Peter and the Wolf and the Orchestra

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Written By Edward Wolfe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2QIzHA3hVE&t=43s

Children and adults alike have delighted in the children's theater composition, Peter and the Wolf (1936), by Russian composer Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953).  The composer set each character in the story to a particular instrument or group of instruments: Peter is the string orchestra, the bird is the flute, the wolf is the french horn ensemble and so on.  So in addition to enjoying a delightful tale about the boy and his animal friends capturing the threatening wolf, children (and adults) can learn to recognize the sounds of the instruments. 

The story is subtly subversive toward authority (Grandpapa, the bassoon), although whether the authority is the old Czarist regime or the communist government currently ruling Russia at the time of the piece's composition, or some other authority, I'm not sure.  Subversive children's stories are more common than we might think.  Other children's stories with a subtle, subversive message are Where the Wild Things Are, The Red Balloon, The Story of Ferdinand, The Lorax, and Curious George. 

I like the recording of Peter and the Wolf  by the Vancouver Symphony because the conductor, Bramwell Tovey supplies the narration and because we can hear the audience's reaction to his somewhat flamboyant telling of the story.  It's worth the 29-minute listen--and it's worth inviting any children in one's life to listen along. 

The piece makes a wonderful companion to Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. 

Next post: Charlotte and Jonathan fabulous teen-age singers

Edward Wolfe

Edward Wolfe has been a fan of Christian apologetics since his teenage years, when he began seriously to question the truth of the Bible and the reality of Jesus. About twenty years ago, he started noticing that Christian evidences roughly fell into five categories, the five featured on this website.
Although much of his professional life has been in Christian circles (12 years on the faculties of Pacific Christian College, now a part of Hope International University, and Manhattan Christian College and also 12 years at First Christian Church of Tempe), much of his professional life has been in public institutions (4 years at the University of Colorado and 19 years at Tempe Preparatory Academy).
His formal academic preparation has been in the field of music. His bachelor degree was in Church Music with a minor in Bible where he studied with Roger Koerner, Sue Magnusson, Russel Squire, and John Rowe; his master’s was in Choral Conducting where he studied with Howard Swan, Gordon Paine, and Roger Ardrey; and his doctorate was in Piano Performance, Pedagogy, and Literature, where he also studied group dynamics, humanistic psychology, and Gestalt theory with Guy Duckworth.
He and his wife Louise have four grown children and six grandchildren.

https://WolfeMusicEd.com
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