some years later, he decided to have it staged and commissioned edvard grieg to write the music for it. [music] ibsen developed the poetic epic play on an actual character in norwegian folklore who had lived about 100 years earlier. the setting is strongly norwegian: brooding skies, mountain and valley, fjord and forest. in peer gynt, ibsen weaves folktale and fantasy, developing a new picture of emerging man and the problem of heroism in the modern age. peer, like other great literary epic heroes such as beowulf, siegfried, roland and faust, reflects a universal human condition: the search for identity and the mortal consequences of his actions. but peer is a more complex and introspective hero. while on the one hand he is an imaginative storyteller, he is also a liar. though he recognizes the good and the ideal, he consistently opts for evil and compromise. when there is a shipwreck, peer determines that the cook's life is expendable and saves himself. the character of peer gynt marks a critical change in the concept of an epic hero and signifies the advent of an anti-hero concept. p

i'll be playing 'wedding day at troldhaugen' by edvard grieg. and everyone's like, "oh." you know?y had some stipulation in the rules where we're going to make the contestants play another tune. so the little kid got up again and played some boring piece. and then, the dude with the french horn was like -- [ nerdy voice ] "i neglected to introduce myself earlier. my name is --" [ laughter ] i mean, he's using -- >> jimmy: he's trying to take your thing, yeah. >> right. and then, i was all like, "yes, and i would like to now play a little jazz melody -- a jazz medley." you know? and then, i rocked it. and then, they didn't even call my name. it was just like, "the winner is contestant number three." >> jimmy: but that's not -- >> right, right. >> jimmy: but what'd you win? >> like -- it was some money. i think it was like $500. >> jimmy: that's big. >> yeah. oh, yeah. >> jimmy: so, we gotta thank mom. [ cheers and applause ] >> the thing i learned from that -- that was -- my mother, like, forced me, you know, into that competition. she like forced me to learn the music, and she beli