The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - original soundtrack by Mychael & Jeff Danna - CD review . Excerpt: "...they’ve wrapped it into a seemingly traditional fairytale score sound of tinkerbells, lilting violins, soaring symphonies and Eastern European instruments. Except musically here it’s a sexy, LSD-influenced Grimm’s fable, preying on adult precepts of what “fairy tale” music is supposed to sound like..."
Asian Folk and Fairy Tales Told by Christine Price (1973 LP) (Album cover pics + download link for the audio: three stories from the album - 1. The Valiant Chattee Maker 2. The Boy Who Drew Cats 3. The Great Stone Fire Eater)
Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" is finally opening Friday (December 11th, 2009) and the 'pre-buzz' (from all those who are managing to get into the exclusive previews) is excellent from many different quarters.Here's a little treat, especially if you love New Orleans-type jazz and zydeco (albeit rather Disney-fied). Disney has released the soundtrack to listen to online (for free).
A heads up: it opens a Windows Media Player so don't be alarmed when it pops up. And a warning: the music clip opens with the contemporary song Disney seems to feel compelled to include for their end credits (and contemporary tie-in). I couldn't fast forward past it to the actual screen tracks but hang in there. If you enjoy jazz you should find some pieces you'll enjoy, especially if you like Randy Newman's music. You can see a track listing with some other details HERE.
I found this great little article today title "Spooktakular Sonic Surprises" by the Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and, not only did it have a number of pieces I thought extremely appropriate for fairy tale enthusiasts, readers, listeners and writers, but it made me think of a few of my own.
Rather than repeat telling you about the pieces he lists I'll just list them, add a clip courtesy of YouTube and link you to his fun and very readable article. You'll be able to see the others on the list too - all of which will give you an excellent audio selection, Halloween-style, for your ears. :)
The pieces on his list I thought most appropriate for fairy tale people and stories are:
The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack by Danny Elfman (I couldn't find the music without the vocals but it's fabulous, even without the voices)
Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saens
Baba Yaga - The Hut on Fowls' Legs (from "Pictures at an Exhibition") by Modest Mussorkgsky
Funeral March of a Marionette by Charles Gounod (you probably know this piece, even if you don't know the title. I love this one!) I found a darling little stop-motion animation for Funeral March of a Marionette which I thought I'd share:
You can read the short explanations about each, and the rest of the article, HERE.
And here are my additions (off the top of my head - I planned on researching more for you but Halloween duties called sorry!):
In the Hall of the Mountain King (from Peer Gynt) by Edvard Grieg I love Ibsen's Peer Gynt tale (which was actually a play)! It's another suite of music I was exposed to as a young child and I didn't need to be told the story to imagine it. You can hear what's happening just by listening. I wasn't surprised to see Wikipedia mention it being used for Halloween concerts - it was the first piece that came to mind. (I apologize the first notes are cut off - it's the best [straight] played I could find where you could actually hear everything happening. It also goes into the next processional piece which I can't remember the name of sorry.)
L'apprenti sorcier (The Sorcerer's Apprentice) by Paul Dukas I loved this piece and the Goethe story it was based on well before I saw it used in Fantasia. Magical brooms ahead!
The Corpse Bride Theme (combining some pieces from the soundtrack) by Danny Elfman and John August It feels like an air of death or mourning haunts a few of these pieces yet still has a fantastical and hopeful air- especially that lovely piano solo
Midnight from Cinderella(Music for Ballet) by Sergei Prokofiev Ok - I admit I'm a huge Prokofiev fan (His Romeo & Juliet is my favorite) but all those (what I think of as) malevolent notes through the suites and the (what I like too call) "musical resistance" to Cinderella making it away from the ball on time? Delicious for suspense!
Aaaand I have to add another Russian piece: from Stravinsky's Firebird, The Infernal Dance of Kashchei. There are quite a few darker pieces from The Firebird suite but this one definitely fits the fairy-tale-Halloween bill on a number of levels. I found this piece conducted by Stravinsky himself and couldn't resist adding it for you.
That's about all I can think of without pulling out my CDs or doing some research but know I've probably forgotten some obvious ones. If you have fairy tale music favorites that you think would be a great addition to the Halloween playlist here, feel free to chime in!
This is the second episode of five coming your way, of my new short story "CAGES".
Click on the image to go to Supernatural Fairy Tales and listen to the podcast (with me reading and wonderful music by steampunk band Abney Park) and/or read the text (with some related pics).
Enjoy!Thanks again to Dorlana Vann for this opportunity. You can follow her on Twitter and get all the latest Supernatural Fairy Tale updates HERE.
There's a new special short series podcast dropping today - August 1st - at "Supernatural Fairy Tales" - and it's a Steampunk retelling of a Grimm's fairy tale - by me!
Dorlana Vann was kind enough to invite me to write a short story for her site and it's turned into an exciting mini-production, being presented in five weekly parts during the month of August in both text and as a podcast.
The title of the story is:
"Cages: A Steampunk Retelling of Grimm's Jorinde & Joringel in V Parts with Epilogue"
In case you're not familiar with the fairy tale you can read it HERE (and thank you to Heidi at SurLaLune for making this a readily available online reference for me to check when I didn't have my complete Grimm's handy!)
I also managed to secure permission from Steampunk band Abney Park to use some of their music in the podcast, one song in particular being perfect thematically. Many thanks to them for their generosity in sharing their fabulous music. You can check out their website HERE.I'll also be making a PDF of the complete story available for free download and distribution at the end of the series, so watch out for that.
Lots of steampunk fairy tale goodness coming your way!
