Children’s Stories

FREDERICK’S FABLES

Notes by Michael Abels

Frederick’s Fables is the name of a collection of the most beloved children’s stories by renowned Caldecott Award-winning children’s author/illustrator Leo Lionni. The piece for narrator and orchestra was commissioned by the Plymouth Music Series of Minnesota (now Vocalessence) and its Artistic Director, Philip Brunelle. Brunelle had decided to approach legendary actor James Earl Jones to appear as a guest narrator at a concert. “What would you like to narrate?” Brunelle asked. Jones, whose voice had become synonymous with solemn, serious characters, said, “What I’d like to read are some children’s stories.” And so I was drawn to these stories by Leonni, which are rich with wisdom, charm, and musical possibilities.

In print, Lionni’s stories include his colorful illustrations, which definitely provided inspiration for the musical interludes. But much of this piece is written like the score to an unseen animated film — meaning that the music and the narration are often closely interwoven so that the story unfolds in both simultaneously. This approach makes the piece a great example for young listeners to hear how music depicts actions and emotions, and how effective music is at creating images in our imaginations.

Fables are stories that carry a lesson, or a deeper meaning. “Frederick” is a story about the importance of the arts in a society. “The Greentail Mouse” is a cautionary tale about overindulgence, or about the cost of losing sight of what’s truly important. “Theodore and the Talking Mushroom” is about the cost of lying to impress people. And “Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse” is about what someone is willing to do for a friend. I hope they bring your young people the same joy they brought to me when I set them to music.

GWENDOLYN BROOKS SETTINGS

Notes by Augusta Read Thomas

Music for me is an embrace of the world, a way to open myself to being alive in the world – in my body, in my sounds, and in my mind. I care deeply about musicality, imagination, craft, clarity, dimensionality, an elegant balance between material and form, and empathy with the performing musicians as well as everyone who works in the presenting organizations.

Gwendolyn Brooks Settings was composed between 2018 and 2020. Collaborating with the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, Stilian Kirov, conductor; Anima – Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus, Evan Bruno, artistic director, and William Buhr, accompanist; and The Chicago High School for the Arts, Charles Taylor, music director, and Andrew Lawrence, accompanist, has been an exhilarating experience. I am grateful to the many extraordinary colleagues who have made this partnership possible. The magnificence and energy of massed vocal and orchestral resources is humbling, inspiring, and exemplifies teamwork. 

I am deeply thankful to Cedille Records: James Ginsburg, president; Bill Maylone recording engineer; and the whole Cedille Records team for recording Gwendolyn Brooks Settings for wide release.

In 2018, Dr. Charles Sundquist, the former artistic director of Anima — Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus, generously proposed to me the idea of making a large-scale composition for chorus and orchestra that would set texts from Gwendolyn Brooks’ famous book, Bronzeville Girls and Boys.

Gwendolyn Brooks is a legendary literary icon. I love her work and was (and remain) thrilled by this opportunity to compose Gwendolyn Brooks Settings. By consent of Brooks Permissions, I was given formal permission to set and reprint Brooks’ inspiring words.

Across the 30-minute composition — formed in six parts performed without a pause, each lasting circa five minutes — the music, singers, and instrumental musicians paint sonic images of the texts’ deeper meanings. Each part, sub-section, and musical arc captures the aura of Brooks words.

Organic and, at every level, concerned with transformations and connections, the carefully sculpted, fashioned, and notated musical materials are agile and spirited. Their flexibility allows pathways to braid harmonic, rhythmic, timbral, and contrapuntal elements that are constantly transformed. The music traverses sound worlds that are energized, balletic, colorful, vibrant, reflective, playful, majestic, intimate, lyrical, layered, and overtly reverberating with cantabile, melodic resonance, pirouettes, and fulcrum points.

Music’s eternal quality is its capacity for change, transformation, and renewal. No one composer, musical style, school of thought, technical practice, or historical period can claim a monopoly on music’s truths. I believe music feeds our souls. Unbreakable is the power of art to build community. Humanity has worked, and will always work, together to further music’s flexible, diverse capacity and innate power.

Gwendolyn Brooks Settings was co-commissioned by Anima — Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus and the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra with partial support from Illinois Arts Council Agency and Illinois Humanities.