Peter and the Wolf

 

Peter and the Wolf is a composition by Sergei Prokofiev written in 1936 after his return to the Soviet Union. It is a children's story (with both music and text by Prokofiev), spoken by a narrator accompanied by the orchestra.

Instrumentation

Peter and the Wolf is scored for flute, oboe, clarinet in A, bassoon, 3 horns, trumpet, trombone, timpani, triangle, tambourine, cymbals, castanets, snare drum, bass drum and strings.

Each character in the story has a particular instrument and a musical theme, or leitmotif:

• Bird: flute
• Duck: oboe
• Cat: clarinet
• Grandfather: bassoon
• Wolf: 3 French horns
• Hunters (gunshots): timpani and bass drum (The hunters' theme is actually introduced by the woodwinds)
• Peter: string instruments

Notable recordings

The first English version was recorded in 1939 by RCA Victor, was issued in an album of six 78-RPM discs. It was narrated by Richard Hale, a film actor best known for villainous roles, with music performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Serge Koussevitzky.

Many English-language recordings of this famous piece have followed, including these noteworthy examples:

• A bilingual recording featuring narration in Spanish and English by José Ferrer, performed by the Vienna State Opera Orchestra conducted by Eugène Aynsley Goossens (Kapp Records, 1959).

• A 1959 EMI recording with Michael Flanders as narrator with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Efrem Kurtz.

• A recording by Decca Records recording in Volume 5 of "The World of the Great Classics", featuring Sir Ralph Richardson as narrator with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent.

• A recording by the New York Philharmonic with Leonard Bernstein as conductor and narrator. The popularity of the group's televised Young People's Concerts made this an auspicious release (Columbia Records, 1960).

• A Decca Phase 4 recording with Sean Connery as narrator, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Antal Dorati (Decca Records, 1971).

• A 1971 EMI recording with Richard Baker as narrator, accompanied by the New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Raymond Leppard.

• A 1975 Deutsche Grammophon recording featuring Hermione Gingold as narrator, accompanied by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Karl Böhm.

• A version featuring David Bowie as narrator and performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy (RCA Victor, 1978).

• A recording featuring Itzhak Perlman as narrator and performed by the Israel Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta (EMI, 1986).

• A recording featuring Alec Guinness as narrator and performed by the Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by Arthur Fielder (BMG, 1988).

• A recording with Patrick Stewart as narrator and performed by the Orchestre de L'Opéra Lyon (Orchestra of the Opéra National de Lyon) conducted by Kent Nagano (Erato, 1994).

• A recording with Dame Edna Everage as narrator and performed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Lanchbery (Naxos Records, 1997).

The story

Peter, a young boy, lives with his grandfather in the Russian countryside. One day Peter leaves the garden gate open, and the duck takes the opportunity to go swimming on the nearby pond. She starts arguing with a little bird ("What kind of bird are you if you can't fly?" - "What kind of bird are you if you can't swim?"). Peter's pet cat sneaks up on them, and the bird – warned by Peter - flies into a tall tree.

Peter's grumpy grandfather takes him back into the garden and locks the gate in case if any wolves come near. Shortly afterwards "a big, grey wolf" does indeed come out of the woods. The cat climbs into the tree, but the duck, who has left the pond, is swallowed by the wolf.

Peter fetches a rope and climbs over the garden wall into the tree. He asks the bird to fly around the wolf's head, while he lowers a noose and catches the wolf by his tail.

Hunters come out of the woods and fire at the wolf, but Peter stops them. Everyone leads the wolf to the zoo in a triumphant procession. At the end one can hear the duck quacking in the wolf's stomach, "because the wolf had swallowed her alive."

In some versions, the duck is spat out of the wolf as he is hanging from the noose. She then joins everyone taking the wolf to the zoo

Adaptations of the work

Walt Disney produced an animated version of the work in 1946, with Sterling Holloway providing the voice of the narrator. It was released theatrically as a segment in Make Mine Music, then separately on home video in the 1990s on. ^[1] This version makes several changes to the original story, for example:

• During the character introduction, the pets are given names: "Sasha" the bird, "Sonia" the duck, and "Ivan" the cat.
• As the cartoon begins, Peter and his friends already know there is a wolf nearby, and are preparing to catch him.
• The hunters' theme is not mentioned and the hunters also get names at a later point in the story: "Misha", "Yasha" and "Vladimir".
• Peter day-dreams of hunting and catching the wolf and exits the garden carrying a wooden rifle with the purpose of hunting the wolf down.
• At the end, in a complete reversal of the original (and to make the story more kid-friendly), it turns out that the duck has not been eaten by the wolf. (The wolf is shown chasing the duck that hides in a tree's trunk. The wolf attacks -out of view- and returns in view with some of the ducks feathers in his mouth. Peter, the cat and the bird assume the duck has been eaten. After the wolf has been caught, the bird is shown mourning the duck. The duck comes out of the tree trunk at that point and they are happily reunited).

This version of Peter and the Wolf were featured in House of Mouse and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

In 1958, a television special entitled Art Carney Meets Peter and the Wolf, starring, naturally, Art Carney, along with the Bil Baird Marionettes, was presented by the American Broadcasting Company, and was successful enough to have been repeated a year later. The show boasted an original storyline in which Carney interacted with some talking marionette animals, notably the wolf, who was the troublemaker of the group. This first half was presented as a musical, with adapted music from Lieutenant Kije and other Prokofiev works which had special English lyrics fitted into them. The program then segued into a complete performance of Peter and the Wolf, played exactly as written by the composer, and "mimed" by the marionettes.

Hans Conried recorded the narration with a Dixieland Band in or around 1960. Since there is no oboe in a Dixieland Band, the part of the duck was played by a saxophone. ^[2]

The Clyde Valley Stompers recorded a jazz version on Parlophone Records (45-R 4928) in 1962, which registered on the pop charts of the time. ^[3]

Allan Sherman parodied the work in a 1964 album called Peter and the Commissar, made with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra. ^[4]

A 1966 version by Hammond Organ player 'The Incredible Jimmy Smith', arranged by Oliver Nelson featured no narration, and was an improvisation around the original themes. ^[5]

In 1975, Robin Lumley and Jack Lancaster produced a rock version with their fusion group Brand X as the soundtrack for an animated film. Their music makes use of some of Prokofiev's original themes. Along with Vivian Stanshall as the narrator, the staff is illustrious (among others Gary Moore, Manfred Mann, Phil Collins, Bill Bruford, Stephane Grappelli, Alvin Lee, Cozy Powell, Brian Eno, Jon Hiseman), the music very heterogeneous - from psychedelic rock to jazz (Grappelli's violin solo on the motif of the cat). ^[6]

A sequel to the story was written by Justin Locke in 1985 using the original score. "Peter VS. the Wolf" also requires four actors for a stage presentation. ^[7]

"Weird Al" Yankovic and Wendy Carlos produced a comedic version in 1988, using a synthesized orchestra and many additions to the story and music. (Peter captures the wolf using his grandfather's dental floss, leading to the moral of the story, "Brush and floss your teeth every day"). ^[8]

A 1990 episode of Tiny Toon Adventures titled "Buster and the Wolverine" featured Elmyra Duff providing narration for a story where Buster Bunny and his friends, represented with musical instruments, combat an evil "wolverine". In this episode, the characters' instruments are: Buster Bunny, a trumpet; Babs Bunny, a harp; Furrball, a violin; Sweetie Pie, a flute; Hamton J. Pig, a tuba; Plucky Duck, a bike horn (later, bagpipes, then an organ, and finally a synthesizer); and the wolverine, drums. ^[9]

Peter Schickele wrote an alternate, comedic text for the score entitled "Sneaky Pete and the Wolf". It was recorded with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 1993. ^[10]

In September 1996, Coldcut (a duo of scratch/mix djs from south London) released a scratch version of the main theme - included on the track "More Beats and Pieces", from their album "Let Us Play" (released by Ninja Tune). ^[11]

In 2001, National Public Radio produced Peter and the Wolf: A Special Report, which treats the familiar plot as if it were a developing news story. Robert Siegel, Linda Wertheimer, Ann Taylor, Steve Inskeep of NPR's All Things Considered report on the event against a performance of the score by the Virginia Symphony. ^[12]

Sesame Workshop produced a version with Sesame Street characters in 2001 as told by way of a trip to a Boston Pops concert. Dubbed as "Elmo's Musical Adventure," the story unfolds inside Baby Bear's imagination as he attends a performance with Papa Bear, conducted by Keith Lockhart. In the story, Peter is played by Elmo, the cat by Oscar the Grouch, the duck by Telly Monster, the bird by Zoe, the grandfather by Big Bird, and the hunters by the Two-Headed Monster. Each character is followed around by a soloist playing that character's instrument. ^[13]

In February 2004, Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Sophia Loren won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for narrating the Russian National Orchestra's album Peter and the Wolf/Wolf Tracks. This recording included Loren narrating Peter and the Wolf and Clinton narrating The Wolf and Peter by Jean-Pascal Beintus, which is also a narrated orchestral piece, but the story is told from the perspective of the wolf and has the theme of leaving animals to live in peace. ^[14]

In 2006, Neil Tobin produced a Halloween themed narrative called "Peter and the Werewolf" with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, John Lanchbery conducting. ^[15]

Also in 2006, Suzie Templeton directed a modernised, stop-motion animated adaptation, Peter and the Wolf. It is unusual in its lack of any dialogue or narration, the story being told purely in images and sound and interrupted by sustained periods of silence. The soundtrack is performed by The Philharmonia Orchestra, and the film received its premiere with a live accompaniment in the Royal Albert Hall.^[16] The film won the Annecy Cristal and the Audience Award at the 2007 Annecy International Animated Film Festival. [1] This version also makes some changes to the original Prokofiev story; for example:

• Peter bumps into one of the hunters who throws him in a garbage bin and aims at him with his rifle to scare him; the second hunter watches on not interfering (thus, a dislike towards the hunters is immediately created).
• The bird seems to have trouble flying and Peter ties a balloon to help the bird aloft.
• After Peter has captured the wolf in a net, the hunter gets him in his rifle's visor coincidentally, but just before shooting his fellow hunter stumbles, falls on him and makes him miss the shot.
• The wolf is brought into the village where Peter's grandfather tries to sell him. The hunter comes to the container and sticks his rifle in as to intimidate the animal (like he did with Peter earlier on). At that point Peter throws the net on the hunter who gets all tangled up.
• Before the grandfather has made a deal, Peter opens the container after exchanging glances with the wolf and they walk side-to-side through the crowd and then the wolf runs off in the direction of the silver moon.

Beatboxing flutist Greg Pattillo has created a memorable version.

References

1. ^ The Big Cartoon Database
2. ^ The New York Sun
3. ^ The Geoff Boxell Home Page
4. ^ Artist Direct
5. ^ Allmusic.com
6. ^ British Broadcasting Corporation
7. ^ Justin Locke Productions
8. ^ Wendy Carlos' official website
9. ^ Tiny Toon Adventures episode guide
10. ^ Peter Schickele official website
11. ^ The Boston Phoenix
12. ^ Public Radio Musicsource
13. ^ Elmo's Musical Adventure at Muppet Wiki
14. ^ Russian National Orchestra
15. ^ Neil Tobin, Necromancer
16. ^ Breakthru Films

External links

• Peter and the Wolf: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project.
• A list of the instruments and the story
• A comprehensive list of recordings, full and partial

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