Peter and the Wolf: Catching a Horn Section by its Tail

A common factor among many working orchestral professionals is cyclical repertoire – music that comes up on a performance calendar more than once, sometimes on a yearly basis.

This time of year especially, musicians are looking ahead at a December calendar full of Nutcracker or Messiah or other holiday-related gigs.

Another regular staple that gets repeated – one that I never get tired of playing  – is Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf.  It is a regular feature of children’s concerts that I play – almost every year in one circumstance or another.

A ‘perfect’ piece for run-outs

For any orchestra manager that is looking at the bottom line, Peter and the Wolf represents a benefit on many levels:

• most musicians have played it before; so fewer rehearsals are needed
• it requires less musicians; a small chamber orchestra
• costs may be covered with grant money
• the choice of narrator can open avenues of goodwill

For musicians on the other hand, children’s and pops concerts can be a mixed experience: either one to enjoy or one to regret. The fortunate thing with Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf  is that the music is superbly written and it is something to really look forward to.

Prokofiev is one of my favorite composers and many of his trademark thumbprints appear in Peter and the Wolf: sparse orchestration, lots of interesting instrumental combinations, instruments playing in their low ranges and colorful harmonic quirks at the ends of phrases and cadences.

Deep layers

On the surface, the story of Peter and the Wolf  looks simple, but there are deeper layers worth looking into.

A recent production to watch for was presented on the American Public Broadcast System (PBS). The stop-motion style of animation is old-school and it lends an extra layer to an already deep story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5ppQw1SNFw

Low chords

In preparing for performances of Peter and the Wolf, a horn player needs to know a few things. First, the wolf theme is comprised of simple, root-based minor and major chords.

Second, the wolf theme starts in the low range. It is important to understand what your own tendencies are on each note and to balance this with what the chord tones require in order to be in tune.

This leads to the final point: a big part of the wolf’s appeal and character are these very low and ominous chords. They need to sound absolutely solid and scarily in tune. This is relatively easy to figure out and should be a primary concern for any player that is new to this piece or is looking for an answer to intonation problems.

The wolf gets angry

Later in the piece, the story comes to a final conflict.

Peter was a very brave young boy and he made a plan to rescue his friends. He ran home and got a rope, then he climbed the wall to reach a branch of the tree that was nearby. Peter climbed over the wall and onto the tree. Then he spoke to the bird, “Fly in circles around the wolf’s head – but be careful”.

The bird did what Peter told him. It made the wolf very angry and he tried to bite the bird, but could not catch him.

Peter made a lasso. The wolf was busy trying to catch the bird, so he didn’t see what Peter was doing. Peter reached down and caught the wolf’s tail in the lasso and pulled with all his strength. Then he tied the other end of the lasso to the tree. The wolf was trapped!

(More.)

A look at the Horn I part

At this point in the story the big bad Wolf realizes that his goose is finally cooked (and not just the live one in his tummy). In the first horn part this moment occurs on the third page.

This is my favorite passage in this piece. The wolf’s agitation is written out musically with jumping, grace notes figures and marcato chords. Four bars before 36 is one passage to point out in particular – it covers a fairly large two and one half octave range. All three horns play it together in unison.

The story goes on of course and the final page gives the principal horn lots to do: all-in-all Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf is a great piece to play. The horn parts, the great story, the masterful writing and orchestration all give us something to listen to and think about, even after repeated performances.

There are after all many questions to consider, including:

• What happened to the duck?