Year of the Rat Music Project

What do Mikhail Gorbachev, David Bowie, Bill Clinton, Sting, Sophia Loren and Patrick Stewart have in common? “Peter and the Wolf!”

In case you happened to miss the newest version of “Peter and the Wolf” airing on PBS the other night, here’s a little video showing the making of it, or if you prefer, you can click on this link to go to a clip.

Unfortunately, I haven’t yet been able to find a full video of this amazing, Oscar winning short. But I thought I’d take this opportunity to gush a little bit on one of my favorite music pieces.

“Peter and the Wolf” has an illustrious history. Written in 1936 by Sergei Prokofiev in just one week, the piece features both a narrator and musical parts, with different instruments representing each of the different character in the story (the cat is the clarinet, Peter is represented by the string section, etc.). The characters are also personified with their own melodies, Peter’s melody is upbeat and hopeful, the bird’s flute song sounds like, well, a singing bird. And when multiple characters are in a scene, for example when the cat tries to eat the bird, their instruments and their melodies interact. By tying the music to a story, and each of the instruments to a character, “Peter and the Wolf” teaches children to identify different orchestral instruments and parse them out from a larger piece of music.

The story is about Peter (duh) who leaves the gate open one day, which the Duck takes as an opportunity to go swimming in the pond. Various shenanigans occur with his animal friends until the wolf emerges and eats the duck, whole and alive. Peter then catches the wolf and is celebrated as a hero.

Since then it has reappeared in a number of different versions with a host of celebrities lending their talents. In 1946, Disney made an animated version which appeared before “Fantasia.” This version was slightly more kid friendly, the duck is chased by the wolf and presumed eaten, until he emerges at the end after the wolf is caught. Joy ensues.

Since then versions have been recorded narrated by David Bowie, Sean Connery, Sting, Patrick Stewart and Alec Guinness aka Obi-Wan Kenobi. There’s just something about this piece that attracts British actors famous for playing fantasy roles.

Tiny Toons even did a version of it called “Buster and the Wolverine”

But perhaps the most impressive take of “Peter and the Wolf” is “Peter and the Wolf/Wolf Tracks” which features Sophia Loren narrating “Peter and the Wolf”, Bill Clinton narrating “Wolf Tracks” and Mikhail Gorbachev reading the introduction and epilogue. “Wolf Tracks” features Peter’s grandson hoping to catch a wolf of his own, in the end, little Peter learns that it is important to protect and preserve the wolf’s habitat.

I’m glad that “Peter and the Wolf” is being popularized for a new generation, but I have to admit, I feel a little uncomfortable with the adapting “Peter and the Wolf” to a political message, even if it is something as positive has preserving natural habitats. The original piece’s only real moral was “wolves are dangerous.” When children’s stories are given a political slant, especially overtly, it tends to come with a certain amount of down-talking, which adults love and children detest.

For more on Peter and the Wolf, try this essay or its excellent Wikipedia page.