Fairytales and music

[Ciel_Rouge]

In Tchaikovsky alone, there are Sugar Plum Fairy, Lilac Fairy, Sleeping Beauty etc., Dvorak had Rusalka and Prokofiev his Cinderella. I wonder if there are more classical pieces that were inspired by fairytales.

[secondwind]

Probably lots of pieces.  Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel comes to mind immediately.  And Schumann wrote a set of  Marchenerzalungen, or "Fairy Tales", for clarinet, viola, and piano.

[Ciel_Rouge]

I was hoping to find more pieces apart from the most famous ones. But I guess I do not know all major pieces either. And how about preferences? Do you have any favourite fairytale-themed pieces?

[jochanaan]

Russians in the 19th century seem to have loved fairy tales.  Most of Rimsky-Korsakov's operas seem to be based on them, and Stravinsky's Firebird is based on an old Russian legend.

Among Humperdinck's other stage works are The Seven Little Kids, Sleeping Beauty, and The Christmas Dream.  Rossini also wrote an opera based on the Cinderella story, La Cenerentola.  And I believe that Schubert's song Erlkönig is based on a German fairy tale.

(If you're interested in fairy tales, there's a new series of books written by contemporary authors that aims to restore all the original darkness and sensuality that were lost when the Grimms, Charles Perreault and others edited them for children.  I just read Tanith Lee's White As Snow, one of the series, and it's a weird and wonderful retelling, definitely NOT edited for children. )

[stlukesguild]

Szymanowski's Songs of a Fairy-Tale Princess, Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain, David Lang's The Little Match Girl Passion, Richard Strauss- Die Frau Ohne Schatten, Prokofiev- The Love of the Three Oranges, Rimsky-Korsakov- Tsar Saltan, The Golden Cockerel, Stravinsky- The Firebird, Petrushka,...

[Grazioso]

All inspired by fairy-tales or folklore: Zemlinsky's Die Seejunfrau (The Mermaid, after Hans Christian Andersen), Liadov's Baba Yaga etc., Novak's Toman and the Wood Nymph, Dvorak's The Water Goblin, The Noon Witch, The Golden Spinning Wheel, and The Wild Dove.

Made to order:



http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.226047

And I believe that Schubert's song Erlkönig is based on a German fairy tale.

The poem is by Goethe, based on a Danish folk tale.

[Gabriel]

Pohádka by Josef Suk, which sounds really as a fairy-tale.

[Grazioso]

Pohádka by Josef Suk, which sounds really as a fairy-tale.

A delightful piece. Janacek wrote an unrelated Pohádka (i.e., fairy tale) for cello and piano.

[Opus106]

If you're interested in fairy tales, there's a new series of books written by contemporary authors that aims to restore all the original darkness and sensuality that were lost when the Grimms, Charles Perreault and others edited them for children.  I just read Tanith Lee's White As Snow, one of the series, and it's a weird and wonderful retelling, definitely NOT edited for children.

Woah! HIP fairy tales. I need to read those! (We should actually call them pHIL -- which stands for pseudo-Historically-Informed Literature.)

But seriously, I thank you for that tangential comment. I didn't know that the fairly tales as we know them now were actually stories edited to be suitable for children.

[karlhenning]

Well, not all fairies are family-friendly, of course.

[pjme]

Maurice Ravel : Ma mère l'oye ( but go for the complete ballet!)

Bartok's short opera Duke Bluebeard's castle is a great example of how "grown up" a fairy tale can be. Another Bartok fairy tale : the superb Cantata profana!
Zoltan kodaly : Hary Janos





Barbe bleu - exquisitely drawn by Gustave Doré!

[pjme]

Le petit poucet ( Perrault/Ravel)

Dukas : La Péri

[Sorin Eushayson]

The first piece that came to my mind when I saw this topic title was Mahler's cantata, 'Das klagende Lied' ('Song of Lamentation'), which sets the Brothers Grimm story, 'Der singende Knochen' ('The Singing Bones'), to music.  As has already been noted above, these German fairy tales are quite dark; this one in particular involves one brother murdering the other and the deceased's bones being fashioned into a rather cryptic flute by a minstrel which, by playing it, causes a castle to collapse.  The Germans would tell this to their kids - talk about not sheltering your children!  

[jochanaan]

Oh, and how have we all forgotten Schoenberg's Gurrelieder until now?

[matti]

Oh, and how have we all forgotten Schoenberg's Gurrelieder until now?

Or Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.

[matti]

We have forgotten Peter and the Wolf!

[matti]

Don't forget Peter and the Wolf.

[pjme]

By Le roi Igor :

[Joe Barron]

I've always wondered why Nielsen never did anything with Hans Christian Andersen. Two Danish national treasures seems a natural combination. Actually, I've never wondered about it. It struck me as odd just now.

[karlhenning]

OTOH, there is Nielsen's incidental music to Aladdin.