I happened upon Peter and the Wolf – an updated narration by David Bowie. While not the classic, I was very pleased. Motoring around town reminiscing of my childhood… cold winter afternoons in feety pj’s listing to scratchy recordings and conjuring up fantastical images in my head.
I started to imagine how my grand wife and I might snuggle up with our children’s children, perhaps in front of the fire and listening to and participating in this wonderful musical tale – learning about the instruments and how their sounds make us feel the action and the emotion of each scene.
Then …
“And if one would listen very carefully, he would hear the duck
quacking inside the wolf, because the wolf, in his hurry, had swallowed her alive.”
Ah yes.. I had forgotten what a dark little tale Prokofiev can weave.
Hmm, perhaps we should start with something by the Brothers Grimm? ;)
4 comments:
All of those fairy tales are just plain fucking scary. A father who dumps his children in the woods? A witch who puts children in cages and fattens them up to eat them?
Wolves that eat grandmothers and then put on their nightgowns and prepare to eat little girls in red capes?
Holy shit.
Frau Veihmann, the Grimm Brothers' main informant, was a soul into which I would not want to peer. It's nice to be reminded how scary folk tales really are. Disney princesses or no.
I'm smiling thinking back to when I taught first and second grade and every Friday was Fairy Tale Friday. I'd center the day's lessons around one of the fairy tales. I don't know who liked it more, the kids or me!
Loved that Peter & the Wolf - but never heard David Bowie doing it.
Another favorite is "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" - CLASSIC!
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