Fairytale Melodies

Certain traits of childhood, especially those inspired by the concealed meanings of fairytales, often intrigue musicians, for it is through exploring this particular environment that they get the opportunity to closely encounter characters and places dwelling in our most ancient and wild fantasies. Thus, the melodies echo the voices that come from within, be they loud or unspoken. Such voices tell tales of princes and princesses, of heroic challanges, witchcrafts, streetgames and speaking animals. These calls appear to come from times set well back in the past, way before the mastering of the art of writing made its everlasting impression and the rules of tradition were handed down to the future generations only by word of mouth. Both children and grown-ups cannot keep at bay the charm lavished on them by such memories, which have slowly and relentlessly acted upon their personalities and have become part of their own lives. Duo Clavier and actor Ivano Marescotti have devised their enterprising work Fairytale Melodies (Suoni da Favola) by drawing new ideas from these tales and from the musical medleys related to them. Therefore, in this two section performance the loud reading of the actor melts harmoniously with the notes of four hand piano music. The outcome of it all is a tribute to the delightful sounds and the magic atmosphere which sorrounded streetsingers and storytellers roaming about in distant times.

The Magic Garden (Il Giardino Incantato) is a musical tale on the notes composed by Fauré, Bizet and also inspired by Ravel’s Ma Mère l’Oye, which bears the same title as Charles Perrault’s collection of fairytales. Paolo Dirani is the author of the script:  music evokes the characters of the best loved fairytales, wakes them up, makes them meet  in movie-set fashion. Little Thumb, the Prince and the Princess, the Beauty and the Beast, for instance, quit their traditional roles and get together in the magic garden, where they begin to rock on Bizet’s swing on their way to the next fairytale.

Peter and the Wolf written by Sergej Prokofiev in 1936 is the well known fairytale where the characters of the author imagination are described through special musical arrangements. In this instance, the artistic revision of the Russian composer’s work lies on the choice to play four hand piano the melodies originally intended for a full orchestra. The composer Leslie Howard wrote this transcription; it follows and moves along with the story of Pìrèta e è Lòpp. Pìrèta is Peter as he is called in Romagna, in Villanova di Bagnacavallo to be precise, Ivano Marescotti hometown. The actor has used the dialect spoken in his native little village to adjust to the original text. The fairytale springs to brand new life: the audience is brought within the bounds of  homely atmosphere through freshness of style and the colourful expressions of countryfolk’s spoken language.

Prokofiev found his musical inspiration in his own written words, whereas The Magic Garden spurts out from the scores of famous French composers. A role game, a double step towards a magic spell once again. Fairytale Melodies has been published by Pendragon both in book and cd forms.