Abstract
Exploring the interaction between picture books and the fine arts is a specialized project but a comparison of different ways of telling can be surprisingly informative. I set out to investigate stories told with music not narrative songs in which words and music are blended, not film in which the music augments the emotional impact of one plot development or another, not opera in which the music provides the major narrative impetus, but stories primarily based on words in which the music is woven as a part of the narrative.
Highlights
Exploring the interaction between picture books and the fine arts is a specialized project but a comparison of different ways of telling can be surprisingly informative
Two examples will feed my analysis: Peter and the Wolf by Serge Prokofiev and Beethoven Lives Upstairs written by Barbara Nichol
Both these stories first appeared in audio form and were later reincarnated as picture books
Summary
Exploring the interaction between picture books and the fine arts is a specialized project but a comparison of different ways of telling can be surprisingly informative. Peter and the Wolf was written to make children familiar with instruments of the orchestra and Beethoven Lives Upstairs uses story to sweeten a biographical pill, telling many important details of the life of Beethoven through the fictional voice of his landlady's young son. When the music is an integral part of the story, some other elements are necessarily involved as well Such a story is always voiced; it is really very difficult to envisage a silent reading with appropriate orchestral interventions. We listen forward; the pause button cancels the music Such a definitive ingredient in the artistic mix has its own effect on the final experience. Two examples of titles where this has happened may offer some illumination on the processes involved in such adaptation
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