In the story of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff," the villain is the Troll. My dilemma: Obviously, the voice talent for the Troll should be masculine in a low register. But when young children attempt to sing along with an adult male voice in a low register, they get confused about pitch. So, when I make the recording, do I follow my "Teacher instinct" and have a treble voice do the recording or do I follow my "Director's instinct" and get a deep bass to sing the Villain's part?
As I was planning the songs I was hired to write for the story of "The Tree Billy Goats Gruff," I pondered my approach. I decided that I wanted to set the music to match the culture of the tale. Troll stories seem most comfortable in the setting of Norwegian folklore. The most famous composer I know from Norway is Edvard Grieg. I have visited his home in Bergen, Norway, and have toured the mountains and villages and sailed into the incredible fjords of Norway. His music perfectly suits the spectacular scenery and wealth of folklore of Norway. It was a simple decision to borrow themes from Grieg's music to inspire the little songs I was to write for this story. I decided to borrow the sneaky rhythmic motives from "In the Hall of the Mountain King" to inspire the Troll's song. And I decided to quote a section from the etherial opening theme of "In a Morning Mood" to create the happy freedom song for the Billy Goats. Both of these orchestral pieces are from Edvard Grieg's "Peer Gynt Suite." I also tried to keep true to the orchestration flavors as much as possible. (This target date for release of this set of Classroom Skits and Tales will be later this summer.)
But the dilemma still remains. Because these songs are to be sung in a performance setting by young children, do I feature a gruff bass voice to sing the villain's part or not? If this story was intended just for the public's listening pleasure, there would be no dilemma at all. The Villain's Voice would definitely be sung by a bass doubled by the bassoon. But because the target performing group will be a classroom of young children, I had better stick to my "Teacher instinct" and have the Villain voiced by a soprano. Seems silly and against better judgement, but I would rather have the children model a voice in their proper range than cause them confusion of pitch! (Sigh!)
As I was planning the songs I was hired to write for the story of "The Tree Billy Goats Gruff," I pondered my approach. I decided that I wanted to set the music to match the culture of the tale. Troll stories seem most comfortable in the setting of Norwegian folklore. The most famous composer I know from Norway is Edvard Grieg. I have visited his home in Bergen, Norway, and have toured the mountains and villages and sailed into the incredible fjords of Norway. His music perfectly suits the spectacular scenery and wealth of folklore of Norway. It was a simple decision to borrow themes from Grieg's music to inspire the little songs I was to write for this story. I decided to borrow the sneaky rhythmic motives from "In the Hall of the Mountain King" to inspire the Troll's song. And I decided to quote a section from the etherial opening theme of "In a Morning Mood" to create the happy freedom song for the Billy Goats. Both of these orchestral pieces are from Edvard Grieg's "Peer Gynt Suite." I also tried to keep true to the orchestration flavors as much as possible. (This target date for release of this set of Classroom Skits and Tales will be later this summer.)
But the dilemma still remains. Because these songs are to be sung in a performance setting by young children, do I feature a gruff bass voice to sing the villain's part or not? If this story was intended just for the public's listening pleasure, there would be no dilemma at all. The Villain's Voice would definitely be sung by a bass doubled by the bassoon. But because the target performing group will be a classroom of young children, I had better stick to my "Teacher instinct" and have the Villain voiced by a soprano. Seems silly and against better judgement, but I would rather have the children model a voice in their proper range than cause them confusion of pitch! (Sigh!)
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