1) My uncle, Tony Fish was the film editor on the short animated film Peter and the Wolf, which won an Oscar the other night. The film is based on Sergei Prokofiev's composition of 1936, which has a narrator telling the story of Peter and his encounter with a wolf, accompanied by an orchestra. Prokofiev designed the piece to introduce young listeners to the orchestral palette, so that a different instrument represents each character. I remember having a record when we were young of Peter and the Wolf, narrated by the newsreader Richard Baker. The duck, my favourite, is Peter’s sweet and gentle friend who gets eaten by the wolf and is brought to life by the oboe. The fluttering bird is a flute, the sly cat a clarinet, the grumpy grandfather a bassoon, the terrifying wolf is three French horns, the hunters are a timpani and a bass drum, and brave Peter is the violin and other stringed instruments. The animated film isn't narrated, but London's Philharmonia 
Orchestra provides the soundtrack...another item to put on my recommended watching/listening list (it's now available on DVD)! Just to take you back to your childhood, or your children's childhood (!), Tony also edited Roobarb and Custard, Henry's Cat, Paul McCartney's Frog Chorus and Pink Floyd's concert tours (this list is not exhaustive, just selectively remembering what I was aware of as I grew up!)...2) I have a painting of a horse race hanging in our dining room, done by my grandfather, John Wilson. And I've always thought it was just a pretty picture...until a spookily similar picture of a print was spotted in the Independent on Sunday this weekend. My grandfather had copied (almost exactly) a pictorial representation of the first 'official' Grand National which took place at Aintree, Liverpool on 26th February, 1839 (168 years today). The race was then known as 'The Great Liverpool Chase' and involved a four mile cross-country course across ploughed, and grass, fields and 29 obstacles (the circuit jumped twice).
The fence these horses are jumping was the original 'Becher's Brook'; named after the man in the mustard colours clambering out of the ditch - a Captain Martin Becher, who fell off his horse, Conrad and fell into the ditch. In typical Victorian style he stated after the race how 'dreadful water tastes without whiskey in it'! So now I look at the painting in a totally different light, and have remembered going to Wincanton Races with Grandpa when we were wee. He's in my mind today - cheers to Grandpa John...
9 comments:
I remember the Peter and the Wolf record well - was it also called 'A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra', or am I imagining things? I loved the oboe bit, too and was always very relieved when all the animals jumped out of the wolf's tummy after he was slain. I'll have to look out for the film as I don't think I've ever seen it. Also loved Roobarb & Custard - great signature tune, and I loved the way the cartoons seemed to somehow shimmer cheekily.
You have such an interesting family, Mootia.
Lovely, and how interesting these family connections. Thanks for the info on Becher's Brook. Though, why Liverpool, I wonder. Still things happen in odd places - not that Liverpool, I suppose, should be called odd. I dislike the place intensely, but that is another story. It did produce some wonderful characters. The last jousting tournament in Britain took place at Carew Castle in Pembrokeshire (talking of odd places and in an age before trains - or even roads - in 1513) which is an odd a place as any.
As for Peter and the Wolf - I always feel sorry for wolves in general. If you want an animal to write about next, Mootia, the wolf would reward you handsomely. There is a lovely book - People of the Deer - I think it's called, written by a Canadian who lived among the Inuit and who studied the wolves and their behaviour and their kind intelligent, self-respecting gentleness and their ways of communicating over a vast distance using 'howling chains' to convey quite precise information - even of the 'honey, I won't be back now until tomorrow morning' kind to his mate and cubs when out on a hunt.
Our wolfphobic culture is sad.
Well congratulations to your Uncle and Oscar no less. What was the Oscar for. Did he go to the ceremony. I knew someone I had trained as a technician in TV years ago went on to become a Sports Director for Sky TV and won a BAFTA.
And your Grandfather could really paint - what a talented family you are.
Yes I too remember the Orchestra version of Peter and the Wolf very much part of my childhood.
Oh yes I love Fennie's idea of writing a book about the much maligned wolf.
I heard your uncle on the radio. I love Peter and the Wolf. You have a very unusual and talented family.
I think I remember my parents playing the same record when I was a kid and a bit in it that said if you listen really really carefully you can hear the duck inside the wolf. Well I listened to that bit dozens of times, with my ear pressde against the speaker, and never heard the flippin' thing!
well done to him, yippee. You must all be very proud.
I love Peter and the Wolf. It gets played without fail every Christmas day - my version being narrated by Ralph Richardson, so fruitily it's fab.
little brown dog - the Young person's guide to the orchestra is by Benjamin Britten - but both often taught by schools in music classes at the same time to illustrate the point.
Loved Peter and the Wolf and also loved Rhubarb and Custard! Talented family you've got there.
My sons adored Roobarb, though I liked Henry's Cat best. I was pleased to see that Peter and the Wolf had got an Oscar; now I can be doubly pleased for you as well.
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