Clavier Companion - January/February 2012 - 32

Another intermediate piece is Edward MacDowell’s (18601908) “Sung Outside the Prince’s Door” from Forgotten Fairy Tales, Op. 4, No. 1. This piece was published under MacDowell’s pseudonym, Edgar Thorn. MacDowell did not specify a source for this piece, but it may have been a Celtic tale entitled “The Brown Bear of Norway.” Written in G-flat major, this piece is in three-part form. MacDowell’s instructions provide imagery that may help a student interpret the story. Where the composer has written “softly, wistfully,” a princess may be singing (see Excerpt 2). In another section, MacDowell indicates “pleadingly,” possibly to refer to the princess imploring her husband, both a prince and an enchanted bear in the story, to remember her. Five measures before the end, MacDowell preempts the final cadence by inserting a measure rest with a fermata. This may be regarded as a resignation that the prince is not going to awaken to hear the princess’s song and that her plea has failed. Following, there is a pianissimo coda.
Excerpt 2: MacDowell: “Sung Outside the Prince’s Door,” from Forgotten Fairy Tales, Op. 4, No. 1, mm. 1-6.

other supernatural beings or animals with human traits. Animal stories of fables are part of every culture and one of the most popular and endearing examples is Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. “Morning Song in the Jungle” is piece No. 4 in Cyril Scott’s (1879-1970) Impressions from The Jungle Book. It is in three-part form and includes changing meters. This may not be a piece for small hands—the principal theme in the right hand is presented in octaves, while the left hand contains stretches up to a tenth. “Morning Song” is restful, relating to preparation for sleep, since the animals, after hunting at night, are going “to lair,” as described in Kipling’s Second Jungle Book (see Excerpt 3).
Excerpt 3: Scott: “Morning Song in the Jungle,” from Impressions from The Jungle Book, mm. 1-9.

The story has a happy ending after the princess sees to it that her husband is not given a sleeping potion. He hears her song, and is eventually reunited with his family. Fairy tales do not necessarily contain fairies. They may contain

Additional Fairy Tale Pieces
Debussy: “What the West Wind Saw,” “Puck’s Dance,” and “The Fairies are Exquisite Dancers” from Preludes, Books I and II. Grieg: “Puck,” “March of the Dwarfs,” “Dance of the Elves,” and “Wedding Day at Troldhaugen” from Lyric Pieces. Kabalevsky: “A Little Fable” and “Fairy Tale” from Thirty Children’s Pieces, Op. 27. Liszt: “Gnomemreigen” from Two Concert Etudes, S145. Mussorgsky: “Gnomes” and “The Hut on Fowl’s Legs” from Pictures at an Exhibition. Prokofiev: Tales of the Old Grandmother, Op. 31. Ravel: “Scarbo” from Gaspard de la Nuit. Schumann: Kreisleriana, Op. 16; Fantasiestücke, Op. 12 and Op. 111; Nachstücke, Op. 23; “ The Elf ” from Albumblätter, Op. 124, No. 7. Seeger, Ruth Crawford: The Adventures of Tom Thumb (six pieces for piano and narrator). Stravinsky, Soulima. “Cinderella,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” and “The Sleeping Beauty” from Three Fairy Tales.

Another popular work about animals is Jean de Brunhoff ’s series of French children’s books about Babar the Elephant. This series, begun in 1933, was continued by the author’s son, Laurent de Brunhoff. One day in 1940, a young cousin put Jean de Brunhoff ’s story on the piano and asked Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) to play it. He obliged, but he didn’t write down the result. He only notated the piece five years later, when the same cousin repeated her request! Poulenc’s The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant was originally written for narrator and piano, and it was later orchestrated by Jean Françaix. It is a moderately difficult work in thirteen movements. Ravel’s (1875-1937) Mother Goose Suite for piano duet was originally written for Jean and Mimi Godebski, children of friends, but this piece did not succeed in motivating the girls to practice, as Ravel had intended. Instead, its premiere performance was given by two students at the Paris Conservatoire: Christine Verger, age six, and Germaine Duramy, age ten. One of the pieces, “Pavane for a Sleeping Beauty,” does not possess technical problems and is appropriate for intermediate students with good interpretative skills (see Excerpt 4).
Excerpt 4: Ravel: “Pavane for a Sleeping Beauty,” from Mother Goose Suite, mm. 1-4, Secondo.

Rachmaninoff ’s (1873-1943) “The Tale of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf,” from Etudes-Tableaux (Study Pictures), and Nickolai Medtner’s (1880-1951) Fairy Tales are examples of fairy tale-inspired pieces that are not necessarily to be played by children. Rachmaninoff ’s Etude-Tableau, Op. 39, No. 6, was inspired by the Tale of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, but this was not
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012

CLAVIER COMPANION

Clavier Companion - January/February 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clavier Companion - January/February 2012