# Music with Narration



## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

I was just looking for a good recording of Prokofiev's _Peter and the Wolf_ and it got me thinking about how important it is to other people who is narrating (or, if they're unknown to you, just what their voice sounds like). For some pieces, like Vaughan Williams' _Sinfonia Antarctica_, I'd probably play it without the narration, seeing as it doesn't overlap with the music, but this isn't true of the Prokofiev. Then, I stumbled upon a recording with Christopher Lee as narrator, whose voice I adore, and thought it was perfect! In that case, the narrator's voice was more important than the orchestra's performance (which is thankfully still a good one).


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## sara (Jan 11, 2010)

Hey Polednice, yesterday I heard this recording conducted and narrated by Leonard Bernstein:

http://www.amazon.com/Childrens-Classics-Prokofiev-Saint-Saens-Orchestra/dp/B0000062CZ

It includes not only Peter and the Wolf but also and Saint-Saens 'Carnival of the Animals' and Britten's 'Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra' (this is not narrated by Bernstein).

A great listen especially since Bernstein gives his opinions not only about the pieces and stories behind why the pieces were written, he also praises some of the young musicians playing on the recording of 'Carnival'. It's sort of like a conductors commentary.

If you haven't heard it before you should definitely check it out.


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## Rondo (Jul 11, 2007)

Personally, I prefer a recording without the narration. However, if narration is what you prefer, the one single recording of Peter and the Wolf I've probably heard the most about is the Ormandy/Philadelphia recording. 

If you are so interested, there are a great number of works out there (aside from opera, of course) which have plain-speaking intervals within the music. Probably two of my favorites are Copland's Lincoln Portrait and Schoenberg's Survivor from Warsaw. If you haven't already, give those two a try.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

My favorite piece with narration is still Tobias Picker's _The Encantadas, for narrator & orchestra_ with Sir John Gielgud. Brief excerpts available here, well worth checking out:
http://www.amazon.com/Picker-Old-Lo...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1264040243&sr=8-1

I know you guys are going to get tired of my championing this work, but it fits the bill of having the voice becoming more important than the other instruments in the overall composition. Sir John was a riveting speaker.


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## shsherm (Jan 24, 2008)

Don't forget "A Lincoln Portrait" by Aaron Copland. This music is frequently performed especially in the US. I heard "Peter And The Wolf" as a child in the late 1940s and know that this music helped kindle my interest in Classical music.


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## Edward Elgar (Mar 22, 2006)

I was in a youth orchestra about 2 years ago, we played The Snowman by Howard Blake. We spent many months rehersing it, many labourious hours perfecting it and then, in the concert, what happens? Some dumb-*** talks over the entire orchestra through the bloody PA system!!! The audience could not hear the orchestra what so ever! Grrr!

I once went to a wind-band recital. There was narration in that and the dumb-*** narrator lost his place and ended up stopping the performance to find his dumb-*** page! Grr!

Narrators - Grrr!


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## Fsharpmajor (Dec 14, 2008)

This recording of Peter and the Wolf (done for charity) features Sophia Loren, Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev:

http://www.amazon.com/Prokofiev-Beintus-Tracks-Multichannel-Hybrid/dp/B0000AWCWW

Amazon lists both Prokofiev AND Clinton as the composers. I wonder which parts of it Bill wrote.


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## Guest (Jan 25, 2010)

Fsharpmajor said:


> This recording of Peter and the Wolf (done for charity) features Sophia Loren, Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev:
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Prokofiev-Beintus-Tracks-Multichannel-Hybrid/dp/B0000AWCWW
> 
> Amazon lists both Prokofiev AND Clinton as the composers. I wonder which parts of it Bill wrote.


That would depend on your definition of "wrote." Couldn't help it.


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