Peter and the Wolf
Peter and the Wolf is a composition by Sergei Prokofiev written after his return to Russia in 1936. It is a children's story (also written by Prokofiev) spoken by a narrator accompanied by the orchestra.
Stalin had ordered that art had to be reflective of the Communist ideal and that music had to be simple and understandable. Prokofiev, a child prodigy and enfant terrible, probably wrote this piece with tongue-in-cheek. Nevertheless it has been a great success with not only children everywhere, but also with adults.
Instrumentation
Peter and the Wolf is scored for flute, oboe, clarinet (in A), bassoon, 3 horns, trumpet, trombone, timpani, triangle, tambourine, cymbals, castanets, snare drum, bass drum, and strings. Each character in the story has a particular instrument and a musical theme:
- Bird - Flute
- Duck - Oboe
- Cat - Clarinet
- Grandfather - Bassoon
- Wolf - 3 French Horns
- Hunters (gunshots) - Timpani and Bass Drum (The hunters' theme is actually introduced by the woodwinds)
- Peter - Strings
Related works
Walt Disney produced an animated version of the work in 1946, with Sterling Holloway providing the voice of the narrator. This version makes small changes to the original Prokofiev story, particularly in providing names for the characters -- Sasha the bird, Sonia the duck, and Ivan the cat, for instance. It was released theatrically as a segment in Make Mine Music, then separately on home video in the 1990s on.
Allan Sherman parodied the work in a 1964 album called Peter and the Commissar, made with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra.
"Weird Al" Yankovic and Wendy Carlos produced a comedic version in 1988, using a synthesized orchestra and many additions to the story and music. (Peter captures the wolf using his grandfather's dental floss, leading to the moral of the story, "Brush and floss your teeth every day.")
In February 2004, Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Sophia Loren won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for narrating the Russian National Orchestra's album Peter and the Wolf/Wolf Tracks.