Fairytales and Vocal Music

[schneidersinger]

Hello! I'm looking for (preferably Italian, American, and British) vocal music inspired by fairy tales. This is for my senior recital, and pieces from operas are not allowed. Any advice is appreciated!

[Karl Henning]

What voice part?

An absolutely marvelous piece, seldom done in the West (if you can manage Russian) is Prokofiev's Ugly Duckling.

I have a piece setting a modern fairytale, The Mysterious Fruit (there is also a version for voice and piano):

http://www.youtube.com/v/7a7pFvJhfuc

[schneidersinger]

Thanks karlhenning! I'm a mezzo-soprano

[Karl Henning]

Perfect fit, then, if you like the piece 

[ritter]

It's in German, but Siegfried Wagner's Das Märchen vom dicken fetten Pfannekuchen uses a fairytale that apparently was widespread in Europe in the mid 19th century (a fairytale I must admit I had never heard about). There's a version for voice and piano, and one for voice and orchestra (both available on CD).

Here's a YouTube that includes an English translation of the text:

https://www.youtube.com/v/-8Z2tD1mmd0

[Spineur]

I am presently on holidays with only a smartphone, so my response will not have a whole lot of details:
- Robert Schumann was facinated by the universe of fairytales and wrote several composition on the subject.  I remember a CD "Robert Schumann et les contes de fées" for mezzo.  I am sure Bruce or Ritter can give you more details
- Ravel, Ma mère l'oye qualifies and isnt an opera
- Tchaikovsky "sleeping beauty" is a ballet and I have heared vocal arrangments
- how about Saint Saens carnaval des animaux
Best luck for your project

[Jo498]

I know the tale of the pancake... never encountered the musical setting. I think there are some Loewe Ballads with fairy tale like content (e.g. Die Heinzelmännchen), not sure if they are good for a mezzo...

http://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=9512

Schumann has a Ballad "Die feindlichen Brüder". Many of the German romantics were very fond of fairy tales, Schumann's Paradies und die Peri and Der Rose Pilgerfahrt have fairy style subjects, then there are the operas by Humperdinck and also Siegfried Wagner, one or two by Pfitzner.

[Wanderer]

Excellent suggestions so far. May I suggest you also take a look at Medtner's lieder. He wrote more than 100 songs and several of them have fairytale/folkloristic subjects (e.g. op.6/3 "Elfenliedchen" or op.18/1-3).

http://www.youtube.com/v/sUsW2-9oQ0I

The ultimate tour de force would be the astounding but almost never performed Sonata-Vocalise. It starts as a lied with a setting of Goethe's Geweihter Platz and continues as a vocalise sonata for voice and piano.

http://www.youtube.com/v/QZcNm2yGYck

[The new erato]

 Bjarne Brustad: Eventyrsuite for solo violin.

Here on youtube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rRXSMYa8J9I

Not very vocal I know, but a chance to promote some fine Norwegian music.

[Jo498]

If allusions to elves and similar stuff are enough, there is plenty to chose from. As I said, Loewe has lots of ballads based on legends and folk tales (although they are more often sung by baritones or basses).

One of the better known Mendelssohn songs op.19/4 "Neue Liebe" has elvish bells tingling atmospherically:

In dem Mondenschein im Walde
Sah ich jüngst die Elfen reiten,
Ihre Hörner hört ich klingen,
Ihre Glöcklein hört ich läuten.

[schneidersinger]

Thank you everyone! Before I found this forum I actually had too many German pieces to pick from, and no Italian and barely any American/British pieces. If anyone knows of any in those languages, that would be amazing!