Musical Terrors

As a child growing up in Lisle, Illinois, there were a handful of (classical) pieces that certifiably scared the hell out of me: one, from John Williams’ score for “Close Encounters” (“Barry’s Kidnapping”), is used beneath the scene of a boy snatched by aliens; another was Saint-Saens’ gothic waltz “Danse Macabre” which I enjoy today, with; the third (and worst) being Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and The Wolf.”

The version of “Peter” thrust on me by my mother (who maddeningly insisted I listen again and again despite protests that it bothered me) featured ominous narration by Leonard Bernstein, and followed Prokofiev’s musical children’s tale of a farmboy and his animal allies’ battle with a blood-thirsty wolf.

Cleverly, Prokofiev organizes the story with each character represented by a musical theme and/or instrument – a detail which my adult mind can now appreciate. Yet in the theatre of my wild boyhood imagination, “Peter” injected a parade of terrible images into my head – the worst (besides the wolf’s first appearance, skulking out of the woods like a nightmare) being the story’s little duck who bleats helplessly in the wolf’s gullet after being swallowed alive (in the animated Disney version of “Peter,” the duck—wearing a little fur hat—is okay in the end).

I know the duck isn’t real, but still, that is a fucking cold image for Prokofiev to end the story with.

Ten rubles says he hated kids.

Nevertheless, today I ran across the following on Amazon UK – a new stop-motion animated version of “Peter” by British filmmaker Suzie Templeton which has become available. It looks impressive as hell. In fact, I placed an order for the film (which runs just under 30 minutes) right away, and—in my mind—carries a feeling of anime-style drama.

I’ll post a review when the film arrives, but in the meantime, you can watch an excerpt from Templeton’s “Peter” below on the usual site for shared video.

Spaceeba.