - the park contracted an advertising agency to help rebrand the park, and in their first meeting*, a theme tune was on the agenda, and Hall of the Mountain King was chosen in that meeting. It's possible someone has played the previous music used in the John Broom era in that meeting ("this is what they have used before, here's the next piece").

*I believe John Wardley was in the meeting with Nick Varney, the ad agency, and possibly other marketing personnel.

The choice of theme tune is a genius decision, possibly one of the most important decisions in the theme park's history.
 
Ah I miss those days …..
The slogan has never been further from the truth …..
The former park must be turning in its grave looking at what it’s become
 
Considering this was the apparent theme tune that the park would have during the 80s, you can see why they wanted something more grander sounding.

Though this tune is as 80s as Thatcher, Princess Diana and Del Boy's fake gold braces.
 
Sorry to bump an old thread, but I was surprised to hear that "In The Hall Of The Mountain King" has only been used since 1992, as I had always assumed that it pre-dated the Tussauds era.

The reason I say this is that Tussauds seemed to pride themselves on unique and special attractions (such as Nemesis) rather than generic clones that were available elsewhere (such as Corkscrew, and flat rides in general), and thus I would have expected them to commission bespoke music (as they did for most of their rides) instead of recycling a 'free' piece of music that anybody else could use as well*?

I believe that Merlin ordered custom music for the Thorpe Park entrance walkway, but I may be wrong.

Was it just the case that IMAscore weren't available back in 1992?

(*Thinking about it, I'm surprised that Rita and Stealth used generic pop songs in the same way that ordinary funfairs do, although at least they included a fake DJ overlay, and many of them were old and thus unfamiliar, and using multiple songs instead of just one isn't a bad idea, as it at least helps to prevent boredom. I think Oblivion used a generic night club song as well, although I am not sure.)
 
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I was also surprised to hear it only goes back to the early 90s. Given that it fits the pre-Tussauds era just as well. But actually it does make sense.
LLCorkscrew said:
Hmm some good theories here.

I did ask an ex employee who would have been involved in this sort of thing back in the early 90's, and they couldn't 100% remember, but they thought that - after Nick Varney was appointed as Marketing Manager - the park contracted an advertising agency to help rebrand the park, and in their first meeting*, a theme tune was on the agenda, and Hall of the Mountain King was chosen in that meeting. It's possible someone has played the previous music used in the John Broom era in that meeting ("this is what they have used before, here's the next piece").

*I believe John Wardley was in the meeting with Nick Varney, the ad agency, and possibly other marketing personnel.

The choice of theme tune is a genius decision, possibly one of the most important decisions in the theme park's history.
Click to expand...
This tracks with the introduction of the CanCan at LEGOLAND. When they first started using that music I heard that it had come about as a direct request from Nick Varney. An attempt to recapture the association ITHOTMK has with Alton Towers. If Nick Varney was responsible for introducing ITHOTMK it would only be natural to try and repeat its success.

I think the reason CanCan didn't work as well is that it's too recognisable and already has other associations. ITHOTMK was obscure enough for Alton Towers to make it their own.
 
I suppose it could also have been a very rush job with the money focused on the huge investments they were going to make into the park, as opposed to a general theme tune. Can imagine it needing to be decided pretty quick with no real time to compose music (I imagine its a much longer process than it would be today).
 
Secret Weapon said:
Sorry to bump an old thread, but I was surprised to hear that "In The Hall Of The Mountain King" has only been used since 1992, as I had always assumed that it pre-dated the Tussauds era.

The reason I say this is that Tussauds seemed to pride themselves on unique and special attractions (such as Nemesis) rather than generic clones that were available elsewhere (such as Corkscrew, and flat rides in general), and thus I would have expected them to commission bespoke music (as they did for most of their rides) instead of recycling a 'free' piece of music that anybody else could use as well*?

I believe that Merlin ordered custom music for the Thorpe Park entrance walkway, but I may be wrong.

Was it just the case that IMAscore weren't available back in 1992?

(*Thinking about it, I'm surprised that Rita and Stealth used generic pop songs in the same way that ordinary funfairs do, although at least they included a fake DJ overlay, and many of them were old and thus unfamiliar, and using multiple songs instead of just one isn't a bad idea, as it at least helps to prevent boredom. I think Oblivion used a generic night club song as well, although I am not sure.)
Click to expand...

I think it just started being used in promos and adverts and became an accidental theme, often people refering it to the "Alton Towers Theme" rather than ITHOMK.

It can be cheaper to license classical music for an ad as you don't have to pay royalties to the (deceased) composer, just for the recording.

Custom music was used at the park , with Graham Smart doing most the music for Tussauds between 1989 and 1997.
Technically a custom theme was written for the Towers Street music in 1996, which also included ITHOMK

Thorpe commissioned Entrance Music from Ian Habood in the early 2000s, and then in 2007 Alton Towers decided to replace all the music in the park with royalty free music and had it all based around a consistent theme written by PitStop Productions.

This did upset a lot of the fans , and some of the music was put back (like for nemesis)

It's very hard to write a solid theme for a whole park, hence why hall of the mountain king became the defacto theme, it sums up the crazy adrenaline of a rollercoaster perfectly.
 
waffa said:
It's very hard to write a solid theme for a whole park, hence why hall of the mountain king became the defacto theme, it sums up the crazy adrenaline of a rollercoaster perfectly.
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I would also add it really suits the grand setting of the Towers well, so really does encompass the park well in adverts.
 
Whats your favourite version of Hall of the Mountain King at Alton Towers, I like the original though also really like the one used between 2008 and 2015 to
 
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