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GAVIN FRIDAY
Everyone knows Prokofiev's Peter & The Wolf ...You may never
had heard of Prokofiev or have ever listened to his story
about a little boy catching a wolf ...but I can assure you
when you hear Peter's theme, you will know it ... it is oh
so familiar like a smell you haven't been exposed to in a
long time ...or an old childhood friend you haven't seen in
years...
A couple of years ago I was approached by the Irish Hospice
Foundation to take part in a classical charity event entitled
'Con Anima'. With the orchestra of the Royal Irish Academy
of Music, I narrated Prokofiev's Peter & The Wolf live in
Dublin Castle on the 21st November 2000. The performance was
a great success and afterwards there was talk of the possibility
of one day recording an interpretation of the work for the
Irish Hospice Foundation.
In the early summer of last year, my long-time musical collaborator
Maurice Seezer and I decided to tackle our own version of
the Prokofiev classic, a difficult task as both of us have
very fond childhood memories of this musical fairy tale. We
decided not to go the orchestral route with it as it had been
done so many times this way, and yet despite this we wanted
to stick to Prokofiev's original intentions ...which was to
introduce children (and adults) to the instruments of the
orchestra. We ousted the orchestra in favour of a small Ensemble...using
musicians familiar with the worlds of classical music, jazz
and rock. More importantly we wanted to create something magical
...a world where both children and adults could get lost...
a world full of gothic fairytale madness, tongue in cheek
humour whilst tipping our hat to the genius and beauty of
the music. We used Banjo, Accordion, Mandolin, Cello, Percussion,
Bass Clarinet, Flute, Piccolo, Piano and Double Bass ...a
wonderful pot pourri of instruments...and over 3 to 4 days
we all got lost in the music ...something special happened
...we were no longer musicians but sly, sexy pussycats, evil
wolves, pretty birds, stupid ducks...
IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE WOODS TODAY YOU'RE IN FOR A BIG SURPRISE...
Gavin Friday
MAURICE SEEZER
The creative person remains a big child to the end of
his days, and if he loses his ability to communicate directly
with universal feelings then he is no longer an artist
(Stanislavsky)
I first started working with Gavin about sixteen
years ago. I rarely get to see him perform. I'm usually the
guy playing the piano watching his back, so when I had the
opportunity of sitting in the audience to witness a performance
of Peter & The Wolf with Gavin narrating a few years back,
I had to be there. Gavin made it his own that night. What
struck me, though, was how simple it sounded and yet how fresh
and complex the writing and orchestration. Prokofiev's genius
with "Peter…" was to appeal on many different levels, the
most obvious being it's appeal to both adult and child, but
it also works on both commercial and artistic levels while
having that simple/complex conundrum at it's heart. Ask any
flute player what's it's like to play the part of the little
bird and the initial smile may not linger too long! It was
this seeming simplicity that inspired Gavin and I to go down
a folksier road with this recorded version, that and the ability
of each one of the musicians to "play" with the sound of their
instruments. We adapted from the score, strayed a little from
the forest path, and the result, while staying true to what
we think Prokofiev intended (with the obvious exception of
the instrumentation), tries to tease out both the humour and
the menace within. Why did we change the instrumentation?
To take the focus off the "instruments of the orchestra" millstone
and to appreciate afresh the beauty of the melodies and the
arrangements played by such non-orchestral instruments as
the accordion, the banjo and the mandolin. If this seems presumptuous,
all I can say is we had a lot of fun doing it, and we hope
that this comes through in the performance.
Maurice Seezer
BONO
I remember standing with my head just below the level of the
black and tobacco keys of my Granny's piano. I could reach
them but I couldn't see them. I could hear the hammer hit
the string & bone machine but I didn't know why, having hit
one ivory, I could hear a sort of rhyme for it in my head,
leading me through the din and clangour of choices to a melody.
I knew then that music was a playground that for the rest
of my life I would be chasing in.
Only problem was they sold the piano. I lost the argument
to bring it to our house in Ballymun. I wanted to learn how
to play the melodies I heard in my head. Poor Bono. No, poor
you as it turns out. Everyone was going to pay for this …
everyone was going to have to listen to me … Revenge like
this takes a lifetime…
Revenge … on my father, a beautiful tenor who conducted our
stereo with knitting needles, who never even imagined music
might be handed down through the DNA like his bad back and
bad temper … and so never bothered to bother us about learning
an instrument. And revenge on music education, which teaches
children to imitate rather than create. It's good to know
the voice of the masters but not to have yours drowned out.
Peter and the Wolf is a lesson in how to teach. This
is a new version of the Prokofiev classic by two of my favourite
people and musicians, Gavin Friday and Maurice Seezer. It
is for Hospice Care . . .these angels who were so ready to
look after my father in his losing fight with cancer asked
me to illustrate the book that accompanies the music. Ciaran
O'Goara was art director and guide. I asked my girls Jordan
and Eve to help me with detail and a filigree of flowers.
I painted myself in a corner as PETER. My Da we made the grandfather,
as he was to Jordan and Eve, my two daughters who loved and
were loved by him. THE WOLF was ambition for things just out
of reach.
Bono
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